[3] During his stay, Wilkinson visited virtually every known ancient Egyptian site, skillfully recording inscriptions and paintings as a talented copyist and compiling copious notes.

First published in three volumes in 1837 and subsequently illustrated by Joseph Bonomi, this title stood as the best general treatment of ancient Egyptian culture and history for the next half century.

The now Sir John Gardner Wilkinson returned to Egypt in 1842, contributing an article entitled "Survey of the Valley of the Natron Lakes" to the Journal of the Geographical Society in 1843.

He had bequeathed his collections with an elaborate catalogue in 1864 to his cousin, Lady Georgiana Stanhope Lovell, who had married Sir John Harper Crewe at Calke Abbey (now owned by the National Trust).

[5] Wilkinson's papers are now held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and form an invaluable resource to some of the earliest recorded states (dating to 1821 to 1856, before the advent of widespread tourism and collection) of many Egyptian monuments.