Louis Félicien de Saulcy

Louis Felicien de Saulcy was born in Lille, France, the scion of a noble family.

On his first trip to Palestine in 1850, searching for something of interest "in a place fraught with danger", he toured the Dead Sea area, misidentified Sodom and Gomorrah, and sketched the first map of Masada.

[1] He discovered the Shihan Stele[2] east of the Dead Sea (see German Wiki article here) and identified Tell es-Sultan as the site of the ancient city of Jericho.

[1] He discovered the sarcophagus of Queen Helena of Adiabene, although he believed the bones inside, wrapped in shrouds with golden embroidery, were the remains of the wife of a king of Judea from the First Temple period, possibly Zedekiah or Jehoash.

De Saulcy was forced to suspend the dig when the news that human bones were being dug up drew the ire of the Jewish community of Jerusalem.