1. Giovanni Belzoni is known for his removal to England of the seven-tonne bust of Ramesses II, the clearing of sand from the entrance of the great temple at Abu Simbel, the discovery and documentation of the tomb of Seti I, including the sarcophagus of Seti I, and the first to penetrate into the Pyramid of Khafre, the second pyramid of the Giza complex.
Giovanni Belzoni's father was a barber who sired fourteen children.
Giovanni Belzoni's family was from Rome and when Belzoni was 16 he went to work there, saying that he studied hydraulics.
Giovanni Belzoni intended on taking monastic vows, but in 1798 the occupation of the city by French troops drove him from Rome and changed his proposed career.
Giovanni Belzoni had an interest in phantasmagoria and experimented with the use of magic lanterns in his shows.
Giovanni Belzoni wanted to show Muhammad Ali a hydraulic machine of his own invention for raising the waters of the Nile.
Giovanni Belzoni expanded his investigations to the great temple of Edfu, visited Elephantine island and Philae, cleared the entrance of the great temple at Abu Simbel of sand, made excavations at Karnak, and opened up the sepulchre of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings.
Giovanni Belzoni was the first to penetrate into the Pyramid of Khafre, the second pyramid of the Giza complex, and the first European in modern times to visit the Bahariya Oasis.
Giovanni Belzoni identified the ruins of Berenice on the Red Sea.
Giovanni Belzoni reached the Kingdom of Benin, but was seized with dysentery at a village called Gwato, and died there.
Giovanni Belzoni was portrayed by Matthew Kelly in the 2005 BBC docudrama Egypt.