10 Facts About Pascal Coste

Pascal Coste was at one time a personal architect for Muhammad Ali Pasha.

Pascal Coste was born in Marseille, where his father was one of the leading joiners.

In 1825, Pascal Coste returned to France with an impressive series of drawings of the architecture of Cairo, but he soon went to Egypt at Ali's request, where Ali made him chief engineer for Lower Egypt.

Pascal Coste remained there for four years, during which time he accumulated many sketches, but he reportedly found the Egyptian climate difficult and returned to France in 1829.

Pascal Coste became a professor of architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, due in part to the links he had kept with Penchaud.

Pascal Coste remained in this post until 1861, when he was one of the founding members of the intellectual centre known as the Athenee.

Pascal Coste continued via Nineveh, to which the archaeologist Paul-Emile Botta was travelling to begin his excavations.

Pascal Coste began construction on the abattoir d'Arenc, only completed in 1851.

Pascal Coste left 30 albums of drawings on his death, now held at the Bibliotheque de Marseille, though some of his essays were never published.

Pascal Coste died aged 92 and was buried at the cimetiere Saint-Pierre in Marseille.