The glory of the Pharaohs

THE GLORY OF THE PHARAOHS
Arthur Weigall
BY ARTHUR WEIGALL Late Inspector General of Antiquities, Egyptian Government, and Member of the Catalogue Staff of the Cairo Museum; Officer of the Order of the Medjidieh. Author of “The Life and Times of Akhnaton,” etc. ~ With 17 Illustrations G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK LONDON The Knickerbocker Press 1923 Copyright, 1923 by Arthur Weigall Made in the United States of America
In view of the fact that Mr. Arthur Weigall, while inclined to obscure himself owing to a distaste for public life, is widely known in several fields of activity, the Publisher has felt that a short foreword to this volume will be of interest to those who have wondered as to the author’s identity.
The writer of these entertaining and scholarly essays was born in 1880, being the son of the late Major Arthur Weigall and grandson of the Rev. Edward Weigall, M.A., Vicar of Buxton, Derbyshire: a descendant of an officer of that name who came to England as Equerry to William of Orange in 1698.
Various members of the family of Weigall have attained distinction in England as scholars, painters, sculptors, authors, and diplomats; but the writer of these essays was originally destined for the Army, and for that reason was educated at Wellington College. Later, however, he matriculated for New College, Oxford, causing some flutter in that academic circle by offering Egyptian hieroglyphic texts as his special subject for the examination; but he abandoned his ‘Varsity career in 1900 in order to go out to Egypt as assistant excavator to Professor Flinders Petrie.
At the early age of twenty-four, he was appointed by his friend, Lord Cromer, Inspector General of Antiquities for Upper Egypt, a post for which his scholarship, his administrative ability, and his great energy eminently fitted him. This arduous position he held until 1914; and during his tenure of office he carried out the most important reforms with a view to the preservation and safeguarding of antiquities, the suppression of lawless excavation, and the advancement of the science of Egyptology. He was present at most of the great discoveries made during those years, and in particular he supervised the excavations in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes, in which some of the famous royal sepulchres were discovered.