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Thursday, 2 March 2023

Meet the unstoppable force who shattered the glass ceiling of Egyptology

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Meet the French archaeologist who took up a struggle against Gamal Abdel Nasser and Charles de Gaulle to prevent the Aswan High Dam from destroying Egyptian antiquities. In Empress of the Nile, we’re introduced to Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, an archaeologist who shattered the glass ceiling of the male-dominated field of Egyptology. She spent her days as the curator at the Louvre during WWII and fought for freedom in the French Resistance by night. But that wasn't all; she went on to become a field archaeologist and led a UNESCO delegation to Egypt when President Gamal Abdel Nasser announced his plans to build the dam, which was the center of a huge modernization push in the 1950s. She then launched what she referred to as a ‘David and Goliath’' attempt to relocate the temples to higher ground, using her charm to persuade Nasser's government to approve the initiative and to get the Kennedy administration, the French government and UNESCO heads on board.

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