Giovanni Caviglia was born in 1770 and lived until 1845. In those 75 years, Caviglia (pronounced ka-vil-li-a) traveled extensively throughout the Mediterranean. Of his journeys, none gained him more fame and fortune then his expeditions into Egypt. With the aid of fellow “adventurers” he discovered some of the more recognized artifacts from Ancient Egypt.
Caviglia started out his adventuring days as a sea Captain. While navigating the seas, he was introduced to, and was later hired by, Richard Howard-Vyse, a British Egyptologist. This encounter would catapult Caviglia's career. He and Vyse, along with John Perring, began to excavate and restore the Pyramid of Mycerinus. Though records show that Caviglia was not “top billing” on this expedition, it did allow him to gain valuable experience in the field of excavation and discovery.
In 1816, Caviglia set his attention on the Sphinx, located southeast of the Great Giza Pyramids. Ramses II had already excavated the Sphinx around 1300 BC. It was later excavated under the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in 160 AD. Giovanni Caviglia was the next to excavate this Egyptian icon, the first person to do so in over sixteen hundred years, gaining him much earned prestige in the world of Egyptology. Along with the Sphinx, he uncovered the Sphinx's chapel while searching for an entrance into the half-man half-beast structure. Later that same year he accidentally discovered one three-foot fragment of the giant's royal headdress. He sold the headdress to the British Museum in 1818.
The following year, Caviglia reopened a passageway previously covered in dust connecting the Great Gallery and the Descending Passageway. This led him to continue excavating in this area. It was not enough, Caviglia believed he could discover even more treasure in the King's Chamber. With the use of dynamite, he blasted a large hole into the right side of the passage leading into the Chamber. The hole is still there today.
In 1820 during one of his last field trips, Caviglia discovered a piece of the Colossus of Ramesses. He found it near the south gate of the temple of Ptah. The Colossus is in the prone position and lays 33.8 feet long- another Egyptian icon discovered by a sea captain turned Egyptologist.
Resources:
http://www.kitombo.com/e/sue/0204.html
http://www.osirisweb.com/egypt/giza.html
http://www.sis.gov.eg/public/magazine/iss013e/html/art02txt.htm
http://www.touregypt.net/ramscol.htm
Written by: Brian Madigan, 2002