Empress of the Nile

The remarkable story of the intrepid French archaeologist who led the international effort to save ancient Egyptian temples from the floodwaters of the Aswan Dam,by the New York Times bestselling author of Madame FourcadeΓÇÖs Secret War ΓÇ£A female version of the Indiana Jones story . . . [Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt] was a daredevil whose real-life antics put Hollywood fiction to shame.ΓÇ¥ΓÇöThe Guardian In the 1960sthe worldΓÇÖs attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time: the international campaign to save a dozen ancient Egyptian temples from drowning in the floodwaters of the gigantic new Aswan High Dam. But the coverage of this unprecedented rescue effort completely overlooked the daring French archaeologist who made it all happen. Without the intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourtthe templesΓÇöincluding the Temple of Dendurnow at New YorkΓÇÖs Metropolitan Museum of ArtΓÇöwould currently be at the bottom of a vast reservoir. It was an unimaginably complex project that required the fragile sandstone temples to be dismantled and rebuilt on higher ground. Willful and determinedDesroches-Noblecourt refused to be cowed by anyone or anything. As a member of the French Resistance in World War II she survived imprisonment by the Nazis; in her fight to save the temples she defied two of the most daunting leaders of the postwar worldEgyptΓÇÖs President Abdel Nasser and FranceΓÇÖs President Charles de Gaulle. As she told one reporterΓÇ£You donΓÇÖt get anywhere without a fightyou know.ΓÇ¥ Desroches-Noblecourt also received help from a surprising source. Jacqueline KennedyAmericaΓÇÖs new First Ladypersuaded her husband to help fund the rescue effort. After a century and a half of Western plunder of EgyptΓÇÖs ancient monumentsDesroches-Noblecourt helped instead to preserve a crucial part of that cultural heritage.