Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the "lady of the Nile"died Thursday, June 23 to 97 years

The former head of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre, died Thursday, June 23 to 97 years. was allowed by his passion and verve rescue the temples of Nubia.And was the great artisan exhibition Tutankhamun and Ramses II in Paris.

The French may not know, but their passion for Egyptology flawless owes much to the woman's temperament strong that some called the "Pharaoh" or "the great lady of the Nile."

In 1967 she organized in Paris the famous Tutankhamun exhibition attracted nearly 1.3 million visitors. A record attendance in France she had known only repeat, in 1976, with an exhibition dedicated to Ramses II. But the fame of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, died Thursday, June 23 at the age of 97 years Sézanne (Marne) greatly exceed the boundaries, especially through his struggle that enabled the rescue of magnificent temples of Nubia, Philae and which Abu Simbel, threatened to be engulfed.

She contracted the virus very early in Egyptology, discovering to 9 years in 1922, images of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, by British explorer Howard Carter. His father, a lawyer, the leaves embrace this specialty that does not count then no woman. What some macho colleagues will pay him later in 1938 when it called at the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, where she will face a real conspiracy.

IT MOBILIZES 50 COUNTRIES TO SAVE THE TEMPLES OF UPPER EGYPT
Trained at the Ecole du Louvre and the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes and the College de France, holds a double PhD on the habitat of Egypt and the grammar of the language of the Pharaohs, the young woman has already led in 1937 to 24 years after joining the Department of Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre, the first excavations in Upper Egypt. Prelude to a large number of missions in that country but also the Algerian Hoggar.

From 1940, it deals with the Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre while being immune to the Nazi lust in the Gers. It comes in contact with the resistance, which earned him in December 1940 two days of being arrested by the militia. She married Andrew in 1942 Noblecourt, met during his travels in the Free France.

In 1954, she learned the draft Nasser to build a new dam at Aswan, which could drown many temples of Upper Egypt. And decides to go to the Rais to advocate for the rescue of this heritage. The passion of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt is such that it will move mountains, reaching, with support from the Egyptian Minister of Culture and the Director General of UNESCO, to mobilize during the Cold War fifty countries to dismantle 24 temples , conduct emergency excavations at the sites, and rebuild all of the remaining land mass.

"A WONDERFUL SENSE OF EXTENSION"
Its base and eloquence wonders. General de Gaulle who criticized him for announcing and not even see that France would save the Temple of Amada, she replies, "And you, General, how dare you send a call to the radio without being authorized by Petain! "Much later, after the rescue accomplished, Anwar Sadat in thanks to the Louvre will offer a bust of Akhenaton ...

For Guillemette Andreu, who succeeded Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt at the head of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre, "she had a wonderful sense of mediation, Extension. She knew revive Ramses II, as if she had had a drink with him the day before. It has brought Egypt into the general culture of the French. "