Christiane Desroches Noblecourt

Christiane Desroches Noblecourt (French pronunciation: [kʁistjan dɛsʁɔʃ nɔbləkuʁ]; 17 November 1913 – 23 June 2011) was a French Egyptologist. She was the author of many books on Egyptian art and history and was also known for her role in the preservation of the Nubian temples from flooding caused by the Aswan Dam.

She was born Christiane Desroches on 17 November 1913, in Paris. In 1922 she was fascinated by Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamon, and encouraged by Father Étienne Drioton, she joined the Egyptian Antiquities department at the Louvre. She was the first woman to be a fellow of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (IFAO), and was also the first woman to lead an archaeological dig, in 1938.

During World War II she joined the Resistance, and hid the Louvre’s Egyptian treasures in free areas of France.

She died on 23 June 2011 at 97.

The construction of the new Aswan High Dam led to Noblecourt’s greatest accomplishment: the preservation of ancient Nubian temples from flooding caused by the dam. The first dam, completed in 1902 with a capacity of a billion cubic meters, had been deemed insufficient and raised in 1912, and again in 1934. The dam’s capacity still could not meet the needs of Egypt’s ever-growing population, and in 1954 the government of Gamal Abdel Nasser decided to build a new dam with a capacity of 157 billion cubic meters, 500 kilometers long, which would extend into Sudan. It has been described as a project worthy of the pharaohs.

...
Wikipedia