Following the success of the Franco-Tuscan Expedition to Egypt under the leadership of Jean-François Champollion, the Prussian scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and the minister of instruction Johann Eichhorn recommended to king Frederick William IV that an expedition be sent to Egypt. Karl Richard Lepsius, who had learned of Champollion's method to decipher the hieroglyphs and had met Ippolito Rosellini of the Franco-Tuscan Expedition, was chosen to lead it.[1] The main aim of the expedition was to explore and record the remains of the ancient Egyptian civilization as well as to gather materials for the Egyptian Museum of Berlin.