Did Giovanni Battista Belzoni expand our knowledge of ancient Egypt or was he merely a ruthless tomb raider who wanted gold and glory for himself?

It's quite easy for us to criticize the practices of Belzoni, but it is necessary to view him more with a concept of excavation "skills" of his time. It was not considered at all unusual to use explosive charges to blast one's way into a tomb!
Because of Belzoni, we can credit the discovery of Seti's tomb--one of the most magnificent in the VoK. He excavated Abu Simbel, which was almost completely covered with sand. The British Museum. in London, was the beneficiary of the Egyptian collection of Henry Salt, for whom Belzoni supplied most of the out-standing pieces. True, basically he was an adventurer, but his exploration and excavation started us on our quest for knowledge concerning Egypt.

Thanks Osiris II you have made a valid point about Belzoni. I agree with you

Hurray I saw a wonderful documentary on Belzoni's exploits just now on Fox History channel It portrayed him as someone who was genuinely in love with Egypt and not one who was out to loot her treasures

Here's a bit more information for you, Akhnaton:

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information ... vanni.html

Enjoy!