Gratien Le Père

Gratien Le Père ( born June 2, 1769 in Versailles, † August 1, 1826 in Poitiers), was a senior engineer with the former Corps of Ingénieurs des ponts et chaussées.

He was classmate of Napoleon at the École royale militaire in Brienne- le -Château and took 1798/99 in part with his older brother Jacques- Marie Le Père and with a total of 157 members of the Commission des sciences et des arts Napoleon's Egyptian expedition to Egypt in general and in particular to explore the possibility of the Mediterranean to be connected via the Nile Delta and a channel with the Red Sea.

He created with his brother and other engineers under difficult conditions, a surveying and mapping of the Isthmus of Suez, has been identified as the result that the water level of the Red Sea about 9 m higher than that of the Mediterranean lie - a mistake, the first in 1847 was finally cleared up.

The members of the Commission created the Description de l' Égypte, a multi-volume report on its investigations in which, among other things, the map of the Nile delta and the measurement results are given. In the list of engineers in this work is Gratien Le Père listed as Ingénieur en chef des ponts et chaussées. In Mémoire sur la title page ville d' Alexandrie he is referred to as Ingénieur en chef au Corps des Ponts et Chaussées Royal, during which his brother is known as author of the Mémoire sur la Vallée du Nil in the title page as: M. Le Père aîné, Inspecteur des Ponts et Chaussées Divisionnaire, Membre de l'Institut d' Égypte.

Gratien Le Père (written separately, contrary to the usual notation in the literature ) should not be confused with Jean -Baptiste Lepère ( written together ), who also took part in the Egyptian expedition, but had nothing to do as an architect with the surveying and mapping.

Reviews of Description de l' Égypte

• Mémoire sur la partie occidentale de la Province de Bahyreh, Modern État I, Vol 6, pp. 7-20; on descegy.bibalex.org
• Mémoire sur la ville d' Alexandrie, Etat Moderne II (2e game ), vol. 6, pp. 169 ff; on descegy.bibalex.org
• Ditto, 2nd Edition, Volume 18, pp. 383-496; digit clearence on Google Books
• Observations sur le profil de la vallée du Nil de nivellement, entre le Meqyas de Roudah et la grande pyramide de Gyzeh, Etat Moderne II (2e game ), vol. 6, pp. 325-332; on descegy.bibalex.org
• Mémoire sur les lacs de l' Égypte maritimes, 1815, distributed only in an edition of 100 pieces at the Bibliothèque du Roi and other libraries (see ditto, footnote on page 496 ).