Maillet, Benoit de & Mascrier, Jean-Baptiste L'Abbue; Description de L'Egypte, Contenant Plusieurs Remarques Curieuses sur la Geographie Ancienne et Moderne de ce Pais, sur les Monumens Anciens, sur les Moeurs, les Coztumes & la Religion des Habitans, sur le Gouvernement & le Commerce, ... Compos'e sur les M'Moires de Monsieur DE Maillet. First edition, Paris, 1735. Quarto, pp. xxiv, 328, 242, 10, folded engraved maps, 7 engraved plates.
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The work is complete and in a  contemporary tree calf with seven decorative gilt gilt spine panels and titles. The binding is tight with light rubbing to binding edges and corners. The text and plates are very clean with minor light toning to some page margins. In very good condition.

Maillet (1656 – 1738) was a well-travelled French diplomat and natural historian. He was French consul general at Cairo, and overseer in the Levant. He formulated an evolutionary hypothesis to explain the origin of the earth and its contents. Maillet's geological observations convinced him that the earth could not have been created in an instant because the features of the crust indicate a slow development by natural processes. He also believed that creatures on the land were ultimately derived from creatures living in the seas. Maillet believed in the natural origin of man. He estimated that the development of the earth took two billion years. The printed text Telliamed which was his geological observations was the result of ten years' editing by the Abbott Jean Baptiste de Mascrier in an attempt to reconcile the proposed system with the dogma of the Catholic Church. As with his famous work Telliamed, Maillet had relied on Jean Baptiste de Mascrier to edit his Description de l'Egypte (1735). 
This work is based on de Maillet's journals which he kept during the years 1692 to 1708 when he was French Consul in Cairo. The work contains important information about the geography, customs and manners, government and institutions of the country with many of the descriptions being the earliest recorded. The work is usually seen in the second edition with the first edition being very rare.