Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set mostly in Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. Belshazzar is a last novel written by Haggard, finished just before his death and published posthumously. Ramose is the offspring of an Egyptian Pharaoh and a Greek woman. Brought up in a life of luxury he is catapulted into a life of adventure which leads him to the fall of Babylon at the hand of the Persian Empire under Cyrus. Smith and the Pharaohs is a collection of short stories by Haggard. The title tale concerns a budding Egyptologist who is accidentally locked up one night in the Cairo Museum. Falling asleep, he dreams that he is put on trial by the ghosts of Egypt`s pharaohs and queens.