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.