Henry Salt (1780–1827) was an English artist, traveler, collector of antiquities, diplomat, and Egyptologist. The son of a physician, Salt trained as a portrait painter. In 1802, he was appointed secretary and draftsman to George Annesley, Viscount Valentia with whom Salt embarked on an Eastern tour to India via the Cape Colony. Salt’s paintings from the voyage were used to illustrate Viscount Valentia’s book ‘Voyages and Travels to India’ which was published in 1809. In 1815, Salt was appointed Consul-General for Britain in Cairo; he thereupon embarked on a frenzied effort to purloin Egypt’s antiquities and made fat profits selling his booty to the Louvre and the British Museum. Henry Salt visited Ceylon in 1803.