Replica tomb of King Tut opens in Luxor while traveling reproduction opens in Kansas City

A history resource article by Mary Harrsch © 2014

Replica of King Tutankhamun's Mummy Case at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (Photo credit: Mary Harrsch © 2006)

I see that the facimile of King Tutankhamun's tomb has been completed in Luxor and will be officially opened to the public on May 1, 2014:

"The exact facsimile of the Tomb of Tutankhamun has been installed underground in a building next to Carter’s House, at the entrance to the Valley of the Kings and is due to be officially opened on 30th April 2014. The public opening will be 1st May 2014.

The facsimile, made by Factum Arte, Madrid is the most accurate large-scale facsimile to be made to date. This is the culmination of many years work and is an important milestone in the approach to responsible heritage management and the use of advanced technology in the promotion of sustainable tourism.

It has been made with the full support of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism, the Minister of State for Antiquities and with the backing of the European Union. The facsimile is a gift to the people of Egypt from Factum Foundation. It is housed in an underground building designed by the Tarek Waly Centre: Heritage and Architecture, Cairo.

The work has involved the development of advanced 3D technologies for recording the tombs and
perfecting the method to replicate them. It is the first stage of a larger project that involves the
creation of facsimiles of the Tombs of Seti I and Nefertari – both currently closed to the general
public." - Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation

Although I always prefer to see original artifacts and historical sites when I can, I certainly understand the need for such reproductions.  I wish there had been a reproduction of  the Grotte de Niaux available when I tried to visit it last spring on my trip to southern France.  The Grotte de Niaux is billed as the last prehistoric cave with cave art that is open to the public.  But it really isn't "open" to the public either.  You must attempt to book a reservation days ahead and it will only be granted if French schools don't already have it booked up.

Here's an excerpt from My Trip Journal about my attempts to see the Grotte de Niaux while visiting southern France in May 2013:

"We found the Museum of Prehistoric Art first which looked fascinating but my traveling companions didn't want to spend time there so regretfully I can't describe its exhibits. We checked the map then continued on to the road pointing to the cave. As we turned off, the road became narrower and narrower and climbed higher and higher until we were clinging to the sheer rock face of a cliff on one side with a drop off of several thousand feet on the other. The views were spectacular but really made your heart pound! We finally turned a sharp corner and found a huge parking area where a big tour bus sat parked. I couldn't believe that bus had actually traversed the road we had just climbed! 

Reproduction of a prehistoric cave painting of a horse.  Photographed at
the San Diego Museum of Man by Mary Harrsch © 2006

 Unfortunately, we learned that entry to the cave was restricted to no more than 20 people at a time to minimize the damage to the paintings from human respiration and today all entries were booked up by school groups. What a disappointment! I had read in the guide book about the 20 person limit per group and the recommendation to obtain an entry ticket and time before going up there but we thought it was only a recommendation. Believe me, it is a requirement!! Furthermore, if you want a tour in English there is only one each day at 1 p.m.  

Although I have seen beautiful reproductions of cave paintings at the Museum of Man in San Diego, I would have loved to have seen the actual paintings in situ. Niaux is said to have paintings of horses, bison and prehistoric ibex from the Magdalénien era."

I may never have the opportunity to visit southern France again so this experience was particularly discouraging.  There may have been a reproduction of the caves at the Museum of Prehistoric Art if I could have convinced my traveling companions to visit it.  At least I would have had my memories of it rather than a hair-raising climb to a site where we were refused admission.

Reproduction of rock cut tombs near Beni Hasan, Egypt built from 2100 to 1100 BCE at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California.  Photographed by Mary Harrsch © 2006

For those of you who won't be traveling to Egypt anytime soon, you can see a remarkable reproduction of rock cut tombs near Beni Hasan, Egypt built from 2100 to 1100 BCE at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. (You can view my other images of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum here.)

There is also a reproduction of Tutankhamun's Tomb and artifacts now on display at Union Station in Kansas City, MO.  From Kansas City, the exhibit will move to The San Diego Natural History Museum where it will be on display from October 11, 2014 - April 26, 2015.  I hope to catch the exhibit in Kansas City when I drive to the east coast to watch my oldest grandson graduate from high school in June. Yep, I'm a grand-mummy!

Related articles

• Preserving the past by recreating it
• Of Castles and Caves

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Elamite-era artifacts languishing in vermin-infested Shush Castle

How terrible! This is a prime example of a cache of ancient art that needs to be at least photographed and indexed before these priceless items are lost to the world forever!

"About 90,000 archaeological artifacts are being stored in appalling conditions in the underground storerooms of Shush Castle which is located in Shush, near the ancient sites of Susa in Khuzestan Province.

“The storerooms are not only humid but are inhabited by snakes, scorpions, and insects such as termites,” an informed source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the Persian service of IRNA on Tuesday. “The artifacts belong to various periods of Iran’s history,” the informer added. According to the report, many of the items have never been on public display.

Artifacts which were discovered by the French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman in the 1940s are among the relics languishing in the gloomy cellars. A large number of the secreted objects had been carefully salvaged from the Elamite-era sites of Khuzestan over the past decades. The only action that has been taken for the protection of the relics was carried out by ancient inscriptions expert Abdolmajid Arfaei, who sprayed the storerooms with insecticide last year. "

Image: Kneeling Bull Figure, Proto-Elamite, 3000-2800 BCE, southwest Iran (Courtesy Bostonia, Summer 2004, Boston University) If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

Gadafy Announces Sustainable Development Plan for Cyrene

"On Monday, in the ruins of the Green Mountain's ancient city of Cyrene, Gadafy's second eldest son, the bookish Saif al-Islam Gadafy, nervously announced the ambitious scheme to a crowd of VIPs, local dignitaries and journalists. "We must build our own societies in a way that minimises the release of greenhouse gases, while allowing every citizen to share in the social and economic benefits of well-planned development," he said in halting English, before signing the extremely important-sounding Cyrene Declaration.

The declaration basically says everything the world would want to hear: sustainable development; archaeological conservation; eco-tourism; renewable energy; environmentally responsible town planning; micro-banking; education; biofuels; even production of "the finest quality organic food and drink". In essence, it was a declaration that Libya are now more interested in saving the planet than bankrolling terrorists, and that one day soon the Green Mountain region would be a very nice place to come on holiday - a sort of cross between St Tropez, the garden of Eden, and Waitrose.

To achieve these daunting ambitions, Saif al-Islam has created the Green Mountain Conservation and Development Authority, a curious coalition of international experts in green technology, conservation, agriculture, architecture and whatever else, with responsibility for a 5,500 sq km area littered with Greek, Roman and Byzantine ruins and with 220km of largely unspoilt coast. And leading the whole plan is Britain's ubiquitous architectural troubleshooter, Norman Foster.

To give the bewildered onlookers a sense of Gadafy Jnr's vision, Foster and Partners had put up a small exhibition within the ruins, with diagrams and photographs and models, many of which showcased previous Foster projects such as the Carré d'Art in Nimes, their wind turbine design from the early 1990s, and even the Reichstag in Berlin. Presumably, this was to demonstrate that the architect's high-tech oeuvre worked well against more classical styles, but onlookers could be forgiven for wondering if Foster wasn't thinking of putting a giant glass dome over Cyrene's Temple of Zeus.

Foster and Partners had only been on the project six weeks or so, admits Norman's right-hand man, Spencer de Grey. "These are just illustrations of the potential and aims of ambition of the big picture," he says. "We met [Saif al-Islam] three or four years ago in London, and Norman and I made a visit here after that. This decision is more recent, but we were then asked to help in his vision, with a regional masterplan strategy and some pilot projects. I think sustainability is absolutely at the root of all of this. It is a wonderful opportunity for Libya to leapfrog everybody and show the world how ecological tourism can be integrated with the local community."

The pilot projects turn out to be three luxury hotels - though they do at least adhere to green design principles. The Cyrene Grand Hotel, close to the ruined city, will be built on the footprint of an existing hotel built by the occupying Italians during the 1930s (and later bombed by the British). The other two are spa and holiday resorts in the hills. The designs are purely preliminary, but Foster's people are taking pains to tick all the sustainable design boxes: utilising natural ventilation, passive solar strategies, natural local materials and minimal impact on the landscape. One of the resorts is set into the rim of a dramatic canyon, for example, and adopts a camouflage strategy, with low-rise stone-clad buildings nestled among the scrubby vegetation. Even the windows will be deeply recessed so that they do not glint in the sun. Guests will still, though, have a fine view from their cliff-edge infinity pools, if the brochure is anything to go by."

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