TOMB OF EGYPTIAN PHARAOH OPENED FOR VR PHOTOGRAPHER
by Michelle Bienias
Read 'Tito Dupret's World Heritage (Virtual) Tour'
The tomb of an Egyptian pharaoh in the Valley of the Kings - closed to the public for over 10 years - can now be viewed for the first time in a stunning series of fifteen panoramas, shot by Tito Dupret of WHTour.
The tomb of pharaoh Seti I , who ruled Egypt for 13 years from 1291 to 1278 BC, was permanently closed to tourists in 1991. Dupret, whose personal mission is to photograph for posterity all the sites listed World Heritage Fund by UNESCO, was granted this once in a lifetime opportunity in November 2002, while visiting Egypt for a meeting with CULTNAT (National Center for the Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage) in Egypt. CULTNAT director Dr. Fatih Saleh offered Dupret the chance to photograph the tomb and share it with others on www.world-heritage-tour.org, where one can view an interactive map outlining the structure of the tomb.
Seti's tomb was discovered in 1817 in the Valley of the Kings and is the largest and longest in the Valley. It was the most lavishly decorated too, before robbers and tourists took their toll. The entire tomb is covered with painted reliefs and has a false burial chamber located on the far side of a deep shaft near the bottom of the steps of the entrance. The chamber was designed to foil robbers, who would seemingly risk their lives navigating this chasm, only to find an empty false tomb. The real burial chamber, located much deeper in the tomb, has a beautiful painted ceiling showing the constellations of the northern sky. (This "Raiders of the Lost Ark" setup has made the tomb a popular setting for video games.) The tomb's discoverer, Giovanni Belzoni, found the real burial chamber thanks to a hole in the Fa Room, which can be seen on the bottom of VR 8. Dupret says of his viewing of the chamber, "at first, the A to D corridors lead to it and it was impossible to imagine the existence of corridor G, as its access was walled from pillared chamber F."
Seti I ruled Egypt in the 19th Dynasty, but he was to be overshadowed in history by his son, Ramses II, whose 30-year plus reign helped him become became known as Egypt's greatest pharaoh. (Ramses II was also remarkably fecund, reportedly siring over 100 children.) Seti I is known for restoring the ancient gods of Egypt and the temple he built at Abydos to the god Osiris. Before becoming pharaoh after the death of his father, pharaoh Ramses I, Seti (aka Menmaatre, his throne name) had been a troop commander in the army and went on to wage campaigns against Syria, Libya, parts of Asia and Lebanon. When Seti's tomb was discovered in 1817 it only contained his sarcophagus - his mummy was found years later, in 1881. Probably the best-preserved mummy of all the pharaohs, (his head is nearly perfectly preserved although his body was badly damaged by robbers) it had been "touched up" at least twice in ancient times. In life, Seti was 1.66m tall and X-rays suggest he was between the ages of 35 and 40 when he died. His mummy now resides at the Cairo Museum.
Dupret was assigned a "bodyguard" to help and watch over him while photographing the tomb. However, it was the holy month of Ramadan, and the man wasn't keen to stay in the musty tomb long. Dupret therefore spent much of his time hurriedly taking working neon tubes from other areas to light the area he was working in, and then returning them to their original place when he was finished. He spent two days working at a furious pace, and sweating profusely, to shoot eighteen VRs. With his laptop handy, he checked images and transferred data to free his flash cards.
Dupret describes it as the most fantastic shooting session of his life. "You feel proud to be there and extremely humble as well. I didn't dare touch any part of the walls," Dupret says. After convincing his guard that he would have more fun in the ticket office than in the tomb, Dupret basically had the place to himself for the two days. "I felt like a ghost in this tomb," he says.
The World Monument Fund has sponsored twelve VRs on WHTour. (The WMF, a private, nonprofit organization devoted to onsite conservation of monuments and sites worldwide, has listed the Valley of the Kings on its Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites, largely due to the damage caused by 1.5 million annual visitors.)
(An interesting sidenote: A mummy that had lain unrecognized for 140 years in a Niagara Falls, Canada freak show museum (where it was exhibited next to a two-headed calf) is likely the pharaoh Ramses I, father of Seti I.)
Email Tito Dupret: contact@whtour.net
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