Ancient Egypt in 3-D

Three kings of the Fourth Dynasty, Khufu, his son Khafre and Menkaure, built their pyramids on the desert edge west of Memphis between about 2589 and 2503 BC. Each pyramid was the center of a complex: a temple on its east side, a causeway down to a valley temple at the edge of the flood plain, smaller pyramids for queens, and boat pits. Officials and members of the royal family were buried in mastaba tombs laid out in streets around them.

The model places the three pyramids from Flinders Petrie’s survey of 1880–82: Khafre’s center lies 353.9 m south and 334.4 m west of Khufu’s, and Menkaure’s 739.2 m south and 574.4 m west. The Sphinx, the queens’ pyramids, temples, causeways and cemeteries are drawn in simple form.

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Khufu’s pyramid holds three main chambers. The oldest plan seems to have been a room deep in the bedrock, reached by the descending passage. Higher up, the ascending passage and the Grand Gallery lead to the King’s Chamber, lined with granite, where the sarcophagus still stands. The Queen’s Chamber, on the level passage, had some other purpose that is not known. Above the King’s Chamber, five relieving chambers carry the weight of the masonry.

Switch Outside between the original casing, a smooth skin of white limestone from Tura with a point 146.6 m high, and the pyramid today, where the stepped core shows and the top is missing. Most of the casing was taken for building in Cairo in the Middle Ages; a few casing stones remain at the foot of each side.

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The Temple of Horus at Edfu was begun under Ptolemy III on 23 August 237 BC and finished under Ptolemy XII in 57 BC, when its great doors were hung. Sand and silt later buried it as deep as 12 m, which protected it; Auguste Mariette began clearing it in 1860. It is the best preserved temple in Egypt, roof and all.

Its plan is the classic one, followed from the New Kingdom on: a pylon, an open court with columns, a roofed hypostyle hall, a second, smaller hall, an offering hall and vestibule, and the sanctuary, with chapels around it and an enclosure wall around everything. Walking in, the floor rises, the ceilings come down and the light fades, from the open world to the god’s dark room. The temple faces south.

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Ramesses II (reigned c. 1279–1213 BC) had two temples cut into the sandstone cliffs at Abu Simbel in Nubia, beginning around 1264 BC: the Great Temple, for Amun-Ra, Ra-Horakhty, Ptah and the king himself, and a smaller one for his queen Nefertari and the goddess Hathor. Sand later covered most of the Great Temple. Johann Ludwig Burckhardt saw its top in 1813, and Giovanni Belzoni dug his way in in 1817.

The move. The Aswan High Dam’s reservoir, Lake Nasser, would have drowned both temples. With UNESCO leading an international appeal, a team of engineers cut them into 1,036 blocks (807 for the Great Temple) from 1964 to 1968 and rebuilt them 65 m higher and 208 m back from the river, against an artificial hill over a concrete dome. The project cost about $41.7 million, half paid by Egypt and half by gifts from 48 countries. Use the slider or Play the move to see it.

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Tutankhamun (reigned c. 1336–1327 BC) was buried in a small tomb in the Valley of the Kings, at Thebes. Robbers broke in twice soon after the burial, but the tomb was resealed, and later building above hid its entrance. Howard Carter’s team found the first step on 4 November 1922, reached the antechamber on 26 November, and opened the burial chamber in February 1923. Clearing and recording took about ten years.

Switch Show between the rooms as found, with the main pieces where they stood, and today, when the quartzite sarcophagus and the king’s mummy are still in the tomb while the treasures are in Cairo.

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A mastaba (Arabic for “bench”) is a flat-topped tomb with sloping walls, of mud brick or stone. The first kings and their officials were buried in them, and officials kept using them all through the Old Kingdom, in rows around the royal pyramids at Saqqara and Giza; they had a revival in the Middle Kingdom and became rare by the New Kingdom. Above ground was the part for the living: a chapel with a false door, where the family brought offerings. Below, a shaft led down to the burial chamber.

This is a typical stone mastaba of an Old Kingdom official, not one particular tomb. Djoser’s Step Pyramid, the first pyramid, began as a mastaba and grew in steps.

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