Backgrounder on the Burial Chamber of Thutmose III

A highlight of The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt is a life-sized facsimile of the burial chamber of the New Kingdom pharaoh Thutmose III, who ruled Egypt in the 15th century BC (1479-1425 BC). The original chamber is part of the pharaoh’s tomb complex, in the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt.

The chamber measures approximately 15.2 x 8.8 x 3 meters (50 x 29 x 10 feet) and its walls are fully covered with the first-known complete copy of the Amduat, an illustrated funerary text intended as a guidebook to the afterlife, primarily for pharaohs. "Amduat" means "what is in the netherworld," and it was believed that by describing the afterlife it would aid the king, for to possess knowledge of something was to have power over it.

A Pharaoh’s Resurrection

Written in hieroglyphs and depicting hundreds of images of deities, demons, and the blessed dead, the Amduat is divided into the twelve hours of night. The text relates the events during the sun’s nocturnal journey from dusk to dawn, from death to resurrection.

A deceased pharaoh was believed to descend into the netherworld, where he would board the solar boat and unite with the sun god Re. Together they would travel through the underworld, described as a larger-than-life real world, with a Nile, a desert and fields.

Traveling through the night, the sun god encounters numerous enemies that threaten his quest for immortality. But with the help of hundreds of deities, his body and soul reunite at midnight, giving him the strength to overcome the obstacles that remain in his path. The journey – a metaphor for the eternal life sought by all Egyptians – ends at sunrise with the pharaoh’s resurrection as the sun god Re. All this ritual takes place under a ceiling painted as a blue sky full of yellow stars.

History in Layers

This replica is the work of Factum Arte, a company based in Madrid and London, specializing in the digital production of works for artists, conservators and museums. Currently, Factum Arte is working on a life-sized facsimile of the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I. The recreation of its 2,000 sq. meters (21,500 sq. feet) of relief wall paintings is being executed to an accuracy of 100 microns (0.1 millimeter or 0.004 inches).

The recreation of Thutmose III’s burial chamber required several months of work, which included digital retouching of the images, adding levels of visual complexity, and reproducing cracks, surface imperfections, and graffiti. The computer generated images were then ink-jet printed onto plaster using pigment. The most challenging part was to print the corner panels onto curved gesso surfaces. The room has an aluminum frame structure that holds more than 100 wooden panels. Each panel is covered with layers of linen cloth and gesso. The whole production took place in Factum Arte’s studios in Madrid, Spain.

General Information

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