National Geographic: Egypt - Quest for Eternity Page #3

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Thousands of them have been

collected over a 30-year period

chicago House is conducting a

systematic search of the fragments

to reconstruct a section called

the "Lost colonnade."

Finding a fragment that may fit

artist Ray Johnson makes notations

and the block is carefully photographed

An artist pencils, then inks in the

lines of the photograph

making corrections and replacing

what time may have removed

Then the artist fits the photograph

into his rendering of the wall

Only the areas within the inked lines

have actually been found

But from the salvaged fragments

it is sometimes possible to

reconstruct the entire design

created by the original artists

You support me going up

On those exciting and rare occasions

when a fragment that fits onto a

standing wall is found

it is replaced

Toward me?

So, piece by piece, the ancient

temple of Amun-Re rises again

The investigations of chicago House

have revealed

that the colonnade of Luxor temple

is the major standing monument

of Tutankhamun

To completely evaluate its

architectural history

the inscriptions at the top of

the structure

must be photographed

Ladders reaching five stories high

have been assembled

This is the first time in 50 years

that anyone has attempted the ascent

On the 70-foot-high columns

Dr. Bell studies the techniques used

by the artisans of antiquity

Here they inserted wooden blocks to

stabilize the structure

as they fitted it together

A roof once covered the colonnade

but it fell or was removed sometime

before 1600 A.D.

Fragments of it found on

the temple floor

have been identified

In assessing the temple's past

Dr. Bell's thought inevitably

turn to its future

Paradoxically, the vibrations caused

by the endless footsteps of the

tourists who visit each year

even the carbon dioxide they exhale

are eroding the irreplaceable

treasures they come to enjoy

chicago House studies have reveale

that a hundred years after Tutankhamun

built this structure

Ramses II systematically erased

his predecessor's

and replace it with his own

naively assuming he could deceive

the gods

and take credit for the colonnade's

construction

But Ramses also added to the

majesty of Luxor temple

He built a massive entrance-

"The horizon

from which the sun god goes forth."

From reliefs we can reconstruct a

dazzling annual festival

The Feast of Opet

With the Nile in full flood

the golden statue of the god Amun Re

has been brought to Luxor from

karnak in its boat-shrine

Within the temple's innermost

sanctuary

Ramses offers incense, flowers

and food to the linen-shrouded god

The sacrifices and ceremonies concluded

priests lead the procession out

of the temple

purifying the way before them

Thousands of citizens crowd the

waterfront to see musicians

Nubian dancers, soldiers

and priestesses accompany the

procession along the Nile

The shrine of the god is placed

on its sacred

and in great ceremony priests, god

and pharaoh are towed back to

karnak temple

Ramses' favorite queen, Nefertari

and the royal princesses greet the

procession as it arrives

concluding nearly a month of worship

and revelry,

the royal couple enters the great

temple of Amun at karnak

Within the sacred precincts

of the temple

the shrine carrying the golden statue

of the god

is hidden from public view

until the next year

symbolically renewed and reborn

the divine king Ramses advances

toward the innermost

reaches of the temple

where no common mortals are allowed

to venture

Begun by his father, seti I

this awesome hall was completed

by Ramses

A soaring forest of stone,

it is created of 134 pillars

some of them 80 feet high

ceilings and columns are ornamented

with Ramses' cartouches-magical ropes

that surround the king's name to

protect him from evil

In the hieroglyphs of his name

is the message

"it is Re, the sun god, who bore him."

From the sun god

the pharaohs drew their right to

rule-their divinity

their legitimacy, and crowns

so they constructed this mighty city

of God

A hundred pharaohs enlarged

and embellished it over a period of

a creation that did not cease

until the christian era...

that has resumed as modern

archaeologists

restore this timeless testimony

of faith

Across the Nile stretches the Land

of the Dead

Here, in mystical imitation of

the setting sun

the bodies of the deceased were

laid to rest

that they might rise again

as the sun did each day

cut into the heart of the mountain,

the Theban necropolis is a vast

labyrinth of tombs

Here, Ramses' architects built

his splendid mortuary temple,

the Ramesseum

In its forecourt lie huge fragments

of his colossal statue 1,000 tons

of granite

that once rose 57 feet in height...

that inspired shelley's sonnet

"Ozymandias

"in which he called the pharaoh

"king of kings."

When Ramses died in 1224 B.c.,

the Ramesseum was magnificent

Here, the magic of his name and

images would keep him alive forever

This was but a stopping point for

the dead king

and his funeral procession

the sacred place where offerings

would be made to him

from this day throughout all time

Though mourners wept, they knew that

if properly provided for,

one could live forever

so they carried with them everything

the dead might need

for the voyage through eternity

For a king there would be boats in

which he could sail endlessly

on the Nile...

And a throne from which

he could continue to reign

Even magical figures would be provided

to do his bidding in the afterlife

In their tomb paintings the people

of the Nile depicted the hereafter

as a pleasant extension of their

earthly lives...

a place where they could amuse

themselves hunting ducks...

where rich crops would sustain them

The deceased carried with them

"Books of the Dead."

They instructed the departed on how

to avoid the gods

and demons that would attempt to

bar their way

Her body painted with stars

a goddess of the sky stretches over

a reclining god

who represents the earth

Between them, a winged form of

the sun god sails

through the netherworld

The divine, ibis-headed scribe, Thoth

makes notes as the deeds of the deceased

are weighed on the scale of justice

In an address to the gods

the departed will assert his innocence

"I am pure of mouth and hands

without sin, without guilt,

without evil."

Those who were judged to be without

sin could join Osiris

to dwell in the "happy land of

the setting sun."

But most important

there must be a body to which the

soul could return

Anubis, god of embalming

prepares the body for the life to come

so Ramses' mummy would have gone

to his tomb

after a priest pronounced over it:

"You will live again forever."

The tomb of Ramses II

In a state of dangerous disrepair

its access is forbidden

to almost everyone

But a team headed by Dr. Kent Weeks

of the University of california

at Berkeley

has recently mapped it

In the dynasty following Ramses'

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