Reconstructions shown in Cairo
So a while ago, I did create some reconstructions of ancient Pi-Ramesses, the capital of Ramesses II. I even posted here about a presentation I gave on it. A couple of weeks ago, a big exhibition was opened in the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, Cairo and my reconstructions were part of it!
The reconstructions
So in 2016, I was commissioned to visualise and reconstruct the old capitol of Rameses II., called Pi-Ramesses. You can find a portfolio of what I did here. The reconstruction is pretty old by modern standards, but also not that bad. It was a lot of work and I am very happy, that these visualisations are still in use. It was touring in some exhibitions before, but as far as I know, never in Egypt itself, which is awesome.
I visualised a whole island full of buildings, streets, plants, and people. The main focus however was on certain buildings like the royal stables or certain temples. A lot of the reconstructions were based on magnetic surveys, but a lot also had to be inferred. At the bottom of this page you’ll find an animation that explains this a bit better.
What is shown in Cairo
AhramOnline writes about the exhibition opening. Inaugurated by Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), and Frank Hartmann, German ambassador in Cairo, the exhibition was started with high honours. I was not personally there unfortunately, but I hear, that – besides the exhibition in general – the reconstructions were praised as well. Besides some print-outs, there is also a monitor showing the animation (at the bottom of this page) as well.
It makes me super proud to see this work in Egypt itself. There is also a multi-lingual webpage explaining the exhibition a bit more. There you’ll find texts, images and videos. In any case, the exhibition will be in Cairo until mid-October, so if you have the chance to go and see it, you should. Not because of the reconstructions, you can see them on the website provided above as well, but for the 250 finds of Pi-Ramesses displayed there.
