It is often a dream gateway to a fantasy vision of Egypt, with Introduction its mysteries, hieroglyphs and treasures. But most tours are often limited to a quick visit to the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, For tourists visiting Egypt, Menkaure and the Sphinx. The lure of these three huge “man- the Giza Plateau is not to be missed. sions of eternity” and the leonine beast with the human head tends to eclipse the rest.
And yet … over the centuries, the Egyptians built Giza into a vast necropolis rich in lessons about their civilization, reveal- ing their conception of the hereafter, their architectural knowl- edge, their art and their writing.
Situated on the outskirts of the metropolis of Cairo, Africa’s largest city, the Giza Plateau is a decidedly little-known ar- chaeological jewel subject to threats from all sides, whether from rampant urban sprawl, the elements, or even vandalism. This raises two seemingly incompatible questions: how can this heritage be preserved, and how can it be shared with as many people as possible?
“The Giza 3D project provides answers to both questions.”
02 us an idea of what the necropolis must have been like in its Genesis of the Project heyday. The Giza Plateau, The Giza Plateau is an endangered heritage zone. Much has an Endangered Heritage been made of the threats to the Sphinx, but in fact it is the en- tire site that is threatened by a combination of several adverse factors. In addition to erosion by the weather, with sandstorms and temperature fluctuations, there is also the human ele- On the Nile’s west bank, opposite the ancient city of Cairo, ment. With growing urbanization, Cairo’s megalopolis is now the Giza Plateau constitutes a vast necropolis at the des- encroaching on the site itself, with the inevitable train of prob- ert’s edge, spread over 2000 meters from east to west and lems, including pollution that attacks the limestone. Moreover, 1500 meters from north to south. the site is victim to its own success. The abrasion from millions of footsteps, and carbon dioxide exhalations of the vast num- Around the pyramids where the kings lay buried, flanked by bers of visitors, attack the stone of the pyramids and mastaba smaller satellite pyramids for their queens, the Egyptians cus- tombs, not to mention the ignorant who add graffiti or try to tomarily buried family members and dignitaries, so that they extract a stone. could enjoy the beneficent influence of the proximity of their sovereign in their journey to the hereafter. Thus, over the cen- If we then add the worldwide museum diaspora of objects turies, the Giza Plateau was gradually covered with rectan- extracted from the Plateau since the days of Egyptology’s gular buildings called mastabas, (mastaba means “bench” in infancy, we realize that the Giza Necropolis is practically im- Arabic) that we can see once we take our eyes off the pyra- possible to study in its entirety, whether by the simple lover mids for a moment. In addition, we should mention temples of antiquities or by the university researcher. To do so would dedicated to worship, pits containing giant funerary boats, involve bringing together information and objects that have and a network of passages and causeways. been scattered throughout the world, listing, classifying and documenting them. The task is…Pharaonic. And yet, a good It all constitutes a rich funerary complex, unfortunately much start has been made. the worse for looting and the passage of time. The best-pre- served royal mortuary complex, dedicated to Khafre, gives
03 A Little-known Giant: Opus: the Giza Necropolis. In forty years of excavations, he unearthed thousands of remains and works of art, and left a George Andrew Reisner thorough catalogue of his explorations, with some forty-five thousand photographic glass plate negatives, tens of thou- sands of pages of diaries, manuscripts, and reports, countless Ask anyone to mention the names of some explorers and maps, diagrams, notes and copious correspondence. It was Egyptologists and you will most likely keep hearing the same one of the longest and most fruitful excavation missions in the names: Mariette, Belzoni, Petrie and Carter. Few people will history of Egyptology or archaeology, under the aegis of Har- come up with the name of George Reisner. And yet his contri- vard University and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (MFA) in bution is immense, in particular on the subject that concerns 1905. Reisner eventually became Harvard professor of Egyp- us here, the Giza Plateau. tology and MFA curator, posts he held for the rest of his life.
Born in Indianapolis in 1867, George Andrew Reisner fell in Nearly blind, George Reisner was still actively directing exca- love with ancient Egypt early on. He studied at the prestigious vations, dictating his instructions and reports to his collabo- Harvard University, and then in Berlin, where he learned an- rators, when he died in 1942 at his beloved “Harvard Camp,” cient Egyptian hieroglyphs. just west of the pyramid of Khafre. He lies buried in Cairo’s He arrived in Egypt aged thirty, and after contributing to the American Cemetery, not far from the Plateau to which he had catalogue of the Cairo Museum’s collections, he began his first devoted the better part of his life. excavations. Reisner’s Legacy George Reisner quickly distinguished himself by his novel working methods, which laid down the basis for modern sci- George Reisner’s death and the Second World War eventually entific Egyptology. He made plentiful use of photography on put an end to the mission, and the fruits of the Expedition ar- glass plates, a key element in his excavation process, and drew chives were sent home to Boston along with all the reports and up a methodical classification of all the objects and informa- other materials. tion collected in the field, contributing to the incomparable Incredible though it may seem, this immense resource re- wealth and clarity of his expedition reports. mained practically unused until the beginning of the 1970s. In 1904, he began work on what was to be his Magnum At that point, the MFA’s curator, William Kelly Simpson, re-
04 turned to Giza for new excavations. He naturally had the idea democratization of digital technology made it possible to initi- of basing his investigations on Reisner’s work. To this end, he ate the Giza Archives Project, involving the digitization of not embarked on the task of systematically publishing the mas- only the immense Reisner collection, but also selected data taba tombs in a monograph series as envisioned by Reisner scattered among universities and museums worldwide. himself before his death. To date, eight volumes on the Giza Mastabas Series, by Simpson and other scholars, have been published, but the task is a daunting one.
General view of pyramids, subsidiary pyramids S of Menkaure pyramid, Menkaure pyramid (foreground), Khafre and Khufu pyramids (background), looking NNE from S of Menkaure pyramid. Photographer: Albert Morton Lythgoe (American, 1868–1934) 1905 *Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The challenges were manifold: a gigantic task of digitizing the available records, entering data, establishing coherent cross- indexing and constructing a database to facilitate search by various criteria.
“George Reisner “ Photographer: Dahi Ahmed. June 26, 1933 *Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
For one thing, wending one’s way through the phenomenal quantity of information was hard work, Reisner’s methodical indexing notwithstanding. Finding the information about a given mastaba on the ground was also a headache. Moreover, for those who sought remote access to the archives, for ex- ample foreign university students, the mission was practically impossible. And the fragility of certain media, such as the fa- mous photographs on glass plates, complicated their transport and handling.
Reisner’s legacy was thus not only under-used but also under threat, like the site of Giza itself.
The Giza Archives Project
Today the solution seems simple: computerization. But in 1970 the computer was still that strange gigantic object that you only saw in the form of tape decks in science-fiction or spy films.
So it was not until 2000 that, thanks to the support of the An- Greywacke pair statue from Menkaure valley temple (front) drew W. Mellon Foundation, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Photographer: Prosser. May 1910 *Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston was able to launch a major project. Technical progress and the
05 Menkaure pyramid temple, looking E from pyramid. Photographer: Said Ahmed Said. March 27, 1907. *Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston It took years of dedicated work to complete the digitization of the wonders of Giza. The Web was the preferred solution, the Reisner expedition archives. After this, the next task was and the website of the Giza Archives Project was put on line. to provide the simplest and most effective access possible to Several modes of searching the database catered to the needs the archives, whether for university researchers looking for of all types of users, along with explanatory videos.
One can also click on a mastaba while flying over a photo of the Giza Plateau and obtain a wealth of general information, such as the identity of its occupants, the date of its discovery, the exploration report, the list and photographs of remains, etc. An exploration mode tailor-made for the general public.
Visitors can also search the database by entering the specific identifier of a tomb or object in the catalogue and quickly ob- tain all the desired information, a mode which should please researchers and academics.
The wealth of its content and its interface has made the Giza Archives Project website the undisputed reference resource on the Giza Necropolis.
Things might have been left as they were, but for the deter- mination of one man: Dr. Peter Der Manuelian, director of the Giza Archive Project from the start.
Cemetery G 7000: G 7130-7140: G 7140, Khufukhaf I, chapel, room b, N wall, relief, looking N. Photographer: Mohammedani Ibrahim August 8, 1929. *Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 06 energy to collating and sharing all available information on the Peter Der Manuelian Giza necropolis, a subject on which his many days spent at the continues Reisner’s work site have prepared him well.
Peter Der Manuelian literally fell in love with Egypt while still This is what makes talking about Giza with Peter such an un- in primary school. “It was the first time a subject grabbed me,” forgettable experience. He can comment in detail on the small- he confessed. “A childhood fascination with pyramids usually est mastaba, with its occupants, the date it was discovered, goes the way of dinosaurs and superheroes,” he joked. “Most the objects, photographs and information collected and con- people grow out of it. I never did.” As a matter of fact, the served in Boston. He is a human database, but a keen and ami- passion for Egypt, far from fading, grew along with him. The able one. As for Reisner, Peter confesses with a smile: “He was proximity of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and its trea- my predecessor and my hero. He was one of the first scientifi- sures no doubt helped feed his vocation. “I was lucky to live cally minded archaeologists.” Harvard University offered him locally,” he added. the Philip J. King Professorship of Egyptology in 2010. The last Egyptologist at Harvard was none other than Reisner himself. As a teenager, he was dazzled by his first summer trips to And Peter then began to endow the Giza scholarship with a Egypt, followed by studies at Harvard, and the University of third dimension, in the most literal sense of the word… Tübingen in Germany, before earning his doctorate in Egyptol- ogy from the University of Chicago. He then returned to the sands of Egypt for several seasons with the University of Chi- cago in Luxor.
Back in Boston by 1987, Peter Der Manuelian joined the cu- ratorial staff of the Museum of Fine Arts in the Egyptian De- partment, produced many publications for the MFA, taught at several universities and became director of the Giza Archives Project in 2000.
Thereafter, the parallel with George Reisner, another tireless explorer, became evident: Peter Der Manuelian devotes all his
07 A New Dimension: teractive. For it was not a film with a fixed screenplay, where the 3D was calculated in advance, but a live adventure where Giza 3D the 3D world presented was calculated in real time and de- pended on the movements made in the virtual world. In 2007, Dassault Systèmes caused a stir at the Géode in Paris with its 3D presentation of the theory of the building of the Accompanied by Jean-Pierre Houdin, a “3D-Jockey”, or “3DJ” pyramid of Khufu drawn up by French architect Jean-Pierre (so named by analogy with Disc Jockey and Video Jockey) led Houdin. the spectators around the Khufu construction site following the indications of the architect, who asked him to approach this detail or enter that room.
For the first time, four hundred people embarked on a journey in time and space to Egypt at the time of the Fourth Dynasty. Two years before the smash-hit Avatar, 3D glasses appeared in a public auditorium, and a spellbound audience found itself The 3D virtual experience was uploaded to the Dassault Sys- transported to the heart of the construction work on the Great tèmes website the same day, allowing millions of Internet us- Pyramid. ers to take off for the Egypt of Khufu’s time.
The 3-dimensional immersion in a virtual Egypt offered un- The impact was enormous and a documentary mixing footage precedented realism, all the more so as the experience was in- shot in the field and 3D images of the experience was produced
08 the following year. In this documentary, the American Egyp- The objectives were clear: to offer immersive 3D access to en- tologist Bob Brier explored a notch on the pyramid’s north- hance the Giza data. To this end, different eras in the history eastern corner ridge. Bob was also the narrator of the Ameri- of the Giza Necropolis had to be reconstituted, and the data can version of the film, and…a friend of Peter Der Manuelian. digitized to create an interactive experience that put the finds In the ongoing search for improved ways of sharing informa- in their proper context. In this way the general public would tion about the Giza Archive Projects, Peter was impressed by be able to visit an extremely realistic, virtual Giza Necropolis. the technology of the website of the “Khufu Revealed” project Lastly, researchers and academics would be allowed to share that Bob had told him about. new data and collaborate, to advance the state of knowledge of the Giza Plateau together. Peter immediately noticed the added value potential of immer- sive 3D for navigating through the immense data pertaining to Giza. Everything becomes possible: exploring a 3D virtual Giza Plateau, going inside a mastaba, finding and handling the re- mains found there by the Reisner expedition, instant interac- tive access to all the relevant information.
Thus it was that Peter Der Manuelian met up with Dassault Systèmes’ teams, and the Giza 3D project was born, a natural choice for Dassault Systèmes’ “Passion for Innovation” techni- cal sponsorship program.
09 Tomorrow’s Tools Explore the Past: in a state of “virtual conservation” considerably better than the reality, for some have entirely disappeared. The virtual immer- 3D and Archaeological Research sion thus often improves on the physical reality of the Plateau!
Apart from the paradox or the technical tour de force, the main A New Look at Giza interest is the ability to observe all or part of the Necropolis from any angle and in various stages of completion. The new Looking at a subject from a new angle is often the best way to possibilities offered – aerial 3D views, cross sections of the make new discoveries. In this respect, the freedom to navigate ground, passing through walls – far from being gimmicks, take through the Giza necropolis in 3D offers novel possibilities for on new meaning in the service of research. archaeological research. One could thus visit a mastaba, restore all the finds discovered there to their original context and consult all the available docu- mentation from the database.
Very often, the ravages of weather have left the tomb on the Giza Plateau in poor condition. The magic of virtual worlds of- fers the possibility of going back in time. Thanks to the infor- mation compiled by the Harvard University—Museum of Fine Arts Boston expeditions, Dassault Systèmes’ teams were able The tombs could also be considered from a broader angle, for to reconstitute the Necropolis at various periods in time. The example, by isolating a sub-group and observing the relations mastabas and other monuments can thus be freely visited in 3D between the tombs of a single family, plunging below ground
10 and following the complicated maze of shafts linking the tombs leaves a lasting impression, providing a much more immedi- in search of a logical system or a story – in a word, to formulate ate and effective way of transmitting information. If we add hypotheses on the layout and chronological development of to this powerful impact the possibility of interaction, we can the tombs, which would be unthinkable without such. glimpse the educational potential of such an experience.
Following Harvard’s Example in Teaching
Peter Der Manuelian, Harvard’s Philip J. King Professor of Egyptology since June 2010, regularly uses 3D immersion in teaching his students. Dassault Systèmes has put its know- how and technology at the service of the prestigious univer- sity by making possible the showing of Giza 3D content there, enhancing Harvard Visualization Center’s equipment for digi- tal 3D projection.
Last but not least, the reconstruction of vanished temples or tombs from available information makes it possible to trace the entire history of the Giza Plateau at different eras, and follow the development of the Necropolis down through the centu- ries. Various arrangements of the monuments can be proto- typed in no time, allowing quick and simple testing of multiple hypotheses. 3D thus opens up exciting new research prospects. The virtual world extends and thereby enriches the real world. It enables the discovery of new correlations, raising new ques- tions and helping advance our overall knowledge of Giza.
Global Expertise and Collaboration
The researcher’s collaboration will benefit in various ways from the online publication of the Giza 3D project. On the one hand, it will no longer be necessary to ship fragile archi- val photos and documents from collections around the world Finding themselves literally thrust inside the object of their for study or for temporary exhibitions; it should be enough to studies is a stunning experience for most of the students, who digitize them in 3D and place them in context in the tombs appreciate the experience both for its realism and for its dy- they came from, with all the corresponding information. Ar- namic side. To be able to navigate at will within the Giza Ne- chaeologists will thus be able to form the most complete vision cropolis, ask the professor questions and find the answer im- possible of their subject matter, exchange views, and draft and mediately by approaching an artifact, a wall or a hieroglyph, test hypotheses. Collaboration will be fluid, instant and rich in adds new life and new interest to the lesson. For his part, Peter exchanges facilitated by the power of 3D and a collaborative Der Manuelian appreciates the improved student participation, environment powered by Dassault Systèmes’ technology that encouraged and fed by the possibilities of interaction. has already been widely tested in various industries. “These tools and this approach offer a new dimension to Egyp- tological learning, while encouraging and facilitating the shar- In a fitting payback, Giza 3D could also prove useful to the Su- ing of knowledge,” he notes with approval. “It isn’t static. It’s preme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, notably in its projects an immersive way to teach Giza archaeology.” for inventorying and preserving the Plateau and for the forth- The realism of Giza 3D, drawing on the exhaustive data from coming Grand Egyptian Museum, currently under construc- the Harvard University—Museum of Fine Arts Boston expedi- tion. Data sharing would be a welcome gesture in the service tions, is an ideal marriage of sensory appeal and scientific dis- of cultural preservation and world heritage. cipline, making it an ideal teaching tool.
Innovation in the Service For the General Public: of Education Online and in the Museums
3D immersion in a disturbingly real world excites powerful emotions. One’s habitual bearings are replaced by those of a virtual world which draws unprecedented strength from it and 11 Giza 3D Online: Installed in interactive terminals or on pads provided for visi- tors, Giza 3D will offer the general public the same quality of the Comfort of the Web, information as that provided in a university setting or on the the Power of 3D website, in a simple and friendly manner. Museums will be able to equip themselves with everything from All 3D experiences based onDassault Systèmes simple 3D televisions to the most complex immersive systems, technology offer the advantage of being cross- such as a virtual reality “cave,” in order to offer interactive tours platform, and Giza 3D is no exception. where visitors wearing special glasses can live the experience in its most elaborate form, just like the students at Harvard. This makes it easy to transfer the experience enjoyed by Har- vard students of Egyptology to other platforms, such as the Tomorrow’s living, interactive, attractive, museum is already a Web or interactive terminals, and adapt it to all audiences. reality thanks to projects like Giza 3D. It is thus possible to offer a general introduction to the Giza The same goes for temporary exhibitions, with more or less Necropolis on the Giza 3D website, with a guided tour of a elaborate equipment such as the 3D televisions used in the selection of monuments. The interactivity allows Internet us- “Giza, Am Fuβ der groβen Pyramiden (Giza, at the foot of ers to roam at will in 3D throughout the Necropolis, visit the the great pyramids)” exhibition at Germany’s Pelizaeus-Mu- carefully restored tombs, the shafts and connecting burial seum in Hildesheim, or in a forthcoming exhibition in Vienna chambers, and browse all the pictures and collected objects planned for 2013. meticulously reconstructed in 3D, as well as searching the Giza Archives database for in-depth information. Conclusion The virtual Giza Plateau is aimed both at the general public and at students and professionals, who can each have special ac- Giza 3D is a complex project, involving collaboration, and man- cess to the level of information suited to each audience. agement of a huge wealth of data in an attractive, realistic and user-friendly presentation. It is a perfect demonstration of the Giza 3D Opens the Door power of 3D in the service of specialized research on the one hand, and the sharing of knowledge with all types of people to Tomorrow’s Museums on the other. For the first time, the latest and most exhaustive information Giza 3D also paves the way for a new modern type of museol- available on the Giza Necropolis will be made available to ev- ogy adapted to the needs of a public exposed to multimedia. eryone through a realistic experience that can satisfy mere cu- Interactive 3D can give a new dimension to objects exhibited in riosity or encourage more demanding research inquiries. glass cases, showing them in their context and bringing them to Who knows, we may even find the next George Reisner among life, balancing scientific discipline and technological creativity. the visitors to Giza 3D…
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