Giza 3D Project Provides Answers to Both Questions.”

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-preserved 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 thousands 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 obtain 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.

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