Egypt Tomb Paintings Imaged in Hi-Res

April 6, 2007 — The Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, will soon be granted new protection in an attempt to control tourism, traffic and vandalism, Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News.

At the same time, Egyptian authorities are encouraging tourists to educate themselves about the tombs, and experience the art within them, without visiting the fragile sites in person.

A new visitor center opening later this month will feature a large plastic model of the valley, showing the location of each of its 63 tombs. Computers and large visual displays will also be available.

Offering tourists detailed reproductions of the tombs' paintings as an alternative to claustrophobic visits is another option favored by tourism officials.

Italian publisher De Agostini is working on a project which aims to produce the most complete digital archive of Egypt's ancient art and architecture.

New imaging technology can detect and even revive faded paintings. The technology has yielded, for the first time, accurate reproductions of the tombs' scenes that were supposed to guide dead pharaohs through the afterlife.

"Corridor paintings on 10-meter-large, 4-meter-high (33 by 13 feet) walls can't be photographed with conventional techniques," Sandro Vannini, the photographer who devised the technology, told Discovery News.

"First of all, you need safe, 'cold' light-emitting diodes to light up the tombs," Vannini explained.

Each photograph consists of four shots clarified by special noise-eliminating software. They can then be combined into a single image with "patient post-production work," Vannini said.

The result is what Vannini calls "impossible visions:" room-sized wall paintings perfectly portrayed in a single picture.

The pictures are published by De Agostini in Hawass's new book, "The Royal Tombs of Thebes: A Gateway Through Eternity."

The first of a series of three books on the Egyptian heritage, the book tells various versions of the most popular story in ancient Egypt: the quest for immortality and the journey into the afterlife.

"We can see details impossible to detect during a visit to the tombs," Antonio Scuderi, director of editorial services at De Agostini, told Discovery News. "We discover gates guarded by snakes, deserts and lakes of fire, damned sinners, demons, rivers filled with drowned ones, mummies waiting for resurrection. It is really an amazing journey."

Located in a rocky valley on the western bank of the Nile River near Luxor — the ancient Thebes — the Valley of the Kings was supposed to be the ultimate hidden burial.

For a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century B.C., mummies of kings and nobles were buried there into tombs cut from limestone.

Ironically, the sacred burial site has become one of the world most popular tourist attractions, visited on most days by an average of 5,000 people, with peaks of nearly 10,000 a day. That figure is expected to rise to 25,000 per day by 2015.

"Massive tourism is a danger," Hawass explained. "Even the most respectful tourists can damage these monuments, as their breath and sweat leave behind a lot of water. This moisture becomes salt, which erodes the plaster and paint of the murals."

At present, a ticket to the Valley of the Kings allows only three tombs to be toured out of nine tombs that open to visitors every six months on a rotating system.

The number of visitors to King Tut's tomb, which once saw an average of 6,000 tourists a day, is now limited to 1,000.

According to Hawass, such restrictions are not enough. Crowds need to be diverted to less popular sites, he said, unless they are willing to pay more.

Indeed, the currently closed tomb of Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens, where fragile paintings cover a surface of over 1,600 square feet, can be visited by private parties willing to pay $5,000 for a group of 20 and a maximum visit time of 20 minutes.