“Tutankhamun’s tomb will not be closed in the near future. It is a long-term plan that has not been decided upon yet,” Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News.

Many reports in the past two weeks announced the closure of this tourist magnet by the end of this year.

The long-term plan involves a $10 million project called the “Valley of the Replicas.”

Visitors will be directed to exact reproductions of the original tombs. The first three replicas will be the tombs of Tutankhamun, and the already closed burial sites of Seti I and Queen Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens.

The three original tombs will remain open to tourists willing to pay a very hefty fee, perhaps as high as $8,500 per visit.

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Photo SCA

The newly installed lighting system on Luxor’s west bank has been completed with a budget of 56 million LE.

The project was carried out by the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) in collaboration with Egypt’s Sound and Light organization and the foremost French company in lighting, called Architecture Lumière, chosen from several international lighting organization.

The aim of this project is to preserve the tombs and temples located on Luxor’s west bank; the huge number of visitors that flock onto it will now be distributed throughout the day, from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm. This will reduce the level of humidity inside the tombs, which negatively affect its paintings. The new lighting system will also provide a beautiful and a dramatic scene at night for the pedestrians walking along the Nile corniche on the east bank in Luxor.

The project included the lighting of the mountains located on the west bank, the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the noblemen’s tombs, the northern side of Al-Qurna, and Hatshepsut’s temple.

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Recording the tomb of Tutankhamun from factum-arte on Vimeo.

The high resolution recording and production of an exact facsimile of the Tomb of Tutankhamun is part of a major initiative by the Supreme Council of Antiquities to preserve the tombs in the Valley of the Kings while making important tombs that are either closed or in need of closure accessible to the public and to scholars.

The project has been launched by Dr Zahi Hawass in collaboration with the University of Basel, The Friends of the Royal tombs of Egypt, the Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation and Factum Arte.

All the recording of the tomb of Tutankhamun has now been completed. Work on the processing of the data is now underway and work on the facsimile of the burial chamber and sarcophagus of Tutankhamun will be completed in time for the opening of the Susanne Mubarak Children’s Museum in January 2010.

Dr Zahi Hawass has identified a site near Carter House at the entrance to the Valley of the Kings to install the facsimiles and a full feasibility study has been commissioned. It is estimated that over 500,000 visitors a year will visit the site and that the paying visitors to the facsimiles will provide revenue that can be used to ensure the long term preservation of the Theban Necropolis.

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After several seasons of work that began in November 2007, a team of archaeologists headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass succeeded in completely excavating a 174m long tunnel cut into the bedrock near the end of the tomb of Seti I.

The only other excavation of the tunnel took place in 1960 under the direction of Sheikh Ali Abdel Rassoul. His team was able to reach a depth of 136m but they had to stop their excavation because it was too hard to breath. Upon reaching the end of the 136m section, which had been partially excavated by Abdel-Rasoul’s workmen, Dr. Hawass’s team were shocked to uncover a descending passage which measures 25.60m in length and 2.6m wide. The mission eventually uncovered a fifty-four step, descending staircase.

After the first descending passage, a second staircase measuring 6 meters long was cut into the rock. At the beginning of this passage the team found a false door decorated with hieratic text that reads: “Move the door jamb up and make the passage wider.” These written instructions must have been left from the architect to the workmen who were carving out the tunnel.

Dr. Hawass believes that the workmen and artists first finished the original tomb of Seti I during his twelve-year reign and then began to construct the tunnel. It appears that Seti I was trying to construct a secret tomb inside a tomb. It is likely that when Seti I died his son, Ramesses II (1304-1237BC), had to stop the work and bury has father. Dr. Hawass believes that Ramesses II continued where his father had left off and constructed his own tunnel within his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The Egyptian mission is currently working in the tomb of Ramesses II to preserve the wall paintings and to look for a similar tunnel to the one in the tomb of Seti I.

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• No secret Burial at end of Seti I Tunnel (independent.co.uk)

Dr. Zahi Hawass has issued a statement prohibiting the use of cameras at the Valley of the Kings. Two reasons are cited for this decree, as he himself calls it: the careless use of flash by visitors and the incapacity of the authorities to prevent guards from accepting bribes in exchange for allowing photography inside the tombs.

Today’s digital cameras have so many features that most users don’t take the time and effort to learn to operate, including deactivating automatic flash. Unable to curtail the accidental use of flash and the corruption of his own guards, Dr. Hawass has ruled against both responsible and irresponsible photography behavior by visitors.

The prohibition of cameras applies to the Egyptian Museum, too.

A little over a week ago, Dr. Hawass unveiled his two most recent publications at the British Museum’s Egyptian Sculpture Gallery. “A Secret Voyage: Love, Magic and Mysteries in the Realm of the Pharaohs” is the world-renowned archaeologist’s unique story of discovery and exploration in Ancient Egypt. “Inside The Egyptian Museum” explores the museum’s unrivalled collection of beautiful statues, the mummies, the shining gold and the treasures of the boy king, Tutankhamun.

Both books are beautifully illustrated with photographs by Sandro Vannini, widely regarded for his stunning and exquisitely detailed images of museum antiquities and the paintings in the tombs at the Theban necropolis.

A limited numbered edition of 700 numbered copies, signed by Dr. Zahi Hawass and Sandro Vannini sells for £2600.

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According to a statement by the Egyptian Culture Ministry, the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Zahi Hawass said “it is allowed to take pictures for the open monuments area,” it is not allowed to take pictures only inside the ancient tombs in order to save paintings from the bad effects of cameras’ flash.

He added that any official who halts tourists from taking pictures at the open historic areas, like Pyramids or Temples of Luxor, would be charged, as these photos are part of their memories during visiting Egypt.

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A guest at Jane Akshar’s Flats at Luxor was told by the inspectorate that cameras are banned from the Valley of the Kings. I had previously read about the banning of video cameras but it seems that all kinds of photography devices are now required to be left at the gate.

Kate Phizackerley, who runs News from the Valley of the Kings, suspects that this prohibition is a blackout by authorities to prevent the media from leaking the news of a major discovery.

Luxor News and News from the Valley of the Kings

Private Tour: Luxor West Bank, Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut Temple

The last royal tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings is KV62, the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen found in 1922 by Howard Carter. Since then, only one more tomb (KV63) has been discovered, in 2005 by Dr. Otto Schaden. Believed at first to be a royal tomb, it is now regarded as a storage chamber for mummification.

This is not the end of the quest. Dr. Zahi Hawass reminds us that the tombs of Ramses VIII and Thutmose II, along with the tombs of Queen Tiye and Nefertiti, are yet to be found.

If Dr. Hawass succeeds in finding the elusive KV64, it will be the first time an Egyptian archaeological team finds the tomb of a pharaoh, and a royal conclusion to his post as Chief of the Supreme Council of Antiquities next year.

To learn more about KV64, click here.

Apparently, the exhalations of tourists in Egypt are threatening the very existence of the tombs of Tutankhamun and his fellow pharaohs. So they are going to be banned. A lot of people will tut-tut, but I think this is a responsible step to stop the humidity and fungus – caused by inconsiderate and wilful breathing – eating away at the ornate decoration.

But what causes a sharp intake of breath is the Egyptian authorities’ associated plan to build replicas of the tombs on a nearby site in the Valley of the Kings. While it is a crying shame that thousands of future tourists may be denied the chance to see this great wonder, I am always uncomfortable with such elements of artificial tourism. If I can’t see the genuine thing, what’s the point of looking at a fibreglass copy? It’s not the same – I’d rather see photographs or an audio visual tour. Or go somewhere else.

Tourism is a wonderful business but lines must be drawn when pandering to its whims. Theme parks are fine; I like them. They are what they are – created to provide thrills and entertainment. But when I want some history and culture, I want the real thing, whether or not I can touch or feel it, and if what I am looking at is not the genuine, centuries-old thing then, well, it’s not history it’s kitsch.

Graham Balmforth fot ttglive.com

Private Tour: Luxor West Bank, Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut Temple

Soon the the most popular tombs in the west bank of ancient Thebes will be visited only by the rich and famous. There will be a “Replica Valley” for the rest of us.

The valleys of the Kings and Queens lure thousands of tourists to the Theban west bank every day, bringing valuable revenue for Egypt and an unforgettable experience for them. But it has a downside. The hot, stale air they exhale with every breath they take is causing serious damage to the walls, especially painted surface. The breath increases the humidity, and in some cases creates fungus on the tombs’ inner walls.

Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the SCA, told Al-Ahram Weekly that this means some tombs needed added protection, while others needed to be closed completely in order to save their paintings.

As a first step, the SCA is currently installing a cool lighting system in the Valley of the Kings so that people can visit the tombs in the evening. This will help protect the paintings as it will spread the number of visits over the course of the day.

As for the tombs of Tutankhamun, Seti I and Nefertari, Hawass said a plan to protect them was now being implemented in collaboration with the British organisation Adam Lowe of Factun Arte. The plan is to create identical replicas of these tombs by making detailed high-resolution copies of the burial chambers, paintings and sarcophagi using laser scanners. After the replicas have been constructed they will be installed on the cliff side of the Valley of the Kings, which will be called “The Replica Valley” where visitors can experience their beauty with the knowledge that the ancient paintings are being preserved. Hawass pointed out that missing fragments from these tombs now held in foreign museum, would also be scanned and added to the overall reconstruction to give a complete picture of the tombs.

Hawass says 13 royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings were open but no one visits them. Once the most popular tombs are closed tourists will be more encouraged to visit the others. The original tombs can still be entered, but at a price. “Whoever wants to visit the original tombs of Tutankhamun, Seti I and Nefertari must pay a huge amount of money,” Hawass says.

Excerpted from an article by Nevine El-Aref for Al Ahram

Private Tour: Luxor East Bank, Karnak and Luxor Temples