The Valley of the Kings. Visitor's Itinerary.
Peeters| N° d'inventaire | 19096 |
| Format | 17 x 24 |
| Détails | 453 pages, many color plates, paperback. |
| Publication | Leuven, 2014 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
The Pyramids, prodigious monuments defying time and space from the heights, bear witness before the universe to the immutable existence of the old country; the pharaoh, protected by the sovereign stone, reaches the infinity of the sky and rests among the stars. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings are in a way inverted pyramids that the sovereign travels through and where he stays, the only initiated spectator of these mysterious images - grandiose or terrifying - which mark the underground space. The royal hypogea, conservatory of the quintessence of Egyptian theology and astronomy, transmit their message in a riot of colors which, even more than the finely chiseled hieroglyphs or the artistically sketched silhouettes, give access to the ineffable. The pharaoh leaves the abode of the living for a place where the red disc of the night Sun reigns supreme, surrounded by a golden light which animates gods and genies. For a few hours, he is no longer the star of earthly life; he plunges into the mineral world of the dead and resurfaces in the vegetable world of the living. He is led towards eternity in the integrity of his body; he then perpetuates not only his name and his dynasty, but also the course of the world. The pharaoh has penetrated the Great Mystery, that of the First Time, during which the igneous star and the fertilizing silt merge and engender the divinity: in the Other-World, in a daily repeated cycle, incandescent Ra revives the lethargic Osiris and upright Osiris raises from the depths the other face of the double soul, Ra of fire.
The Pyramids, prodigious monuments defying time and space from the heights, bear witness before the universe to the immutable existence of the old country; the pharaoh, protected by the sovereign stone, reaches the infinity of the sky and rests among the stars. The tombs of the Valley of the Kings are in a way inverted pyramids that the sovereign travels through and where he stays, the only initiated spectator of these mysterious images - grandiose or terrifying - which mark the underground space. The royal hypogea, conservatory of the quintessence of Egyptian theology and astronomy, transmit their message in a riot of colors which, even more than the finely chiseled hieroglyphs or the artistically sketched silhouettes, give access to the ineffable. The pharaoh leaves the abode of the living for a place where the red disc of the night Sun reigns supreme, surrounded by a golden light which animates gods and genies. For a few hours, he is no longer the star of earthly life; he plunges into the mineral world of the dead and resurfaces in the vegetable world of the living. He is led towards eternity in the integrity of his body; he then perpetuates not only his name and his dynasty, but also the course of the world. The pharaoh has penetrated the Great Mystery, that of the First Time, during which the igneous star and the fertilizing silt merge and engender the divinity: in the Other-World, in a daily repeated cycle, incandescent Ra revives the lethargic Osiris and upright Osiris raises from the depths the other face of the double soul, Ra of fire.