If only we could have seen this!

 

From The Guardian,

 

An illustration of ‘the Sepulchral Chamber’ at Sir John Soane’s house, viewed from the head of the sarcophagus, 8 September 1825. Photograph: 1996-98 AccuSoft Inc./Soane Museum

 

 

Sir John Soane’s museum recreates architect’s vision of pharaoh’s tomb

by Maev Kennedy

 

“When the architect Sir John Soane finally managed to install his greatest treasure in his extraordinary combined home, studio and museum in London, he threw a three-day party to celebrate.

 

The sarcophagus of the pharaoh Seti I, carved from a single vast block of translucent alabaster, cost Soane £2,000 after the British Museum turned it down as too expensive. Getting in the 3,000-year-old relic, the size of a small boat and weighing several tonnes, involved knocking down a sizeable chunk of his back wall, and demolishing his unfortunate housekeeper’s sitting room.

 

Over three days and nights, almost 900 people trooped through his rooms and into the basement renamed “the Sepulchral Chamber”, where the sarcophagus glowed eerily, lit by candles placed inside. The museum recently recreated the experiment, and deputy director Helen Dorey recalled the extraordinary effect when the whole block lit up like a lantern, and the thousands of tiny human figure hieroglyphics carved into every inch of stone seemed to flicker and move. “It was a truly shiver down the spine moment,” she said…”

 

For the rest, and some great pictures, click here.

 

 

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