3D Printed King Tut Tomb

Over 1000 guests visit King Tut's (Tutankhamun's) tomb on a daily basis in Egypt. The constant flow of visitors have put the tourist site under a great deal of wear and tear. Because of this, researchers set out over a 5 year period to 3D scan and then print the tomb. The tomb is an exact replica, down to the cracks in the walls. I have to say it is quite remarkable that such a project has been undertaken and succeeded. The project is finally complete.


What authorities plan on doing is to limit the number of daily visits to King Tut's actual tomb, and instead direct them to the 3D printed replica version. Eqypt hopes that the replica will drive more tourism in their country after a massive drop caused by War, fighting, and political turmoil.


Check out the picture below from inside the replica tomb:
http://www.independent.co.uk/incomin...un-1-getty.jpg


"We are not talking virtual reality, it is a physical reality,” Mr Adam Lowe, the owner of Factum Arte, which is the company which helped create these massive prints, told The Independent.co.uk from Egypt. “To have an emotional response to something you know to be a copy is an extraordinary moment.”


It took over 400 hours to print each 1 X 1 square meter panel for the walls. The burial chamber of King Tutankhamun is 3245 years old. The replica will be set up outside of the entrance of the Valley of The Kings. Check out the videos below of the 3d printer tomb:
http://youtu.be/2fYelpk7Dbw
http://youtu.be/Clgdhyks8CU

That would be quite the feat, but if I'm standing at the entrance of the Valley of the Kings, I gotta see the actual tomb!

In November 1922, one of the most exciting archaeological finds in history was made by British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter and his millionaire companion, financier, and adventurer, George Herbert, Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, better known as Lord Carnarvon. The world trembled in equal measures of anticipation and dread as the tomb of the then little-known King Tutankhamen was opened, revealing an astonishing array of treasures, including a sarcophagus embedded with stones and covered in gold. Artifacts from the tomb have toured the world for years and many museums have acquired objects previously laid to rest in the once-sealed death chamber and auxiliary chambers. Excitement about the tomb's discovery escalated when a number of unexplained and untimely deaths occurred among who had been involved with the opening of the supposedly cursed tomb. By 1929, eleven people had died of "unnatural causes," including Lord Carnarvon himself, who died only a few months following the lauded discovery.


The British archaeologist Howard Carter and an Egyptian assistant examine the sarcophagus containing the body of the pharoah Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor Egypt. The tomb of the young pharaoh of the 18th dynasty who ruled Egypt for a brief period had lain undisturbed since his death in the second millennium BC.


British archaeologist Howard Carter and an Egyptian assistant examine the sarcophagus of the pharaoh Tutankhamen. Carter meticulously documented the finds from the tomb in over 1,000 images to create one of the best archaeological photographic records.


The greatest curse where King Tut's tomb is concerned now seems to be the degradation that has occurred because of its exposure to the exhalation of millions of visitors through the years. Even the act of breathing can destroy vulnerable materials, as well as promoting the proliferation of mold. Enter yet another remarkable instance where 3D printing can be of incomparable value: Its usefulness in recreating historic monuments and sites allows for the originals to be preserved from the damage inflicted by seemingly endless streams of eager visitors.


In Luxor, Egypt in the Valley of the Kings, on the site of the tomb of the infamous “boy king” Tutankhamen, laser scanning, 3D modeling, and 3D printing are being used to create a replica of the entire tomb of King Tut, the pharaoh who ruled from ca. 1332 BCE to 1323 CE during the period known as the New Kingdom. Every detail of the intricate and elaborate tomb, including dust and other evidence of decay like dark mold spots, has been painstakingly digitized to produce a simulation of the tomb where Egypt may welcome visitors without fearing for the integrity and continued preservation of this national and world cultural treasure.


In 2008, the Egyptian government began restricting the number of visitors to 400 per day, a measure that still proved inadequate as even the exhalation of human visitors can have a harmful, degrading effect on the tomb structure and its contents, particularly the remaining paintings. Now, the original tomb of Tut will only be accessible to select visitors, primarily scholars and conservationists.


The first panels of the facsimile are erected in the replica's underground chamber. (Adam Lowe is at upper right.). Photograph by Alicia Guirao for an article in National Geographic, May 20, 2014.


This is also the case with Lascaux, the famous Paleolithic cave in southern France where some of the world’s earliest paintings on the cave walls can be found and to which visitors have flocked in the millions through the years. Although not 3D printed, the Lascaux replica welcomes thousands of visitors per year and the original cave complex is closed to all but those who receive express permission from the French government (you can also take a stunning virtual tour). Similarly, the Altamira cave in northern Spain was closed to the public and a replica was created in 2001. There are countless other instances where a threatened monument, work of art, or major historical site could be recreated via 3D scanning, modeling, and printing in the interest of preserving the original and even creating and siting replicas thousands of miles away. There’s a full-scale replica of the Athenian Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee. Imagine a full-scale clone of Pisa’s famous leaning tower or a duplicate of the Roman Colosseum as it looked when it was brand new, available to view in your city.


Better still, imagine 3D printed replicas of works of art that have been in repatriation limbo for decades taking the place of the originals, which are returned to the land of their origin. At long last, the so-called Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon that remain in the collection of the British Museum in London go home to Greece and 3D printing becomes a modern day hero.