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The Quest for Immortality
Exhibit Examines Preparations for the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt
 Listen to David D'Arcy's report.
 View a photo gallery about the exhibition.
The Egyptian god Osiris resurrecting, 26th Dynasty, 664-525 B.C. Gneiss, with a headdress in electrum and gold.
Photo: The Egyptian Museum, Cairo; ©2002 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
View a photo gallery.
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Vulture bracelet of Queen Ahhotep, 18th Dynasty, reign of Ahmose I, 1550-1525 B.C.
Gold, inlaid with lapis lazuli, carnelian and turquoise.
Photo: The Egyptian Museum, Cairo; ©2002 National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
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A Pharaoh’s Resurrection
Written in hieroglyphs and depicting hundreds of images of deities, demons, and the blessed dead, the Amduat is divided into the 12 hours of night. The text relates the events during the sun's nocturnal journey from dusk to dawn, from death to resurrection.
A deceased pharaoh was believed to descend into the netherworld, where he would board the solar boat and unite with the sun god Re. Together they would travel through the underworld, described as a larger-than-life real world, with a Nile, a desert and fields.
Traveling through the night, the sun god encounters numerous enemies that threaten his quest for immortality. But with the help of hundreds of deities, his body and soul reunite at midnight, giving him the strength to overcome the obstacles that remain in his path. The journey -- a metaphor for the eternal life sought by all Egyptians -- ends at sunrise with the pharaoh’s resurrection as the sun god Re. All this ritual takes place under a ceiling painted as a blue sky full of yellow stars.
Source: National Gallery of Art
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Exhibit Tour Dates
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., June 30-October 14, 2002
Museum of Science, Boston, Nov. 20, 2002 - March 30, 2003
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, May 4 - Sept. 14, 2003
New Orleans Museum of Art, Oct. 19, 2003 - Feb. 25, 2004
Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Sept. 12, 2004 - Jan. 23, 2005
Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, June 11 - Oct. 9, 2006
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Sept. 2 - Dec. 31, 2007
Portland Museum of Art, Nov. 5, 2006 - March 4, 2007
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July 11, 2002 -- Its promoters hope for a blockbuster to rival the King Tut exhibit that attracted nearly 1 million people to the National Gallery of Art a quarter-century ago. But the curator of The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt, an exhibit about how the Egyptians prepared for the afterlife, downplays any comparisons.
"This show is so different from the Tutankhamen show," says curator Betsy Bryan. She says The Treasures of Tutankhamen, which was all the rage at the National Gallery in 1976-77 before touring other major U.S. cities, "was a fabulous collection of small and rare objects from a single tomb. And they were designed to be the treasures. This is designed to be a show that, on the one hand, is treasures but more importantly tells a very specific story that we're trying to illustrate with objects."
With over 100 artifacts on display (double the number in the King Tut show), the Quest for Immortality features the largest number of antiquities ever loaned by Egypt for exhibition in North America. The public has never seen some of the objects and many of the artifacts have not left Egypt before.
David D'Arcy recently toured the Quest for Immortality exhibit and describes it this way in a report for Morning Edition:
"On the grand scale at the National Gallery is a 7 1/2-foot pharaoh's head in red granite. On the other extreme, tiny amulets of animals are carved in blue lapis lazuli that the Egyptians imported from Afghanistan. A funeral tunic woven in gold and blue beads comes from a 6th century mummy. A mysterious mask with inlaid eyes and eyebrows may have been molded from the face of a courtier, or molded to make that face seem handsome... "
The highlight of the show is a high-tech life-sized reconstruction of the burial chamber of the New Kingdom pharaoh Thutmose III, who ruled Egypt in the 15th century B.C. The original chamber is in Egypt's Valley of Kings. The walls are covered with the Amduat, an illustrated guide to the afterlife. The recreation for the exhibit was done using computer-generated images printed onto plaster using pigment. Even cracks, surface imperfections and graffiti were digitally reproduced to provide minute detail.
It took long negotiations with the Egyptian government to bring the show to life. "Egyptians for a whole generation did not want to lend such major collections out to the United States," says Teit Ritzau, the Danish businessman who negotiated the loans.
Nabil Fahmy, Egypt's ambassador to the United States, says his country is hoping the exhibit draws Americans back to the Pyramids. U.S. tourism, which is vital to Egypt's economy, is a third of what it was before the Sept. 11 attacks.
"This is a cultural event," Fahmy says. "We are pursuing it out of a commitment to culture and heritage but I would be misleading you if I did not tell you openly I will take advantage of this exhibit over the next five years for every opportunity I can to promote tourism."
After its run in Washington, D.C., ends Oct. 14, there are plans for the exhibit to tour several cities including Boston, New Orleans, Denver, Nashville and Portland, Ore.
In Depth
The Art of Mummy Making
Search for more NPR stories on ancient Egypt.
Other Resources
• The National Gallery of Art has more information about the exhibition.
• The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is the source of many of the items in the U.S. exhibit.
• Learn more about ancient Egypt and archaeological digs.
• Dr. Zahi Hawass is secretary-general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.
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