Talking Pyramids: Ancient Egyptian Pyramids

Announced today on the website of Zahi Hawass was the news that the step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara will be scanned with precision lasers. The goal is to produce a three-dimensional model that will help to preserve the oldest pyramid of Egypt, thought to be designed by the great architect Imhotep.

“Dr. Hawass stated that this survey is being conducted in collaboration with a Japanese mission headed by Dr. Kosuke Sato of Osaka University and an American mission led by Dr. Mark Lehner, Director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA). This project intends on archaeologically documenting the Step Pyramid in order to greater understand its various stages of construction by using a variety of laser scanners including the Zoser Scanner, which was custom designed to scan the pyramid by Develo Solutions of Osaka, Japan.

Dr. Sato said that the Zoser Scanner, which is carried on the backs of professional climbers as they rappel down the faces of the pyramid’s six gigantic steps, uses infrared signals to gather coordinates and elevations of the thousands of points on the monument. The scanner gathers data at the exceedingly fast rate of 40,000 points per second in order to create a virtual three-dimensional model of the Step Pyramid, which will be a valuable reference for restorers, archaeologists, and architects involved in the restoration of the pyramid and for the continual monitoring of its condition. The laser scanning survey of the Step Pyramid will take four weeks to complete.”

Read the full story at The Plateau

Related posts:

1. Djoser 3D Scanning Begins Last Tuesday morning the American-Japanese scientific team arrived in Saqqara...
2. Laser Scanning the Sphinx and Pyramids Unravelling the Riddle of the Sphinx With the scanning of...
3. Documentary on Djoser’s Pyramid More on the laser scanning of Djoser’s pyramid. Creating a...
4. New Shaft Found in World’s Oldest Pyramid More news on the restoration of Djoser’s step pyramid appeared...
5. Opening Djoser’s Burial Vault It appears that the burial vault of the oldest pyramid...

Tags: djoser, lehner, Saqqara, technology

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 1:49 pm and is filed under News, Restoration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.