By Thoth and Amon, click to enlarge and you'll see a method of depicting a subterranean labyrinth at once outlandish and practical; emulated, perhaps unconsciously, in Jason Thompson's fine visualizations here.
The best part? This illustration comes from Kircher's attempt to perform Egyptology without having actually visited Egypt. Yep, those are supposed to be the Great Pyramids ... but they belong to all of us now.
Those pyramids are very tall. Honestly, I find Kirchner's conception more awesome that the real thing. I also like Durer's woodcut of the rhinocerous, an anumal he illustrated without having ever seen. He got the basic shape pretty well, but I guess someone told him it had an 'armored' hide because the animal in the illustration is covered in plates like a medieval knight. I think it would make a pretty good monster.
ReplyDeleteThis is strange and wonderful
ReplyDeleteThose pyramids are shaped more like the pyraminds of Nubia..
ReplyDeleteI've been watching the BBC4 series 'Lost Kingdoms of Africa' and finding it fascinating.