The Crypt of Osiris: a king’s journey beyond death

Take in the long pink granite sarcophagus before looking for its smaller details. More than three metres long, this is the stone basin made for Ramses III, an Egyptian king who ruled in the twelfth century before our era. It came from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The lid is missing, leaving the scale of the basin especially clear. This room is called the Crypt of Osiris. Osiris was the Egyptian god associated with the dead and the hope of renewed existence. That belief helps you understand why so much care went into objects made for burial. Protection and continued life mattered alongside the preservation of the body. Look along the carved sides of the sarcophagus. Scenes of the sun's journey unfold across the stone. At its ends, the goddesses Isis and Nephthys spread their wings. Follow a few figures instead of trying to read every sign at once. The great weight of the stone first catches your attention; these patient details reveal the hopes it was made to carry.