Some members of this web site's email subscription have asked how I make the temple reconstructions. So I've decided to record the process of my new project in stages. I'll make regular updates, provided I don't get too busy on other things.

The Project is going to be the Temple of Dendara. Click here to find out more about the history of the temple.

The software I will use is TrueSpace 4 and
PhotoShop 6.
The hardware will be a Pentium III 500Mhz with 512Meg of RAM running Windows 2000.

The first thing is to acquire as much material information about the temple a possible.

I have three main sources:

1. My own photos and drawings, which I've made on various trips to Egypt since 1982.

2. 'Description de l'Egypt' which was the first scientific study of the monuments of Egypt made during Napoleon's ill-fated military expedition in 1798.

3. Paintings by David Roberts, which he made in December 1838.

25th November 2001 - Step one The Hathor headed columns

There will be a little bit of artistic licence because I don't have photographic details of every square foot of the temple. So if there are a few purists out there who might complain over the occasional inaccurate decorative detail, please don't bother unless you can supple a photo or drawing.

Now I have as much of the material resources as I can find the first step is to build the Hypostyle Hall. This itself will be broken down into smaller steps. The first being the columns.

The most distinctive aspect of the temple is its Hathor-headed columns, and the most difficult element will be to model the heads, which make the capitols of the columns. I start by adapting a wire mesh of a face and then model the head and ears.