Image Details

Harvard University/Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Expedition

The golden pavilion of Queen Hetepheres I, remains of which can be seen in this excavation photograph, was built of long wooden rods encased in gold. These were attached to the beams with tenon and socket joints, and the whole was stabilized with corner pieces—just like the biblical Tabernacle, with its “two frames for corners of the Tabernacle at the rear” (Exodus 26:23). In the photo, two corner supports can be seen at the top of the vertical beam in the right rear corner. Also like the Tabernacle, the pavilion was covered with curtains; these, however, have not survived (compare with photo of replicated golden pavilion).