Image Details

From Two Ramesside Tombs at Thebes

The “tabernacle” of Amenophis I, who ruled Egypt in the early 18th Dynasty (late 16th century B.C.), is shown under construction in this painting from the tomb-chapel of Ipuy, a head workman in the Valley of the Kings during the early 13th century B.C. Workers clamber over the framework in their hurry to finish the shrine for their godlike pharaoh. Like the biblical Tabernacle, the pharaoh’s tent-shrine consisted of a wooden frame covered with colorful curtains. The lavishly decorated red and brown side panels depict Egyptian gods and religious motifs, recalling the innermost curtain of the Tabernacle, which was “made of fine twisted linen, of blue, purple, and crimson yarns, with a design of cherubim worked into them” (Exodus 26:1).