This lecture will be preceded by the Society AGM
For at least one hundred and fifty years, European illustrations of two of the most iconic forms of Ancient Egyptian architecture, pyramids and obelisks, seemed to get them wrong. Pyramids were shown as far more steeply pitched than real ones, and obelisks as more like very tall narrow pyramids, creating strange hybrids which were neither one nor the other, pyramisks or obelids. Why was this? Was it because the people drawing them had never been to Egypt? Were these just fanciful representations of exotic, almost mythical structures? Or is there another explanation? Join Dr Chris Elliott as he explores this strange phenomenon, taking in Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher, English Country Gardens, mausoleums, pilgrims, travellers, and more.
Dr Chris Elliott is a member of the Society of Authors and has been a member of the Egypt Exploration Society since 1993. He was a contributor to Imhotep Today, a volume on Egyptianising architecture in the series 'Encounters with Egypt' (published by UCL Press, 2003). He has written on the influence of Ancient Egypt in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, KMT, Minerva, and more. He is the author of Egypt in England (published by Historic England, 2012) and obtained his PhD from the University of Southampton in 2019.
Entry: £4 members, £6 non-members