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Sacred Egyptian Tomb, Eypt, 1998

"Sacred stories unfold across 16 chambers and corridors in the tomb of Seti I, father of Ramses II. 'For the Egyptians, the plan of a tomb was like a road map from this world to the next,' says the author [Kent R. Weeks]. 'The tomb's decorations were like a guidebook.' Few people, though, were meant to see this guide to the afterlife. Built neither as a public memorial nor to impress posterity, the tomb served as an instrument, the means to a new beginning."

—From "Valley of the Kings," September 1998, National Geographic magazine

Photograph by Kenneth Garrett