ANALYSIS OF WALLS AND PILLARS OF THE HYPOSTYLE HALL AT THE QH31 TOMB (ASWAN, EGYPT) BASED ON 3D MODELS

Abstract

Abstract. This study describes the methodology developed and the results obtained about the geometric behaviour of walls and pillars of one of the most prominent rock-cut funerary structures of the Middle Kingdom period located in the Necropolis of Qubbet el-Hawa. More specifically, we selected the hypostyle hall of the QH31 hypogeum, one of the greatest in the Necropolis, to apply this methodology. The main objective is related to obtaining geometrical aspects of walls and pillars in order to understand the constructive procedure carried out almost four millennia ago. The methodology was based on photogrammetric and TLS surveys that allowed us to obtain a complete combined 3D model of the structure, geometrically contrasted and with real texture. From this product we obtained a high density point cloud, where some planes were fitted considering the walls and pillars that defined the structure. These planes were characterized by their normal vectors, which were used to analyse several geometric aspects such as inclinations, parallelism and perpendicularity. As results, we have obtained important information about the level of accuracy of the constructive procedure carried out by the ancient Egyptians. In this sense, the values obtained allow us to suggest and confirm several hypotheses about the construction of this hypogeum. The proposed methodology has demonstrated its feasibility for determining these geometric aspects of funerary structures through the analysis of the fitted planes obtained from the 3D model.