BOOK OF THE DEAD

One of the mysteries of The Tomb of Ankhe-Khunsu is the storied Book of The Dead.

PROP SPOTLIGHT

The ancient Egyptian Book of The Dead was a collection of texts, mostly spells or prayers, to aid the dead along their journey into the afterlife. Although the writings are real, they do not exist in actual book form as shown in Brendan Fraser’s fantastic 1999 mummy movie. That’s right, there is no one “Book of The Dead.” Bummed us out, too. The phrase just references funerary writings at times done on the tomb walls, the sarcophagus, or simply written out on pieces of papyrus.

But what fun would an Egyptian tomb escape room be without an actual Book of The Dead!? At ESCAPE! Alaska, we build games first, but a super close second is an immersive environment. So, we wanted to create a book that not only looked like a Book of The Dead should, but had that feel of authenticity.

To look the part, our artists created a design that feels very much like what you might see in a blockbuster film; of course, we wanted our own look, not a copy of O’Connell’s from The Mummy. Ours is a little more sinister, from its size to its heft… and its pages that clearly feel like some sort of skin (some guests refuse to hold it).

Once we got the cool factor down, it was time to ensure our ancient tome was as historically accurate as possible. Hundreds of hours of research went into finding the actual spells used 3,000 years ago, converting them to a usable text, and hand writing each one inside our one-of-a-kind grimoire.

The end result is that you will be in a room with a book containing the actual incantations one would find inside the tomb of any pharaoh or high priest.

Don’t worry, you won’t need to translate it in its entirety to play THE TOMB, but do be careful reading any of it aloud.