Close Encounters with the Gods

When Scifi meets Ancient Egypt

The goal was to use the story of the ancient astronauts to create an image with a whole world-building concept behind it.
So we have this alien ship made in bone and organic material. The outter part of the ship is designed to protect the inner part from the dangers of space and also the radiation. The golden disk placed below the ship is here to protect it for the atmospheric re-entry and will then shine like a sun while taking the sun light. It will give the ancient Egyptians the impression that the ship is carrying the sun, and thus became the origin of the sun god Ra!
The inner part of the ship is fully organic. I wanted to have something like the brain and its skull. The ship is fully organic and has its own mind. The ship is like a special entity with other entities inside. This entities have no distinct form, but with a little imagination, the Egyptians felt they resembled animals from our world, which is why they are depicted as animals in the paintings of that period.
There is a small "tentacle / appendix" protruding from the vessel that connects to the entity in front of the pyramid. This acts as a suit, enabling it to live in our atmosphere. It envelops it like a bubble of chewing gum, thus shielding it from our air without restricting its movements.

We can see the entity facing the pharaoh, and at the bottom of the stairs a crowd praying for the return of their gods. This pyramid was built here at the request of the entities, and served as a landing pad for their spacecraft. It was constructed using stones quarried from underground mines, the entrances to which are located in the alcoves. There used to be paths connecting these quarries to the pyramid to facilitate the transport of the stones, but they were destroyed once the work was completed, leaving only the main path to access the pyramid.

A series of circular openings can be seen all around the cavern. This is a large gallery carved directly into the rock to allow lesser figures to observe the scene. This large gallery is inspired by St Peter’s Square in the Vatican. The alcoves, meanwhile, are inspired by the Khazneh in Petra.

This is not a historical representation but a blend of various influences designed to create an aesthetically pleasing result.

The costumes for the pharaoh, soldier and labourer are based as faithfully as possible on period attire. I wanted to explore the range of costume options for these characters whilst remaining as true as possible to historical reality.