More than two thousand years after her death, Cleopatra remains one of history’s most intriguing figures. A new immersive experience opening in London aims to separate the woman from the myth – with a little help from ancient artefacts and cutting-edge technology. A question on one of the exhibition’s walls stops visitors in their tracks: She was the first woman to lead and shape the course of an empire, but who was she?
She ruled Egypt for two decades, forged alliances with the most powerful men in the Roman world and has fascinated historians, artists and storytellers for two thousand years. Now Cleopatra – the last queen of Egypt – is the subject of a major new all-encompassing exhibition that has opened in London, bringing her world to life through a combination of original artefacts and Virtual Reality technology. Covering two thousand square metres across nine interactive galleries, this is the UK debut of “Cleopatra: The Experience”, which has already attracted more than 200 visitors since its launch in Madrid and is due to open in six more countries after London.
A mirror surrounded by a snake reflects Cleopatra before visitors – one of several installations designed to blur the line between the present and the ancient world. The experience takes place in rooms with projections, holographic presentations and interactive installations, developed in collaboration with historical curators and Egyptologists, and endorsed by British Egyptologist, Dr. Chris Naunton.
The curator of the exhibition, Nacho Ares, oversaw the development of this experience, and he is clear that technology serves history, not replaces it. “In this exhibition we have two ways to enjoy the figure of Cleopatra. The first is new technologies, the virtual reality metaverse, where you can walk around with VR glasses. It is amazing, because you can visit Cleopatra’s palace in Alexandria. We have a VR journey to antiquity to visit Cleopatra’s tomb. It is one of the most incredible mysteries of her life,” he said. The city of Alexandria – Cleopatra’s capital and one of the greatest metropolises of the ancient world – is at the center of this experience. Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC, it was the seat of the Ptolemaic Dynasty that Cleopatra would later inherit, and the city whose fate would be closely linked to hers.
In addition to technology, according to Ares, there are also objects from ancient Egypt. “We also have real artifacts, original pieces that connect the present with the past,” he said.
The collection – presented in collaboration with the Felix Cervera archaeological gallery in Barcelona – includes more than 22 original artifacts from the Hellenistic and late Egyptian periods. Among them, an anonymous funeral mask from the first and second centuries AD, and a bronze statue of the goddess Isis, with whom Cleopatra herself strongly identified. A projection in the next room traces Cleopatra’s life from childhood to adulthood. Visitors then enter the virtual reality metaverse – VR goggles transport them to Cleopatra’s palace in Alexandria. The footage places visitors next to the queen as she gazes out over the Bay of Alexandria, with the Pharoah – one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – visible in the distance, before entering the Temple of Alexandria.
A question on one of the walls of the exhibition stops visitors in their tracks: She was the first woman to lead and shape the course of an empire, but who was she? It’s a question the exhibition takes seriously. Dr. Chris Naunton is candid about the complexity of the historical sources.
“Roman propaganda is a huge and important source of information about the history of Cleopatra, there’s no doubt about that. They give us a very dramatic story, almost scene by scene, which is certainly a perfect inspiration for Shakespeare and Hollywood. We have archaeological and textual evidence from that time, Egyptian inscriptions, Egyptian and also Greek texts, which complement these sources. So there’s no doubt that she was a real historical figure. We can say when she ruled, we can say something about her family background, how she came to the throne. We know the historical and political context of her time,” he said. Information about her tomb reminds visitors that, despite centuries of research, the place where she was buried has never been found. A second VR sequence takes visitors on an underwater journey – past sunken sphinxes and the ruins of a submerged city – in search of what might be hidden beneath the sea.
Naunton explains that the proximity of water to where the tomb is thought to have been located could mean it disappeared centuries ago: “It is very likely, and again the Roman sources tell us this, that Cleopatra’s tomb, also the tomb of Alexander the Great, and perhaps the tombs of the rest of the Ptolemies, were so close that they could have been destroyed, if not by war, then by a natural disaster such as a tsunami.”
The most spectacular element of the experience is a large 360-degree, eight-meter-high projection room, where visitors witness various scenes, including Cleopatra rising from her deathbed, with a snake by her side, before reliving the Battle of Actium, the naval clash with Rome that sealed her fate. It is the exhibition’s most striking image: a woman who chose the manner of her death rather than submit to Roman humiliation. The exhibition “Cleopatra: The Experience” opened to all visitors on March 26 in London. (Associated Press)