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Much has been said about Opar, the old city of gold and death, of beauties and beasts. My purpose is not to write something more about this beautiful place, although the anecdotes and tales about it give a lot to write for much time what could be the ideal model of these old hidden cities and its relation with death.

As admirer of this fortress I wanted to model with certain approximation and reasonable differences the idea of Russ Manning  and others who described with majestic visualization this magnificent structure. The result were all these following photos taken by placing the virtual camera in such a way that allowed me to catch the scenes as if I actually were in the city later of its construction, displaying the structural proportion that is just what I want to share through the ERBzine pages.

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At the first block of the city, the main building is called “Temple of the Sun”, supported by a series of sculptures of  human skulls, placed on the “Chamber of Death”, site for sacrifices and rituals.

Although not all mentioned places in the novels and writings about this fortress were modeled, the effort was enough to show the distribution of the architectonic form and spaces in Opar to hold its inhabitants. The pictures show what seems to be a recent construction in a space that needed much deforestation and earth level in order to rise up a city divided in several equal blocks.

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The wide ladder with many steps can be seen at the main entrance. Other ladders permit the access to each floor and divisions in the towers.

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Here is the rear part of the “Temple of Sacrifice”, which allows the access to great quantity of people.  This wonderful building was designed as a water storage system.  It is a kind of canal or waterway which permits the gathering of rain water or water that comes from brooks. As well as providing water for consumption, this canal provides coolness in times of intense heat.

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Surely, the most representative room in Opar is the “Chamber of Death”, a site that is even frightening for people of Opar. That is why most of its narratives definitely speak around its sacrifices.

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Fast communication between buildings is made possible by means of bridges, but in another instance, the gap between buildings on the floor avoids the easy traffic, making people stay in selected places.

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Rooms and floors have no differences even among towers. Each tower has a lot of rooms in each floor and many ladders to get to them.

Detail of the interior ambient of halls and rooms.  We can find a shelf made of stone with decorative design and illustrations of the marine fauna, what identifies the city with its past, Atlantis.  This shelf can be adorned with candlesticks, vases or other items.

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The sites of entertainment and relaxation are extensive and permit to congregate many people of the block in a fresh place protected by the rays of the sun.

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An initial design in orthographic view shows the frontal distribution of the block that facilitates the making of the 2D plane and later the 3D modeling.

Some textures were obtained from the same images drawn in comic books.

After walking the city in virtual way, a place built for the defense of its people and making the comparison of its ambient with other fortresses in the world, clearly Opar is not the ideal place to spend  days on vacation with the family or the place to visit and rest, because its proper history defines it as it is, a place of solitude and death.

And believe me… I was there.

REFERENCES

Opar by Rick Johnson, ERBzine No. 1547

The secret history of Opar, by Den Valdron , ERBzine No. 1937

Tarzan novels

The Return of Tarzan
Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar
Tarzan and the Golden Lion
Tarzan the Invincible
The Tarzan Twins and Jad Bal Ja
Tarzan and the City of Gold
Tarzan the Magnificent
Tarzan’s Quest
Tarzan and the Forbidden City
Tarzan the Untamed
Tarzan at the Earth’s Core

Tarzan  Wild Weapons	The  Mangani Species	The  Waziri	Ron Ely's  Intro Animation	Hero of the Amazon	The Real Art  Behind the Comic

An ERB  Researcher Just a Tarzan Fan by  Jairo Uparella ERBzine 2114	Investigating Mangani  An Introduction  Prelude to the Mangani Project  ERBzine 2112	The Uparella Mangani Project ERB Ape Language  Dictionaries ERBzine 2113	Mangani Grammar by Jairo Uparella ERBzine 3560	The Sounds of  Spoken Mangani by Jairo Uparella ERBzine 2307