Centuries of exploration and research, archaeological digs and scientific analyses, entire currents of philosophical, literary and artistic thought, movements ranging from the Kabbalah to esotericism, from Egyptology to the romanticism of the Grand Tour travellers, and even the stereotypes of the Hollywood film industry, have not been enough to dispel the mysteries that still surround the Pharaonic civilisation in its most sublime expression, the pyramids. And it is precisely the aura of mystery that remains around these enigmatic architectures and the cult linked to them that has attracted thousands of travellers to Egypt every year for centuries.
There is no denying that it is the charm, only partly stereotyped, of the Ancient Egypt of the Pharaonic Dynasties that attracts us, the Egypt of funeral cults, of treasures and sarcophagi hidden in the sepulchral meanders, of monumental sculptures and magical pyramids that were built using mysterious construction techniques, of mythological divinities with a dual nature, sacred temples and priestly castes, mummies and enigmatic symbols that are lost in the monumental labyrinths of the most fascinating history of all, that which developed along the legendary Nile Valley.
Just as one day would not be enough to visit the incredible Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the new Museum of Civilisations, created to house the 22 mummies from Luxor, so one stay in Egypt will not be enough to immerse yourself in the incredible open-air museum that is the Nile Valley. Egyptomania exists, it captivates, conquers, and drives one to return again… and again.
How can we fail to be enraptured by Tutankhamun’s treasure? How can we fail to be amazed by the mythical Pyramids of Giza, the seventh wonder of the world, which have intrigued the collective imagination for thousands of years, under the hieratic gaze of the colossal and enigmatic Sphinx?
But this is only the beginning: the millenary fascination of Memphis, the ancient capital of the Lower Egyptian Empire, with its Colossus of Ramses II and the echoes of the legendary Memphite Dynasty, which resonate in the cult of Apis linked to the divinity Ptah and among the royal tombs of Saqqarah, a vast funerary mastaba complex housing the step pyramid of Pharaoh Geser, the first absolute prototype in Pharaonic history, the ancestor of all pyramids; or the Rhomboidal Pyramid with its curious inclination and the so-called Red Pyramid at Dahshur, monumental pieces, built under Snefru, towards the canonical version of the later pyramids.
Arriving in Luxor, the cradle of the Theban Dynasty, one enters the deepest depths of the aura of esoteric mystery that has always conquered travellers and Egyptologists of all times. Among its monumental temples, necropolis and funerary vestiges of the Valley of the Kings and Queens, you will not be able to remain immune to Egyptomania. Thebes, the ancient schismatic capital of the Middle and New Kingdom, a centre where the mythical names of Amenophis, Tutmosi, Tutankhamun, Hatshepsut (female pharaoh), Seti or Ramses, of mysterious Theban triads, centred on the divinities of Amon-Ra, Mut and Khonsu (father-bride-son) resound. A new superior Pantheon took shape inside the grandiose Karnak and in the Luxor Temple, amidst sculpture-colossi and sphinx-ariets, the immense columns of a titanic work for which the energies and skills of numerous pharaohs were employed. The watchword at Thebes is grandeur, the spiritual power of the divine and the pharaonic power that merges and blends into it. Everything is monumental and solemn, from the funerary Ramesseum of Ramses II to the Ramses III Temple, from the Colossi of Memnon to the Hatshepsut Temple, from the royal necropolis of the Valley of the Kings to that of the Valley of the Queens, underground labyrinths of frescoes and funerary objects, from which come the 22 mummies now on display in the new Cairo Museum, sites inaugurated for the burial of Tutmosi I, and which housed the tomb of Nefertari or what was discovered as Tutankamon’s treasure, among many others.
Continuing southwards, one enters the domain of the ancient ‘Elephantine triad’, of the deities who regulate the Nile’s floods, Khnum, Setis and Anuqet, and approaches Nubia and the region over which the later power of Ptolemaic Egypt was established. The Temple of Khnoum at Esna, the immense Horus at Edfou Temple and the Ptolemaic Temple of Kom Ombo, dedicated to the crocodile deity Sebek, are a prelude to the region occupied today by the artificial Lake Nasser and the undisputed pearl of Upper Egypt, the two temples of Abu Simbel.
