From movies to best-stelling novels, it’s easy to conjure a list of authors, filmmakers, photographers and artists who have found inspiration in the coutry’s ancient and modern cultural heritage. While it may comes as a surprise for many, authors in particular, have always had a fondness for writing about Egypt while chronicling their travels sailing the Nile and visiting archeological sites. Egypt’s undeniable impact on the cultural imagination of Western cultures eventually sparked waves of ‘Egyptomania’ , a term coined in allusion to the specific flourishing and renewed interest in ancient Egypt after Napoleon’s ‘Egypt’ campaign took place in the 18th-19th century. The French military leader assigned over 100 scientists and scholars, including artists, naturalists, chemists and engineers to document the country’s wealth, namely its ancient history. The campaign’s most famous work, a 37- tome series of publications going by ‘Description de l’Égypte’ is considered at the forefront of Europe’s renewed interest in Egyptology. The publications, today invaluable manuscripts and engraving collections, each easily fetch over US $400,000 per tome. Still, the campaign’s effects were clear: motifs and symbols of ancient Egypt spread universally and appeared in furniture, decoration, advertising…
