Egyptomaniacs: How We Became Obsessed with Ancient Egypt

While the discover of the pharaohs in the 20th century ignited a new egyptmania, cultures have been obsessed with Egypt at least since the Greek historians Herodotus and Hecataeus. At the time they considered Egyptian civilization to be unsurpassed in the arts. A thousand years later, Pope Alexander VI claimed descent from the Egyptian god Osiris. The conception of Egypt as an exotic and esoteric culture obsessed with death and mummies and cats is captivating but how accurate is it? Find out the answer in these pages!