Did the pharaohs use perfume?

And did Cleopatra perfume "Chanel No. 5"!

Perfume was widely used in ancient Egypt, and was so important that there was a god of perfume, called Nefertum, who was also the god of healing.

But how did the perfumes of the ancient Egyptians smell?

Can we remake it?

This is what Robert Littmann, professor of classics at the University of Hawaii and director of excavations at Tell Temai in Egypt, sought to discover when he embarked on a journey to recreate a famous perfume that Cleopatra may have perfumed in the past.

Since 2009, Littmann has been excavating the site of Tell Al-Tamai, which contains the remains of the ancient city of Thamwis, which flourished between the fifth and eighth centuries BC.

Thamwes was a major center for perfume production from the third century BC to the third century AD, when a perfume called "Mandician" became famous.

Littmann said in an interview with "CNN" in Arabic, that the perfume was "Chanel's No. 5 perfume of the ancient world, and it was famous throughout the Mediterranean."

In 2014, the team came across a large complex of kilns associated with the manufacture of perfume bottles, and one of the amphora bottles in it contained the remains of what appeared to be an old perfume.

Littmann stated, "Because Mendesian is the most common fragrance produced at Thamwes, we think the remains we found belong to this perfume, which must have been known to Cleopatra."

Cleopatra is considered the most famous of the queens to rule Egypt, and the last of the Ptolemaic rulers of the country, and she was famous for her political ingenuity, personal relationships, and her endless ability to renew to become the only woman in the ancient world who could rule on her own.

Perfume, which was important in ancient Egypt, played a major role during religious rituals of worship, especially during festivities and feasts.

Cleopatra enjoyed the perfume and was said to have used it to seduce the Roman general Mark Antony, according to Littmann.

Our knowledge of the composition of "Mandician", and other Egyptian perfumes, owes to Greek and ancient Egyptian sources.

One source mentioned how the perfume was made, by drying the ingredients, adding them to the oil, mixing them for 60 days, and then mixing them for another week after adding the pine nuts.

Describing the fragrance's scent, Littmann said it was "warm, rich, sweet, and has a subtle cinnamon flavor."

The challenge of creating the fragrance was that the recipe included ingredients with ancient Greek, Latin, and Egyptian names whose meanings are difficult to determine.

"We hope that our laboratory analysis of the remains will allow us to confirm what these components are," Littmann confirmed.

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