Mira Takla

Английская ученая-египтолог

Mira Takla was born in November of 1937 in Cairo, her father was a renowned member of the Egyptian Parliament. She later moved to England where she is a director of The British Egyptian Society and an Egyptologist. While Mira Takla was touring Egypt, she was intrigued by the mysterious hieroglyphs she saw on temple walls. Upon learning that they contained secret ingredients to perfume formulas, she needed help in deciphering the archaic language, so she asked Danish Egyptologist Lise Manniche to help translate the ancient texts. Manniche revealed the various recipes carved into the walls at the Edfu, Dendera and Philae temples, including the famous kyphi, regarded as one of the holiest of scents of the ancient Egyptians. Takla explained that she "wanted to create a perfume symbolizing the opulence and the genius of my ancestors, the pharaohs."

The hieroglyphic formulas that adorn the walls of the so-called perfume "laboratory" at Edfu included other recipes such as Hekenu, a special unguent for anointing the limbs and bodies of divine statues, Megalion and Metopian, additional popular scented unguents in the ancient world.

Researchers from the French University of Lyon in conjunction with a technical team from cosmetics giant L'Oreal were able to establish via gas chromatography and X-ray imaging of ancient cosmetic vessels, the complexity of the formulas that the ancient Egyptians were using including the fat bases and individual herbs, spice and flower components.

Lise Manniche was the author of several books on ancient Egypt, including the very informative tome "Sacred Luxuries: Fragrance, Aromatherapy and Cosmetics in ancient Egypt". In Sacred Luxuries, Manniche details three categories of ingredients used by the Egyptians to make fragrances: plants, including cardamom, cinnamon, saffron, and mint; gums and resins, particularly myrrh and frankincense; and oils and fats ranging from almond oil to ox fat.

A Tragic Launch:

The perfume was to be officially launched in 1990 at the six story Heliopolis Sheraton, northeast of Cairo, Egypt, organized by PR party specialist Mercia Watkins of MW Publicity. Mira Takla invited 24 British beauty and fashion writers for an elaborate five day adventure including a night's stay at the hotel providing first class airfare and luxury cruising down the Nile to visit various ancient temples from Luxor to Aswan. An island in the middle of the Nile was specially furnished with white sand and transplanted bulrushes in which bottles of the perfume, named for the ancient goddess Nephtys, were to have been buried to be discovered by guests at sunrise. The promotional event which came at a cost of $1.3 million dollars, was to have climaxed in a lavish banquet in the Aida ballroom of the Marriot in Cairo. Guests at the dinner would have been showered with free gifts including the perfume.
Before the trip was scheduled, Mercia Watkins went to Egypt to check out the comfort of the cruiser which would jaunt lazily down the Nile, including the quality of the food and the safety of the bottled water. She also insisted that all guests have their tetanus, polio, typhoid and hepatitis shots as well as the sunscreen and malaria tablets.
[font=Lato][size=2]However, four hours after checking into the hotel, the writers and hundreds of others had to flee as a fire erupted accidentally at the hotel's Nubian tent restaurant where bellydancing and other entertainment was offered. The bread oven was meant to create Arabic dishes for the guests. Sparks from the clay oven to the ceiling of the cotton canvas tent and whipping desert winds of nearly 25 mph quickly fanned the flames towards the main building where 1,000 guests and 300 workers were inside. The wooden poles holding up the canvas canopy crashed through a glass pane dividing the restaurant from the hotel and subsequently set the lobby ablaze. The disco and the reception area were destroyed before the entire building was engulfed.[/size][/font] [font=Lato][size=2] A London-based journalist told a writer from UPI that she saw flames coming out of rooms below her through the window a few minutes after returning from the bar. "There were flames shooting out of rooms on every floor of the hotel," said Paula McWalters, 30. "I still haven't found my friends." "There were no ambulances, but Egyptian people were brilliant ... they took me and some others to hospital and gave us their clothes," she said. "One of my friends is bad with bronchial damage after inhaling a lot of smoke but she wasn't burned." She went on to say that "it was a bit of a scramble at the back,the fire exits were very clearly marked but the lights went out so we had to crawl in the dark. One man broke his leg jumping out from the third floor. There were many others injured jumping out. Some Egyptian Air crew were screaming hysterically because they lost people.'"[/size][/font] [font=Lato][size=2]Marion Hume of The Sunday Times, one of the fashion writers staying in the hold, said nobody she spoke to had reported hearing a fire alarm. “Neither had anyone I spoke to seen sprinkler systems in[/size][/font] [font=Lato][size=2]operation and fire engines took about an hour to arrive. “I was woken when a fellow journalist who ... banged on my door."[/size][/font] [font=Lato][size=2] To read another survivor from the press junket's story, Anthea Gerrie, [/size][/font]click here[font=Lato][size=2].[/size][/font] [font=Lato][size=2]Unfortunately, sprinkler systems and smoke detectors were not mandatory at the five star hotel, and the disaster ended up killing 19, including three members of the press party, while injuring 70 more guests, who suffered mostly broken bones incurred from falls. Takla's daughter Karima was one of the attendees who survived the fire along several others who survived by belly crawling through smoke filled corridors, shimmying down bedsheets tied together and leaping out of high windows. The blaze broke out around 1 am and burned for nine hours, leaving much of the 630 room hotel, its restaurants and lobby destroyed.[/size][/font] [font=Lato][size=2]The three journalists who perished were named as Janet Parker, 42, editor of the trade journal Cosmetics International, Sally Tate-Gilder, 32, writing for the magazine Expressions, and Jackie Moore, 59, a freelance writer and Observer contributor.[/size][/font] [font=Lato][size=2]The lives of the three journalists, the hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of lost possessions and the investment of more than $3 million dollars in the perfume by Mira Takla meant that the launch of the fragrance had to be deferred for years or permanently cancelled.[/size][/font]

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