Of all the eastern and middle-eastern countries, Egypt is the most famous for making scented oils and incense. There is a figure of King Thothraes carved into the Giza Sphinx showing him offering incense and oils to the gods. Some of these aromas still produce scents after all these thousands of years. Calcite containers full of spices preserved in fatty substances were so strong that when King Tutankhamen’s tomb was opened, the aroma lingered. This was 3,000 years after they were placed there. Wall paintings show dancers and musicians with solid forms of spikenard and other odoriferous substances on their heads. As they performed the ointments would melt and eventually cover their hair and bodies.

A well-known fragrance from Egyptian history was called kyphi and is translated as “welcome to the gods”. They used it to produce hypnotic trances. In addition to using it in religious ceremonies, it helped ancient insomniacs fall asleep, calm anxiety, stimulate dreaming, heal the grief-stricken, help asthmatics breathe, and eliminate toxins. One of the oldest recorded recipes blended calamus, henna, spikenard, frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, cypress, pistachio or terebinth, and more. 

Pliny, in the 1^st century AD wrote a treatise called “Natural History”, in which he talks about remedies for various ailments. They included roses, lilies, violets, and pennyroyal. Amarakinin treated hemorrhoids and upset digestive systems and helped women with menstrual problems. An ointment made from spikenard helped cure coughs and laryngitis.