Vallee des Rois by Mira Takla c1988

Vallee des Rois by Mira Takla: launched in 1988. Composed by IFF. The fragrance itself was called "Nephtys", after an ancient Egyptian goddess. The fragrance collection was called "Vallee des Rois", which means "Valley of the Kings" in French. However, the perfume is commonly known as Vallee des Rois.

The perfume was sold exclusively at the perfume hall in Harrod's department store in England and the Galeries Lafayette in Paris.

The Inspiration:

Millionairess Mira Takla was born in November of 1937 in Cairo, her father was a renowned member of the Egyptian Parliament and for many years was a controller in the ministry of education. Miss Takla was a graduate of the English Mission School, Qubba Palace, Egypt. In November 1954, she and her mother traveled by ship to New York, then flew to California where she was to attend the Palos Verdes College. Since she arrived too late for registration, she had first audited classes for the balance of the semester then enrolled as a regular student in the Spring of 1955. The photo below shows her as a college student in 1955. It is currently, the only photo I have found of her, which I then added colorization.

Photograph caption dated September 12, 1955 reads "Leaders of local civic organizations meet group of visiting

foreign students at barbecue lunch in Lancaster, CA. From left, background, are Harry Morrill, governor of District 160-B of

Rotary International; Herm Mohling, president of Lancaster Rotary; Bill Schafer, host and president of Antelope Valley Fair;

K. W. Beckwith, president of Palmdale Rotary, and Harry C. Gauger, of the Antelope Valley Shrine Club. Front, are Mira

Takla, student from Egypt; Antoine Fabre, Haiti, and Joung Won Baick, Korea."

Mira married Henry Stuart Taylor in 1970 (divorced in Sept 1989) and had several children:  Karima Ashley Taylor and Sharifa Naima Taylor.  Takla later moved to England where she was appointed director of The British Egyptian Society in 1991 and worked as a business consultant and an Egyptologist. She resigned in 2021.

While Mira Takla was touring Egypt, she was intrigued by the mysterious hieroglyphs she saw carved upon the temple walls. Upon learning that they contained secret ingredients to perfume formulas, she needed help in deciphering the archaic language, and asked Danish Egyptologist Lise Manniche to help translate the enigmatic ancient texts. Manniche revealed the various recipes chiseled 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. 

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. I consider this to be the foremost and complete references on ancient fragrances, a must have for your library.

Enchanted with this arcane knowledge, Takla decided to form a perfume company selling a recreated version of an ancient Egyptian perfume. The Parfums Mira Takla company had its main establishment at Paris 8 (the company's head office). It was the establishment where the administration and effective management of the company were centralized. The establishment, located at 91 Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore in Paris 8 (75008), was the head office of the company Parfums Mira Takla. Created on 25-05-1990, its activity was business administration.

She explained, “I wanted to create a perfume symbolizing the opulence and the genius of my ancestors the pharaohs. The Valley of the Kings perfume is made up of 90% ingredients dating back to ancient Egypt: this is why its scent is so sensual, rich and opulent. It's a reflection of what they were trying to offer the world and what we enjoy today."

The esoteric hieroglyphic formulas that adorn the walls of the so-called perfume "laboratory" (more likely just a store room) at Edfu included other recipes such as "Hekenu", a special acacia based unguent for anointing the limbs and bodies of divine statues,"Megalion" and "Metopium", additional popular scented unguents in the ancient world.

Researchers from the French University of Lyon in conjunction with a technical team from famed cosmetics giant L'Oreal were able to establish via gas chromatography and X-ray imaging of ancient cosmetic vessels, the complexity of the secret formulas that the ancient Egyptians were using including the fat bases and individual herbs, spice and flower components. It was in Grasse, France where the ancient formulas and modern manufacturing techniques united to resurrect the long lost perfume. 

The resulting formula, perfected by the perfumers at International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF) was christened, Nephtys, an ancient Egyptian goddess. Nephtys was associated with mourning, the night/darkness, service (specifically temples), childbirth, the dead, protection, magic, health, embalming, and beer. She is the sister of Isis and Osiris and companion of the war-like deity, Set. 

The press kit included the following letter:

"When is a fragrance more than a fragrance? When it is history, culture and poetry in a bottle. And not just one bottle, but three. 

For Nephtys is a new perfume whose secret lies in the combination of the arts of ancient Egypt and the arts of modern-day French perfumers. 

Named for a goddess, Nephtys was created by a cosmopolitan Egyptian woman, Mira Takla. Fluent in English, French and Arabic, daughter of an Egyptian MP and granddaughter of a bey, Mira now lives in London. 

Professionally she uses her knowledge of the two cultures - aggressive, capitalistic West and timeless, traditional Middle East - to help foreign investors establish a business presence in Egypt. Trust House Forte and the National Coal Board were amongst her many clients. 

With Nephtys, she turns the tables. Out of her passion for Egypt's splendour and her love of fine fragrance, Mira Takla now brings Egypt to the world. 

Four thousand years ago, jasmine, lily, coriander, incense and honey were among the essences used in Egyptian perfumes. They are used again today in Nephtys along with the finest essences known to the modern perfumers of Paris, including orange flowers, mimosa, rose and tuberose. 

The fragrance is best described as majestic, sensual and opulent - and so are the bottles. For the first time in the history of the fragrance industry one fragrance has three deluxe presentations. It is called the Collection Vallee des Rois. 

According to her mood and the occasion a woman can choose Nephtys Parfum in its haunting gold-collier bottle (available in 18kt gold by special order). Or Nephtys Eau de Parfum in its sensuous poitrine bottle. Or Nephtys Eau de Toilette in its dynamic carved column. 

Created by award-winning fragrance designer Serge Mansau, the bottles are not imitations of the pharaoh's treasures, but recreations of the spirit of this great civilization. A final touch of opulence: the glass, the boxes and even the fragrance itself are colored a shade between turquoise and lapis lazuli, a colour called Egyptian blue. Mystery, love and creation are the essence of Nephtys, perfume of the Vallee des Rois. Available at Harrods from Spring 1990.

 The Search for Nephtys Part I: A Quest to the Valley of the Kings

"It's not like designing a market-gap perfume. It is a re-creation of the opulence of ancient Egypt." A child of Egypt, Mira Takla had often visited temples and tombs of Luxor, Karnak and Thebes. A sophisticated woman of the world obsessed with her dream of a perfume perfume of Egypt, she returned. Now she walked in the Valley of the Kings to verify the knowledge gained in eight months of Egyptology research in the British Museum.  "Some 5000 years ago the Egyptians had art, architecture, engineering, trade, technology, religion, culture, poetry, cosmetics and perfume - achievements beyond any other civilisation. Much of it is still beyond anything we have today," Mira muses. "The ancient Egyptians excelled in decorative arts, as we see from the sculptured and painted tombs, from the exquisite artifacts of the pharaohs and their queens and nobles. The pharaohs - from whom I am descended - loved to adorn themselves." In her research Mira found many original formulae for fragrances with ingredients including spices, herbs, flowers and fruits. An added discovery,"They didn't have alcohol as we know it today, so they macerated the ingredients in sweet wine which added its own special quality.." The hieroglyph for scent, Mira learned, is Seti.

The Search for Nephtys: Part II: A Thousand Attempts

With the fragrance  timeless, yet contemporary - now vivid in her mind, Mira Takla went to today's capital of fragrance, Paris. Though a newcomer to the perfumer's art, Mira was "the nose: of Nephtys. "Scent being such an abstract," Mira says,"to transmit the feeling about it into reality is very difficult. But we succeeded." 

"It is like music. Before a note was committed to paper, the music was in Mozart's head. My fragrance was exactly the same. It existed before it was." Ninety percent of the ingredients of Nephtys are those used in the ancient Egyptian perfumed unguents, among them lilies, cardamom, nasturtium, coriander and honey. "Not that these are not used in perfumes today," Mira is quick to point out. But it is the way they are combined, and the added ten percent of essences discovered since dynastic times - rose, tuberose, mimosa and others - that makes Nephtys unrivalled among modern perfumes. 

"Nephtys is like a Mozart symphony,"Mira declares. "Strong, yet simple, elegant and extremely intellectual. As you wear it, it develops - violins, celli, flutes...every note superbly blended, orchestrated to perfection. Like a symphony, too, it reaches a climax."

It took more than one thousand trials before Mira found the fragrance experience she sought: Nephtys."

A luxurious gift box to introduce the fragrance was given to members of the press. It was created by Maison Fournier and designed by Serge Mansau. It included a booklet describing the perfume's history and inspiration from Ancient Egypt, and graced with gilded embossed illustrations. A lid, embossed in imitation of an archaeological dig, complete with sand-like texture, had silhouettes of mummy beads, a shabti figure and three bottles. This lid covered the three fragrance bottles: 30ml extrait, 50ml eau de parfum (spray), 50ml eau de toilette (spray) that were tucked into the box underneath.

A Tragic Launch:

The new 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, originally named Nephtys, after the ancient goddess and sister of Isis, 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 sumptuous 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 famous river Nile, including the quality of the food and the safety of the bottled water. Nothing was to be left to chance, she insisted that all guests have their tetanus, polio, typhoid and hepatitis shots as well as the well needed sunscreen and malaria tablets just in case.

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 belly dancing and other traditional Egyptian entertainment was offered. The restaurant was in a tent adjacent to the hotel's outer wall. The country-style clay bread oven was meant to create authentic Arabic dishes for the guests. Sparks flying from the clay oven upwards 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. Some guests had opened their windows to see what was happening and sparks flew directly into their rooms driven by the strong winds, which then spread the fire into the building.

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. Exotic colored birds flapped their wings furiously as they flitted away from the live palm trees in the towering hall of the lobby. The disco and the reception area were destroyed before the entire building was engulfed by the licking flames. A receptionist from the hotel said that "I was at the counter when I saw smoke coming from the direction of the Nubian Tent. In just five minutes the entire lobby area was afire. The flames spread very, very quickly."

 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.'"

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
operation and fire engines took about an hour to arrive. “I was woken when a fellow journalist who ... banged on my door."

 To read another survivor from the press junket's story, Anthea Gerrie, click here.

Unfortunately, sprinkler systems and smoke detectors were not mandatory at the five star , ten year old hotel, and the disaster ended up killing 19, including three members of the press party, while injuring 70 more guests, who suffered mostly burns, smoke inhalation, bruises and broken bones incurred from falls. Guests who were only slightly injured received first-aid treatments after being transferred to other hotels. The injured were taken to the nearly Heliopolis Hospital, the Palestine Red Crescent Hospital and the Manchiet el-Bakry Hospital.

The fire caused the electric and thus the hotel's elevators to stop working so many of the guests were forced to shimmy down bedsheets tied together or leap out of high windows. Takla's daughter Karima was one of the attendees who survived the fire along several others who frantically survived by crawling on their bellies through dark, smoke filled corridors, and feeling their way down stairs. Though there were more than 30 fire units on the scene, including some from the army, the fire still raged. The blaze broke out around 1 am and burned for nine hours, leaving much of the 630 room hotel, the entire ground floor, including its six restaurants, bar, shops, coffee shop and lobby destroyed. To observers, all that remained was a burnt out, blackened, gutted shell of a building, eerily, bedsheets were still dangling from windowsills.

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.

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.

The perfume did go on sale after all but only in two places: Harrod's in London and Galeries Lafayette in Paris. 

Fragrance Composition:

The perfume Nephtys (more commonly known as Vallee des Rois), was created as an approximation of the perfume that the ancient pharaoh Cleopatra herself wore. Its composition containing 90% of ingredients actually used in Ancient Egypt.

So what does Nephtys (Vallee des Rois) smell like? It is classified as a floral oriental fragrance for women with a mixed floral bouquet layered over a woody, resinous and powdery drydown.

• Top notes: dried fruits, green notes, citruses, nasturtium, basil, Russian coriander
• Middle notes: honey, lily, Egyptian rose, Egyptian jasmine, Moroccan orange blossom, Grasse tuberose, ylang-ylang
• Base notes: ambergris, Tonkin musk, olibanum, benzoin, Grasse heliotrope, labdanum, patchouli, Mysore sandalwood, styrax, tonka bean, vanilla, vetiver, frankincense, oakmoss

The perfume breaks open with a vision of a basket heaped with dried fruits, and a dish of freshly sliced Italian  citrus fruits, their surfaces glistening with their bright effervescences. A touch of peppery nasturtium and the greenery from basil temper the fruity aspect while Russian coriander heightens the zest of the citrus. The warm, sweet smell of honey straight from the comb is now drizzled over the fruits. It is joined by a crystal vase wafting its opulent bouquet blending Moroccan orange blossom with Egyptian flowers of jasmine and rose with precious florals from Grasse: the cherry smelling heliotrope and the narcotic tuberose. Delicate petals of ylang ylang and lily round out the fragrance's heart into a melodious accord. It is then joined with smoky notes of costly resins and monastic incense from the horn of Africa and the Arabian coast. Tears of labdanum from Malta and hardened tree sap of the Omani frankincense trees join drops of olibanum melting on the smoldering censer. The languorous unfolding of balsamic touches of vanilla, tonka bean, styrax and benzoin are married to genuine Mysore sandalwood and Indonesian patchouli, recalling the luxurious paisley shawls from India, as earthy grass notes from Javan vetiver and Tyrolean oakmoss add powdery notes. The base echoes with a rich, long lasting animalic base of ambergris and Tonkin musk providing an undulating current of sensuality.

Nephtys (Vallee des Rois) is heavy, velvety and quite intense. Personally, I think it smells very close to the original vintage formula Christian Dior's Poison and Ozbek by Rifat Ozbek. The ambrosial fruity top notes and the marriage of narcotic orange blossom and tuberose are very prominent in both perfumes. In Poison, the fruity note is a sweetened mélange of plum, wild berries and peach, and this is exactly what I smell in Nephtys (Vallee des Rois) as well. Tuberose, coriander, vanilla, sandalwood, vetiver, incense, honey, orange blossom, jasmine, heliotrope and rose also are present in both fragrances. It is quite intoxicating and very long lasting. Nephtys (Vallee des Rois) has more of an incense and exotic spice kick to it than Poison, which I find very luxurious.

Bottles:

Continuing the Egyptian theme, the bottles, designed by Serge Mansau and created by Pochet et du Courval, are a beautiful shade of teal blue and are decorated with ancient Egyptian motifs. 

The fragrances are packaged in stunning turquoise blue boxes printed with a repeating pattern of the same stylized lotus and papyrus plants.

Egyptian Archaeology, 1991:

"A unique perfume at once combining the mystery and opulence of ancient Egypt with the chic elegance of an haute couture French perfume. Vallee des Rois is the creation of Mira Takla - sophisticated, intelligent, born and raised in Cairo.."

Parfum:

The footed demilune parfum flacons are adorned with a gilded metal collar with painted jewels. It was available in three sizes I believe:

• 0.25 oz bottle stands 2.25"tall
• 0.5 oz bottle stands 
• 1 oz bottle stands 3.5" tall.

Eau de Parfum:

The elliptical bottle for the eau de parfum is circled by a gilded belly chain printed onto the glass, while a smaller, 7.5ml purse size bottle of the eau de parfum is a spiral shape. 

• 1.7 oz Eau de Parfum Spray
• 0.25 oz Eau de Parfum Purse Spray

Eau de Toilette:

The eau de toilette bottle is molded with a stylized lotus and papyrus plants design and features a gilded metal frieze of stylized lotus blossoms at the top.

• 1.7 oz Eau de Parfum Spray

The rarest bottle of all is the factice (advertising dummy), the 9" tall display bottle, which contained no scent at all, only colored water to simulate perfume.

Fate of the Fragrance:

Discontinued, date unknown.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/13235969.pdf?repositoryId=520