Royal portrait
Sample listingOn request
Seated in the posture the New Kingdom reserved for royalty, with your own face.
Price on request
Not a picture of ancient Egypt. A place in it.
Choose a scene, send us a photograph, and the faces in the painting become yours — hand-finished on papyrus made the way it has been made for five thousand years.
Why papyrus is not just paper
It is made from the pith of a reed that once grew thickly along the Nile, cut into strips, layered at right angles, pressed and dried. The plant's own sap binds the sheet — nothing is added. Egypt wrote on it for over three thousand years, and sheets buried in dry ground have come back legible after two.
A very old idea about portraits
Egyptian tomb painting was never decoration. Putting someone into a scene was how you placed them in it permanently — at the offering table, on the boat, in front of the god. Having your own face painted into an Egyptian scene is a modern souvenir built on an idea the people who invented the art form would have recognised immediately.
The pieces
Choose one to start the conversation, or send your request without picking — we will suggest what fits what you are after.
Request availability
The offering scene
Sample listingOn request
Two figures facing each other across a table — the oldest way Egypt painted a couple.
Price on request
The Nile boat
Sample listingOn request
A family crossing the river, which is how tomb painting showed a household together.
Price on request
Before you arrive
How it works
- 1
Choose a scene
Each design is a different story to be written into.
- 2
Send a photograph
Faces clear and well lit. One person, a couple, or a family.
- 3
We confirm what is possible
Before anything is painted, you are told whether your photograph will work, what it will cost, and when it will be ready.
- 4
It is painted while you travel
Hand-finished work, begun once you approve.
- 5
Collect it in Egypt
Flat-packed for the flight home.
Start the conversation
Nothing is charged here and nothing is confirmed. You will get a reply with the specification, the price and the date it can be ready.
- Your photograph is used for this commission and nothing else. It is not published anywhere, and you can ask us to delete it at any point.
- You will be told whether your photograph is usable before you commit to anything — resolution and lighting decide what is possible.
- The price and the date it will be ready are agreed in writing first.
Questions
A well-lit one where faces are clear and reasonably large in the frame. A phone photo taken in daylight is usually better than an old scanned print. Sunglasses, heavy shadow across the face, and very low resolution are the three things that most often cause us to ask for another.
It is used to make the piece you have commissioned and for nothing else — it is not published, not used in marketing, and not passed on beyond the people making your papyrus. Ask us to delete it and we will.
The approval steps are set by the workshop, and we will tell you exactly what they are when we confirm your commission rather than promising something here that may not match how your particular piece is made.
Papyrus travels flat and is more robust than it looks — it is a woven sheet rather than a brittle one. It is packed for the journey when you collect it.
While you are here
Piramidi di GizaServizio fotografico esclusivo alle piramidi
Un servizio fotografico privato, diretto da un professionista, alle piramidi di Giza: per chi vuole ricordi cinematografici pronti per Instagram, non semplici scatti.
Viaggiatori soliCoppieFamiglie
Richiesta di prezziValutazione dell'esperienza
Travel Guides
Cosa acquistare in Egitto: Souvenirs Worth Bringing Home
Cosa vale la pena acquistare nei mercati egiziani, e cosa saltare — spezie, rameware, cotone, papiro e alabastro, e come dire il bene dalla produzione di massa.
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