Cleopatra VII, queen of Egypt, was skilled in the art of rhetoric, sciences, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, medicine, drawing, and music but she was also very knowledgeable and artful in the use of perfume. She wrote a treatise on cosmetics entitled “Cleopatra gynaeciarum libri” and owned a cosmetic and perfume factory at “En Boquet” by the Dead Sea.

 It was written by historians that when Cleopatra sailed to Tarsus to meet with Mark Antony, a Roman politician, she perfumed the sails of her barge and fragrant smoke wafted from incense burners aboard her ship to the people who had lined the shores to view this magnificent queen’s arrival. Mark A. fell under her spell and in fact was so in love with her, that he killed himself upon hearing a false report that she was dead.

 For centuries Egypt was a very rich, self-sufficient country. The Nile River was the lifeblood of the country, providing the annual wealth of precious floodwaters to deposit the fertile soil around it. All of the natural aromatic materials for perfume making were available either in Egypt or by trade. Egypt still holds a prominent place in perfume essential oil production, responsible for a significant portion of the world's jasmine production. Eight thousand jasmine flowers yield 1/25 oz of absolute. Jasmine and synthetic versions of jasmine are used in 83% of all women's perfumes.

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