I think that Queen Cleopatra is known for “almost” every human being around the world, therefore, I don’t have to tell much about her.

There are many puzzles about her although something is sure; she was one of the most beautiful and powerful women in history.

Many directors and producers made so many movies (Hollywood Movies) about her and they tried to have the beautiful actresses for play in her place, especially, Elizabeth Taylor http://Elizabeth Taylor as I believe that she was not only beautiful but also impressive; She is one of my favourites.

But just let have a look at this idea; is she with this face not closer than the others? 👇

Contrary to popular belief, Greek ruler Cleopatra could have been of African descent (via; FARIDA DAWKINS | Contributor)

Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last active ruler of Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a Hellenistic kingdom based in Egypt. It was formed after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and ended with the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 BC. She ruled from 69 to August 10/12, 30 BC.

But definitely, the bathing of Cleopatra has ever been the dreaming term in all history. Therefore, I have taken this story to share with you; a wonderful tell by Marc Chartier, Marc Chartier. translated from French.

Let’s take a closer look at this beauty. with thanks to Marc Chartier for this wonderful research. 🙏🙏💖

Baths of Cleopatra: one-third of water, two-thirds of legends

According to tradition, spread orally, Cleopatra VII, queen of Egypt, maintained her beauty with baths in donkey milk … or mud from the Dead Sea.
But one can easily imagine that the sublime sovereign, in addition to this cosmetic luxury, also had recourse to more common baths, with quite simply clear water. In any case, the places known as “Cleopatra’s baths” (in addition to making flourish in our modern advertisements!) Appear in certain localities which thus want to keep the memory – no doubt generously embellished by some legend and possible tourist targets – royal ablutions.

We will only take two here.

First Siwa, 590 km west of Alexandria and 300 km from Marsa Matrouh. This oasis is famous for its many hot springs to which we attribute therapeutic virtues, the most famous being that of Aïn el-Hammam (“the source of the baths”), formerly called “source of the sun”, and today hui “Cleopatra’s baths”. The queen is said to have bathed there when she came to the site to consult the oracle of Amon in the temple dedicated to this deity. In ancient times, the spring water was known to be cold during the day and hot at night, because the sun went down there in the evening and found its course in the early morning.
The “Petit Futé Sahara” (2011 edition) continues to praise the “limpid and light water, incredibly transparent” of this natural swimming pool, to such an extent that “there is no danger of taking a sip ”.

Second place: Alexandria.

In his “Letters on Egypt” (1785), Claude Savary describes the site in these terms: “Half a league south of the city, we descend into the catacombs, a former asylum for the dead. Winding paths lead to underground caves where they were deposited. (…) Going towards the sea, we find a large basin dug in the rock, which borders the shore: on the sides of this basin, we have chiselled two pretty rooms, with benches crossing them. A channel made in zigzag, so that the sand stops in the bends, leads there the water of the sea: it comes there pure and transparent like crystal. I took a bath there. Sitting on the stone bench, we have water a little above the waist. The feet rest softly on fine sand. We hear the waves rustling against the rock, and quivering in the canal. The flood enters, lifts you, withdraws, and going in and out in turn, brings ever new water, and a delicious freshness, under a blazing sky. This place is vulgarly called Cleopatra’s bath. Ruins indicate that it was once adorned. “

In 1840, in his “Overview on Egypt”, Antoine-Barthélemy Clot-Bey adds an important nuance to this story: “Between the catacombs and Alexandria are on the shore a few baths eaten away by the action of the water, which ‘we have pompously, and probably wrongly, decorated with the name of Cleopatra’s baths. ”

Another detail is provided to us by Ange de Saint-Priest in his “Encyclopedia of the nineteenth century” (1846) when he wrote: “On the seashore, artificial excavations had been made in the rock, in shaped like bathtubs, and which we call the Baths of Cleopatra. These baths were said to wash the dead before they were given to burial. “

The proximity between the baths and the catacombs had previously inspired Guillaume-Antoine Olivier, in his “Voyage in l’Empire Othoman, l’Égypte et la Persia” (1804), the following reflections: “It does not seem probable to us, according to the idea that History gives us of Cleopatra, that this queen, so magnificent and voluptuous, would have chosen for the ordinary field of her recreations the neighbourhood of the dead, this place of solitude, silence and meditation. (…) How can we be persuaded, moreover, that this young and beautiful woman would have been careless enough about the freshness of her complexion to expose it to contact with salt water, usually taking sea baths in a place that responded so badly to the magnificence it displayed?

Where is the historical truth? Did the sublime Cleopatra take pleasure in diversifying both nature and the place of her beauty treatments?
Let us agree that we like to leave the question open and since we are immersed – or not far from it – in full imagination, let ourselves be subjugated by the poetic impulses of Théophile Gautier when he writes, in “Une Nuit de Cléopâtre” (1838):

“It was bath time. Cleopatra went there with her women. The baths of Cleopatra were built in vast gardens filled with mimosas, carob trees, aloes, lemon trees, Persian apple trees, the luxuriant freshness of which made a delicious contrast with the aridity of the surroundings. (…) [Cleopatra] was standing on the first step of the basin, in an attitude full of grace and pride; slightly arched back, foot suspended like a goddess who is about to leave her pedestal and whose gaze is still in the sky; two superb folds started from the points of her throat and slipped in a single jet to the ground. (…) Before entering the water, by a new whim, she tells Charmion to change her hairstyle with silver nets; she preferred a crown of lotus flowers with rushes, like a marine deity. Charmion obeyed; her loose hair flowed in black cascades over her shoulders and hung in clusters like ripe grapes down her beautiful cheeks. Then the linen tunic, held only by a gold clip, came loose, slipped down her marble body, and fell in cloudy white at her feet like the swan at Leda’s feet. (…) Cleopatra dipped her ruddy heel in water and went down a few steps; the quivering wave made her a belt and silver bracelets, and rolled in pearls over her breast and shoulders like an unmade necklace; her long hair, lifted by the water, stretched out behind her like a royal cloak; she was queen even in the bath. She came and went, plunged and brought back from the bottom in her hand’s handfuls of gold powder which she threw, laughing at one of her women; at other times she hung on the balustrade of the basin, hiding and uncovering her treasures, sometimes showing only her polished and lustrous back, sometimes showing herself whole like Venus Anadyomene, and constantly varying the aspects of her beauty.

Marc Chartier

Sourses:

https://egyptophile.blogspot.com/

https://egyptophile.blogspot.com/2015/09/bains-de-cleopatre-un-tiers-deau-deux.html

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