Where can I buy this newly discovered perfume of the pharaohs

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A.� I regret you can't - there are no plans to put it on sale. But I expect you'd like to hear a bit more about it < xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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Q.� Oh yes.

A.� An Egyptian perfume used by the pharaohs has been rediscovered by French scientists and re-created for the first time in 3,000 years. Experts from the cosmetic manufacturer L'Or�al combined their knowledge of oils found in 500 toiletry vessels looted by Napoleon's forces with pictures of recipes found on two walls in Egyptian temples.

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Q.� What do they show

A.� The hieroglyphics, at Edfu temple on the Nile, give details of how plants and processes were combined to produce Kyphi, a solid ball of perfume. Other carvings at Philae temple, near Aswan, show the perfume being applied.

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Q.� A perfume ball How was that applied

A.� This is one of the reasons, perhaps, that you're not going to be able to buy it over the counter of your local chemist's. The perfume was rolled together in a ball, then burned over charcoal. The aroma wasn't applied to the skin 4,000 years ago as it is now, but the pungent smoke soaked into the hair and skin.

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Q.� Hmm. Not too sure about this.

A.� It's better than it sounds. It smells first of lemon grass and peppermint then juniper berries and cinnamon. Not like a bonfire at all.

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The research took six years and director Patricia Pineau said: 'The Ancient Egyptians had a subtle and advanced understanding of the scientific process. Egyptian experts recognise the smells and say they believe it is close to perfection.'

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Q.� So how did the team discover all this

A.� The study started with the analysis of microscopic samples taken from vessels looted by Napoleon during his invasion of 1798. The experts then focused on a recipe noted down by the Ancient Greek historian Plutarch in his book Travels from Isis to Osiris. It appeared to correspond with the hieroglyphics at Edfu.

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Q.� So this was purely a cosmetic

A.� No. Sometimes the kyphi (Greek for perfume) wasn't burned, but put in the hair to protect it from the sun. A later recipe mixed it with alcohol and another version was used in the preparation of mummies.

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Q.� To stop them stinking

A.� A bit more subtle than that. Lise Manniche, an Egyptologist at the University of Copenhagen, says perfume was an indispensable funerary gift because it was believed to promote sex after death.

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Q.� So if I can't buy this, can I make it

A.� Yes. As it so happens, I have the recipe:

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• Grind up 270g of reed roots (Acorus calamus), lemongrass, pistachio nuts, cinnamon, mint and wood of the myrtle tree.
• Grind, separately, 270g of juniper berries, Chaerophyllum (a green leafy herb) and Cyperus longus roots.
• Mix the two powders together with a little grape wine. Leave for one day. Mix with 1.8kg of skinless, seedless grapes and 2.25kg of palm wine. Leave for five days.
• Then bring 1.2kg of incense and 3kg of honey to the boil and reduce to 3.36kg. Mix with the other ingredients and leave for five days.
• Add 1kg of ground myrrh. Mould into round balls about one centimetre in diameter. Put the perfume in a long pipe and burn.

�Good luck!

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Steve Cunningham