When the Roman general Mark Antony visited the beautiful Egyptian queen Cleopatra she received him with the help of a million rose petals. Here Mika explores the sensual abundance of the rose through this story of love and opulence. In 1888 famous English archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie, while excavating tombs in Upper Egypt, found the remains of rose garlands that had been used as a funeral wreath in the second century A.D. He identified the rose as Rosa x richardii, a cross of Rosa gallica and Rosa phoenicia known commonly as the 'Holy Rose of Abyssinia', or 'St. John's Rose'. The petals, though shriveled, had retained their pink color and, when soaked in water, were restored to a nearly lifelike state. Other researchers have found paintings of roses on the wall of the tomb of Thutmose IV, who died in the fourteenth century B.C. References to the rose have been deciphered in hieroglyphics. (Source: http://www.herbs2000.com/flowers/r_history.htm) Top of Page Print This Page
When the Roman general Mark Antony visited the beautiful Egyptian queen Cleopatra she received him with the help of a million rose petals. Here Mika explores the sensual abundance of the rose through this story of love and opulence.
In 1888 famous English archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie, while excavating tombs in Upper Egypt, found the remains of rose garlands that had been used as a funeral wreath in the second century A.D. He identified the rose as Rosa x richardii, a cross of Rosa gallica and Rosa phoenicia known commonly as the 'Holy Rose of Abyssinia', or 'St. John's Rose'. The petals, though shriveled, had retained their pink color and, when soaked in water, were restored to a nearly lifelike state. Other researchers have found paintings of roses on the wall of the tomb of Thutmose IV, who died in the fourteenth century B.C. References to the rose have been deciphered in hieroglyphics.
