Egypt is a real-world country which has seen a degree of use in the works of H. P. Lovecraft, and the Cthulhu Mythos which saw its genesis within.
Description[]
Occupying a large portion of northeast Africa with a smaller section extending into southwest Asia, Egypt has a long history of not only human habitation but also civilisation. It is an extremely arid country consisting of vast swathes of desert, with the majority of the population occupying the areas around the relatively fertile Nile Valley and Delta.
Egypt in Lovecraft's Works[]
Nyarlathotep[]
It is said that Nyarlathotep "came out of Egypt.... [H]e was of the old native blood and looked like a Pharaoh. The fellahin knelt when they saw him, yet could not say why. He said he had risen up out of the blackness of twenty-seven centuries." (HPL: "Nyarlathotep")
The Shining Trapezohedron[]
Enoch Bowen brought the Shining Trapezohedron back from Egypt in 1844. (HPL: "The Haunter of the Dark")
Nephren-Ka[]
The Pharaoh Nephren-Ka is said to he built a temple for the Shining Trapezohedron "with a windowless crypt"; later, Nephren-Ka "did that which caused his name to be stricken from all monuments and records". (HPL: "The Haunter of the Dark")
The Outsider says that he plays in "the catacombs of Nephren-Ka in the sealed and unknown valley of Hadoth by the Nile." (HPL: "The Outsider")
Nitokris[]
Queen Nitokris, a ruler of Egypt of the Sixth Dynasty (c. 2345-2181 BCE), "once invited all her enemies to a feast in a temple below the Nile, and drowned them by opening the water-gates". She was buried alive beneath the Third Pyramid, which 4,000 years later is still shunned on her account "at certain phases of the moon". She is called the "ghoul-queen", and is said to reign with her husband Khephren over the composite mummies "that are neither of man nor of beast". She is beautiful, but the right side of her face is "eaten away by rats or other ghouls". (HPL: "Imprisoned With the Pharaohs")
The Outsider says that he finds gaiety only in the "unnamed feasts of Nitokris beneath the Great Pyramid". immortal pharaohs Nitokris and Khephren survived into the modern age and worshiped the Sphinx. (HPL: "The Outsider")
Khephren[]
Khephren built the Second Pyramid sometime after 2800 BCE, and restored the statue of the Great Sphinx; its face was "probably altered to form a colossal portrait" of Khephren, "that men might look at the colossus without fear." He also built the Temple of the Sphinx, a "yawning gateway temple" in which was found a life-size diorite statue of Khephren that was moved to the Cairo Museum. It's said that Khephren still "lives far underground wedded to the ghoul-queen Nitokris and ruling over the mummies that are neither of man nor of beast." The guide Abdul Reis who abducts Harry Houdini and leaves him tied up below the pyramids is a dead ringer for Khephren. (HPL: "Imprisoned With the Pharaohs")
Khephren is the Greek name of Khafre, a historical pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty who actually reigned c. 2558-2532 BCE. Khafre is indeed believed to have built the Second Pyramid and to have had the face of the Great Sphinx carved in his likeness.
The Sphinx[]
A creature which may or may not be an Avatar of Nyarlathotep. It resided beneath the statue of the Great Sphinx of Giza, but is much larger. (HPL: "Imprisoned With the Pharaohs")
Khephnes[]
An Egyptian of the 14th Dynasty (c. 1725-1650 BCE) who was mind-swapped with a Yithian; he tells Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee "the hideous secret of Nyarlathotep". (HPL: "The Shadow Out of Time")
In the Expanded Mythos[]
The Carlyle Expedition[]
The Carlyle Expedition, which took its name from its leader Roger Carlyle, was an archaeological venture which disappeared in Egypt in the 20th century (EXP: Masks of Nyarlathotep).
Children of the Sphinx[]
Humanoid creatures, the Children of the Sphinx were worshipers of the Sphinx.