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Assassin's Creed Origins: the Journey through Ancient Egypt
Marco Chiacchiera, June 11th, 2017
Translated by: Markuz At last, after an endless series of rumors and leaks that allowed more or less anyone to get a large amount of information about the game even before it was officially presented, Assassin's Creed Origins has been announced! Trying to go a little against the grain and to bring you something new that is not out there since days ago, we thought of creating, with the official resources available so far, a brief analysis of the locations that we know we will be able to visit. And to give a better idea, we located all of them on a map of Egypt. Obviuosly.
The location we found by analyzing screenshots, concept arts and the keyart of the game are six at the moment:
In addition, there's another possible location but we will talk about that at the end of this article. But first things first: Alexandria
What you can see in the picture is probably a top view of Alexandria. What makes it recognizable is the lighthouse in the distance on the right, representing the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, which remained operational until the fourteenth century when it was destroyed by two earthquakes. Alexandria was founded between 332 BC And 331 BC By Alexander the Great who gave it its name, and since then the city has grown to become the second largest city in Egypt as of today. The city is also famous for the so-called " Alexandria Library ", the largest and richest library of the ancient world (it is said to contain about 700,000 volumes) and one of the main Hellenistic cultural poles that was destroyed in antiquity several times between 48 BC and 642 d.C.. Giza Necropolis
It HAD to be there, , it is one of the if not THE most recognizable monument in Egypt. The Giza Necropolis is a complex of ancient monuments, about 25 km from Cairo, which includes the Pyramid of Cheops (the only one among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence to this day), the Pyramid of Chephren and the Pyramid of Mykerinos as well as the Great Sphinx of Giza, which lies on the eastern part of the complex, several cemeteries, and a village where all the people who built the monuments lived. Memphis
Memphis was the capital of Egypt during the Ancient Kingdom (2686 BC - 2181 BC) and subsequently remained an important city in the centuries to come (up to its decline shortly after the arrival of the Romans), occupying a strategic position at the mouth of the Nile delta and growing as a regional center for trade, commerce and religion. Its great temple, Hut-ka-Ptah, dedicated to god Ptah, patron of craftsmen, was one of the most important structures in the city. It is even believed tha the name of this temple, rendered in Greek as A? ?? pto? (Ai-gy-ptos) by the historian Manetho, is the etymological origin of the modern English name "Egypt". It’s worth noting that in 332 BC, Alexander the Great was crowned Pharaoh in the temple of Ptah, introducing the Hellenistic period into Egypt. The city at that time retained some importance, especially in terms of religion, throughout the period following its acquisition by one of Alexander’s generals, Ptolemy. At the death of Alexander in Babylon (323 BC), Ptolemy brought the body to Menfi, claiming that the king himself had officially expressed the desire to be buried in Egypt. Ptolemy II subsequently transferred the sarcophagus to Alexandria, where a royal tomb was built for his burial, whose exact position, unfortunately, was lost to time. Faiyum
The city of Faiyum, located in the Oasis with the same name, is the capital of the current Faiyum Governorate. During the Pharaonic era, the city of Faiyum was called Shedet and was the most significant center of the cult of Sobek, the crocodile god. For this reason, the Greeks called it Crocodilopolis, "Crocodile City", because of the particular reverence paid by its inhabitants to the crocodiles. The city worshipped a sacred crocodile, called Petsuchos, which was adorned with gold and gems. The crocodile lived in a special temple pond and was fed by the priests with the food provided by the visitors. Siwa Oasis and Temple of Amon
Be careful about this site as it could be one of the most important in the list. Siwa is an oasis of the Libyan desert which belongs to Egypt and is located about 300 kilometers from the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. In ancient times, Siwa was known for the Temple dedicated to the god Amon (one of the main Egyptian gods of the Sun, often assimilated by the Greeks to Zeus), which was the of a famous oracle. One of the most important people that turned to this oracle was Alexander the Great, who received particularly favorable prophecies and the consecration as "son of the deity" or "son of Zeus-Amon", a "true" confirmation of his divine mission to found a universal empire. The Amon Temple / Oracle in the Siwa Oasis is also important because, as we mentioned in March, this year, it was one of the locations featured in one of the Easter Eggs featured in the additional content of the HD version of the Assassin's Creed movie, along with several other sites known through the franchise and some that have yet to appear, like the Senso-ji temple in Japan.
Coincidence? I think not… Abu Simbel
It is not 100% sure that Abu Simbel and his two huge temples will appear in Origins. What is certain is that one of them appears in the keyart of the game, and therefore we can supposedly expect to visit the area. Abu Simbel is an archaeological site composed mainly of two huge rock temples, drawn from the mountainside by pharaoh Ramesses II in the 13th century BC and dedicated by the pharaoh to himself and his queen Nefertari. The two temples were built to intimidate the neighboring Nubians and to commemorate the victory in the Battle of Qadesh. The complex is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site known as "Nubian Monuments", which stretch from Abu Simbel to Philae (near Aswan). These are the main places we have found from a first analysis of the assets shown about Assassin's Creed Origins, but there is another, perhaps important, detail.
In fact, in the image you see above, there is a smaller pyramid with an entrance in front of it. It is only a hypothesis, but our Hephaestus feels that it is a pyramid very similar to the Nubian ones of Meroe.
If that really were true, the map of Origins would extend beyond the borders of modern Egypt and far more south than Abu Simbel. We will certainly wait for confirmations about this! And that's all for this article! What do you think of it? Have you ever known about these places? Do you like the idea of visiting them in a few months with the new chapter of the Assassin's Creed franchise? As always, let us know in the comments!
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