Travel to Ptolemaic Egypt in a video game
If you’ve always wanted to visit ancient Egypt, climb the pyramids, explore hidden tombs and dark crypts by torchlight, and sail in a felucca boat down the Nile, let Assassin’s Creed Origins take you there. You’ll get to know the landscape and history as the video game transports you to Ptolemaic Egypt in the year 48 BC. The Helenistic state was the final dynasty of Ancient Egypt and founded by Ptolemy I Sotar, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. It’s a beautiful exploration-based game for travelers and history enthusiasts. Here’s why you should play Assassin’s Creed Origins.
Your journey begins during a time when the exiled queen Cleopatra is seeking to take the throne from her younger brother Ptolemy who is controlled by the Order of the Ancients, a secretive cabal that is a forerunner to the Order of the Knights Templar. Origins is similar to the other games in the franchise where you play as a member of the Hidden Ones (later to be called the Assassin Brotherhood) during an interesting period in history. You’ll take on the role of an assassin named Bayek, a Medjay ranger, a military scout who hunts down members of the Order who have killed his son. He and his wife Aya, who is playable for part of the game, become spies for Cleopatra during the Alexandrine Civil War and assassinate members of the Order.
In typical Assassin’s Creed style, Origins is essentially a series of stories, a cinematic experience with superb graphics, that make up the gameplay. You get to explore sand-covered tombs, encounter local Egyptians inscribing scrolls and tilling their fields with oxen, interact with Greek and Roman settlers, walk the streets of ancient towns, and sneak, loot, and fight your way across the landscapes and cities of ancient Egypt.
A major reason to play Assassin’s Creed Origins is for the experience of exploring Egypt. The country offers beautiful sandy deserts, calming oases and rugged cliffs. You’ll also get to see plenty of wildlife—crocodiles and hippos wallowing in the Nile and lions, gazelle, and hyenas wandering the sand dunes and hills of Egypt. Plus, there are ancient cities like Alexandria and Memphis to explore. You can spend hours just wandering around and getting to know the country.
Playing as the character Bayek makes the game enjoyable. Each activity is an insightful experience, an opportunity to learn about this period in history. Origins is like a virtual history book in that way. Here are some of the best places you can visit while playing the game.
Combining fine details and interesting quests, the walled city of Alexandria is easily one of the best places to visit in Origins. You’ll see the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, which was one of the tallest structures in the world for hundreds of years. During the siege of Alexandria, Julius Caesar commands Bayek to light the signal of the lighthouse to alert the Roman fleet.
In Alexandria you can also browse the shelves of papyrus scrolls with the scribes and scholars in the Great Library, a temple of knowledge that made the city the capital of learning by documenting the history of the ancient world. Most places you visit here have been destroyed throughout history, so it’s an interesting way to walk through the distant past. Plus, Alexandria is also where you’ll have a chance to meet Cleopatra at her villa as well as the Roman general Julius Caesar. Caesar helps out Cleopatra and along with Bayek and Aya, defeats Ptolemy’s forces in the Nile Delta, leaving Cleopatra as the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt.
Your journey will also take you to Memphis at the mouth of the Nile River. Once the capital of the Old Kingdom, it is a beige-colored city of palm trees, religious temples and pyramids. The sacred city is believed to be protected by Ptah, the god of craftsmen and architecture. Historically, Memphis was a thriving centre of trade, commerce, and religion. It is also the place where the pharaoh was crowned with the Pschent, a double crown that symbolized his power over a unified Egypt.
Giza is next up on the list of places to see in Assassin’s Creed Origins. As one of Egypt’s most famous sites, it’s exciting to visit Giza in the game for many reasons. It was a necropolis for the pharaohs, dominated by three large pyramids in the desert. Though the game is set well after the construction of the pyramids—including the Great Pyramid which stood as the tallest structure in the world for more than 3,800 years—the pyramids are still in good shape, cased in white limestone and capped in gold. Expect to visit some intriguing tombs during your time in the Giza necropolis.
Giza is also where the Great Sphinx is located. The limestone sphinx statue with its pharaonic beard and nose intact was cut from the bedrock of the Giza plateau. The reclining mythical creature is believed to have the face of Pharaoh Khafra. You can read hieroglyphic texts on it and even explore the tunnels of a hidden tomb below the monument.
Beyond Giza, there are more pyramids to see like the Bent Pyramid of Sneferu located in the necropolis of Dahshur. It was built in 2600 BC and is the fourth oldest in the world. Though it’s not in good condition today, exploring it in 48 BC is quite rewarding.
Cyrene, located in present day Libya, is another place to visit in the game. This ancient Greek city is one of the more lush and green locations of Origins and is located in the Green Mountains. Historically, it was the most important of the five Greek cities in the region and was known as the ‘Athens of Africa’ for its beautiful marble temples and statues and for being the location of the Cyrenaic school of philosophy. Here you’ll find more Greek culture than Egyptian, and since it is a Roman territory you’ll get a chance to see gladiator fights and chariot races in the arena.
You’ll eventually head to the mummification city called Nitria in the Saqqara Nome. There seems to be a lot of construction going on in the city. Here you’ll have your wounds tended by Nefertari, the chief healer of Nitria. In Nitria you will visit a natron mine. Natron is a salt used as a drying agent in the mummification process. Overlooking the mine is a statue of Anubis, the god of death and embalming.
Origins also comes with the educational free-roaming ability to explore more of the country, its history and culture. There are 75 tours included in the Discovery Tour spanning five themes: Egypt, Romans, Pyramids, Alexandria, and Daily Life.
This mode is similar to an audio tour in a museum where a voice-over gives you the details of daily life in Ancient Egypt, the religious rituals in a temple, and the mummification process. It also provides a biography of Cleopatra. It’s a virtual museum tour that gives close-up views and descriptions of paintings, pottery, farm tools, scrolls and hieroglyphics. Over the four years it took to create the game, the team at Ubisoft worked with Egyptologists and uncovered hundreds of images from museums and libraries and the Discovery Tour helps bring it all together.
You can roam freely throughout each interactive tour. The Discovery Tour takes away the action and storyline and gives you a chance to look at Egypt in more detail. Plus, the tours are a fun way to learn about history through virtual guides like Cleopatra and Julius Caesar
One of the most interesting tours will take you to the Great Pyramid of Giza. It explains how the game developers pieced together the layout of the pyramid without first-hand evidence, instead relying primarily on theories from archaeologists.
If you’re interested in exploring ancient Egypt, playing Assassin’s Creed Origins is a great way to do that. Its story will keep you entertained and its life-like graphics and details will keep you curious and engaged.
