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 Maps and building plans are essential for a traveller like Tintin. The ancient Egyptians pictured buildings and made maps, like this plan of a royal tomb, although they look a bit strange to us because they combined views from above and the side into one image. 

Hergé drew this map with its exotic illustrations one week before the first instalment of Cigars of the Pharaoh was published to announce Tintin's voyage eastwards. Although it does not depict historical reality, it is a real visual gem.

Map of Asia published in edition no. 48 of Le Petit Vingtième on 1 December 1932.

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Tintin was a world traveller!  Prior to Cigars of the Pharaoh Tintin travelled to Russia and the United States of America.  Now Tintin was travelling east (although he didn’t know it!)… he started his journey by landing in Port Said in Egypt.

Through mis-adventure and chasing the Kih-Oskh symbol found in the tomb of the pharaoh, Tintin departs Egypt from Suez on a great adventure through Arabia to India which in a subsequent album will see Tintin visit China.

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Hergé began Tintin’s adventure through a mysterious papyrus telling of a lost tomb. He, like much of the world had been fascinated by the discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 and this was an inspiration for Cigars of the Pharaohs.  Stylised Egyptian designs and patterns were in vogue, even inspiring lines stocked in department stores and influencing fashion. Egypt and a mysterious pharaoh’s tomb were a perfect setting in which to place Tintin and this, together with eastern symbolism, inspired the creation of the Kih-Oskh symbol.  Note in the display case beside the papyrus is a large piece of stone with a story written on it.  The story is of Sinuhe – an ancient Egyptian traveller and one of the first such stories of a traveller ever written and a worthy precursor of Tintin.

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Hergé based the content of his work on real things in real places.  The discoveries from the tomb of Tutankhamun were one source of inspiration.

On Tutankhamun’s throne, Tutankhamun is shown seated on his throne while his wife, Ankhesenamun, anoints him with perfume.  In Tintin’s dream, Hergé shows Thompson and Thomson in the same clothes and postures, but wearing modern hats and the distinctive police boot.

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Snowy is Tintin’s dog who travelled with Tintin on all his adventures.

In Cigars of the Pharaohs, Hergé uses the jackal/dog headed god of ancient Egypt, Anubis, as a part of the story – first as a statue holding a jacket providing a clue to where the Egyptologist, Sophocles Sarcophagus had gone and second as character in Tintin’s dream.  Embracing Anubis’s character as a jackal/dog, Hergé shows Anubis with Snowy’s head in the second part of Tintin’s dream.

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One of the highlights of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun were the spectacular  set of 3 nested coffins in which his mummy was laid.

Even prior to the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, people were fascinated with the image of coffins standing upright lined up against the walls in ancient Egyptian tombs.  Hergé had also been influenced by a film version of Pierre Benoit’s novel, Atlantis, where there was a scene with coffins lined up containing the bodies of those who came too close to the Queen.  Hergé had also made good use of the shape and materials of the ancient Egyptian coffin which allowed it to float and keep Tintin and Snowy safe on the sea.

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Hergé named the wrapped Egyptologists with joke names.

These names indicate the Egyptologist’s nationalities which covered the countries most significant in excavating in Egypt at the time and their drawings of their faces sticking out from the bandages resembled famous excavators of the day.  For example, I.E. Roghliff (sounds like hieroglyph) looks like William Flinders Petrie, the most famous British Egyptologist and Lord Carnaval looks like Lord Carnarvon who funded the excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun.

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Hergé conducted a significant amount of research into creating the tomb environment of Pharaoh Kih Oskh beyond the tomb of Tutankhamun to treasures and monuments in museums.

Early in his career, Hergé was presented with an Anthology of Art for his contributions to Le Boy-Scout magazine.  In this book was an image of Seti and Hathor with royal cartouches which was an inspiration for the images of the tomb of Pharaoh Kih-Oskh.  We also see other features of ancient Egyptian art such as the Sem priest wearing the leopard skin and a chariot accompanied by archers. 

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Hergé accurately observed that shipping crates were commonly used by Egyptologists for packing and transporting the precious artefacts found in ancient tombs.

© Griffith Institute, University of Oxford

For the curious crowds waiting outside the tomb of Tutankhamun, they and journalists primarily saw crates containing treasures being removed from the tomb.  Hergé was able to make use of this in the story as a likely feature within the tomb that then could contain boxes carrying the tell-tale Kih-Oskh symbol.

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In the tomb of Pharaoh Kih-Oskh, Hergé makes use of statues and pillars in the shape of the lotus and papyrus as they are among the defining elements of Egyptian architecture. For the statues to hold the coat and umbrella, Hergé had to show them with bent arms, unlike the usual form of ancient Egyptian statues. 

Ancient Egyptian pillars are so iconic, they have appeared on the earlier covers of the Tintin Cigars of the Pharaoh album.