Egyptomania: Indiana

indy.com

The White River is not the Nile, nor is Indianapolis comparable to ancient Thebes or Memphis.

But look closely at the Hoosier capital and you just might see a reigning pharaoh, a resting sphinx or a streaking Saluki, which was a fast hunting dog in ancient Egypt.

Not in the flesh, of course, but in the tall columns on either side of the stage in the Egyptian Room at the Murat Temple, or in the plaster castings inside the Architects and Builders Building on Pennsylvania Street.

Or in the stepped-back, ziggurat-style upper level of the Circle Tower on Monument Circle.

Simply put, there is more Egyptian-influenced architecture and design in the city than you might have realized. Most of it dates back to the 1920s, after the discovery of King Tutankhamen's intact tomb in Egypt.