What do you, and professional Egyptologists, actually love about ancient Egypt?

Few Egyptologists can express in any satisfactory manner why they are smitten by ancient Egypt, yet almost all felt Egypt’s ‘Intimations of Immortality’ dawn on them while young. What is it about Egypt above all other civilizations? A noted British Egyptologist and writer, Dr Barbara Watterson, once confessed her puzzlement to me while on a River Nile cruise in Egypt: “I don’t know why I love this place so much. I have never cried over it, the way I did when I first set eyes on the Parthenon in Greece.” I had just confessed to her that in spite of all my novels and love of being in Egypt “I’ve sometimes experienced a more powerful sense of ancient Egypt while observing a mystical shaft of sunlight fall through a window at home, than I’ve felt inside a temple in Egypt." And yet I love ancient Egypt’s temples... Explain that. Is it because ancient Egypt is more than a time and place, it is a ‘concept’ that stimulates us endlessly? Ancient Egypt gets deep hooks into people’s imaginations. Young people’s, in particular. They ‘get’ ancient Egypt. But what is it they get? After a talk I gave to schoolchildren about Egypt (and my ‘Young Egypt’ titles) , one boy told me afterwards, with a beam on his face: “I was so HAPPY while you were talking about Egypt and mummies!” Mummies? Happy? I’ve written scores of novels over the years, trying to put a lens to that ‘something’ about the ancient Egypt I love. I hope some make you happy. You can find them on Amazon. Kindle and selected paperbacks.