My grandmother collected household textiles, and whenever I heard about wonderful Egyptian cotton, it seemed like yet another Soviet marketing prejudice, in the manner of unique Czechoslovak crystal and inimitable Chinese…

My grandmother collected household textiles, and whenever I heard about wonderful Egyptian cotton, it seemed like yet another Soviet marketing prejudice, in the manner of unique Czechoslovak crystal and inimitable Chinese camel-hair blankets. After all, excellent crystal was also made in the Vladimir region, camel wool is the pride of Kazakhstan and Mongolia, and cotton is a traditional Asian crop, so it is our own native Asia that is the true Klondike of cotton production. Well, I was mistaken, and it is pleasant to be enlightened. An expert from the Italian bed linen brand Parpa spoke about Egyptian long-staple cotton, which they call Giza 45, with fine threads that make a pleasantly silky cloth. On the whole, this is not merely a marketing myth: cotton really was grown in Egypt, probably since at least the 1st millennium BC, as confirmed by the superbly preserved seeds of Egyptian cotton from that time. Egyptian cotton was also mentioned by ancient authors, and the question of its origin, local or imported, remained open until archaeologists cleared it up. Moreover, the cotton in Egypt differed from the cotton of Asia, India and America, where the crop had been known for millennia.