Perhaps no one in the history of mankind has wielded more power than a pharaoh in ancient Egypt. More than the Roman emperors, more than the King of Kings of Persepolis or Babylonia, the pharaohs ruled the population with an iron hand and were worshipped in turn as direct descendents of the Sun God. They were considered immortal, capable of subduing the forces of nature and of laying down a challenge to the centuries. A challenge that was taken up and won by the pharaohs' magnificent tombs and the sacred temples erected in honor of the gods. However, this is not the case with their cities, which disappeared mysteriously off the face of the earth as if swallowed up by the desert sands.