Cairo

I have never been to Cairo, but I think I would like to visit it some day because of its history. And perhaps also because, in spite of what I have seen in the news, there still is the idea that it must have the magic of the tales of thousand and one night. The scent appeals to that feeling of old treasures and old tales, because it is:

The essence of holy Kyphi, beloved incense of the Egyptian Gods.

Kyphi has fascinated me since I heard about it and I have a small collection of recipes, non of which I have ever tried. There are different recipes and all of them have ingredients of which there is no certainty what they really are. 
The oldest recipe of Kyphi is found in the Ebers Papyrus (1500 BC). It mentions nine ingredients, but the identity of some has been guessed. Including the guesses it might have contained: frankincense (antiu?), mastic, genen (sweet flag?), pine kernels, cyperus grass, camel grass, inektun and cinnamon, all of which were cooked in honey to obtain the incense.
The next recipe is constructed from the Harris I Papyrus which was composed during the reign of Ramses IV, a few hundred years later. Here the delivery is mentioned of six ingredients, so that the temples could prepare kyphi. The ingredients mentioned are:  mastic, pine resin (or wood) camel grass, mint, sweet flag and cinnamon. It is assumed that the recipe would also have contained wine, raisins and honey, but these would not have to be sent from the central stores. They are not mentioned however, there is no recipe, nor a method of preparation.
The next we know about Kyphi comes from Plutarch who visited Egypt and had acces to a text by Manetho, a Greek Egyptian who lived in the 3rd century BC. This text was about the "Preparation of Kyphy Recipes". No copies of Manetho's text have been found, but Plutarch quote one recipe. He mentions that the ingredients were added one by one while magical texts were read aloud. 

Plutarch also confirms that Kyphi was drunk to cleanse the body and was thought to bring restful sleep with vivid dreams. According to Plutarch Ancient Egyptian priests burned incense in the temple three times a day: frankincense at dawn, myrrh at midday, and Kyphi at dusk. (source)

Plutarch mentions many more ingredients than nine. The list consist of raisins, wine, honey, myrrh, resin, mastic, bitumen of Judea, cyperus, aspalathos, seseli, rush, lanathos, sweet flag and cardamom.

The latest recipes are from the Temple of Edfu which was built in the first century BC. In the walls of this temple two recipes for kyphi are inscribed. The ingredients are the same in both recipes, only the quantities of ingredients differ. The Temple of Philae too shows a recipe with similar ingredients but different quantities. One of the recipes in Edfu also mentions synonyms for many of the ingredients and it has explanatory notes.

"[Take 273 g each of mastic, pine resin, sweet flag, aspalathos, camel grass, mint and cinnamon.] Place the items in a mortar and grind them. Two-fifths of this will {turn out to} be in the form of liquid to be discarded. There remain three-fifths in the form of ground powder. [Take 1.5 lb each of cyperus, juniper berries, pine kernels and peker (unidentified)] Reduce the ingredients to powder. Moisten all these dry ingredients with [2.5 lb] wine in a copper vessel. Half of this wine will be absorbed by the powder [the rest is to be discarded].

Leave overnight. Moisten the [3.3 lb] raisins with [2.5 lb] oasis wine. Mix everything in a vessel and leave for five days. Boil to reduce by one-fifth. Place [3.3 lb] honey and [1,213 g] frankincense in a cauldron and reduce volume by one-fifth. Add to the honey and frankincense the kyphi macerated in wine. Leave overnight. Grind the [1,155 g] myrrh and add to the kyphi". source

There are three more Greek authors mentioning Kyphi. They are all mentioned in the page that was my main source to write this entry. So if you want to read more about kyphi, follow this link which goes to the same page as the first link above. But since this entry started off with a scent named after Cairo, I think I can limit myself to the Egyptian recipes.