Why this word is great
EGYPTOMANIA — [Noun] An obsessive fascination with ancient Egyptian culture, artifacts, and aesthetics, particularly as manifested in Western art, architecture, and collecting from the 19th century onward. From the combining form Egypto- (pertaining to Egypt) and the suffix -mania (from Greek mania, meaning "madness, frenzy, excessive enthusiasm"). Unlike "Egyptology," which denotes the slow, scholarly pursuit of knowledge, or "Orientalism," a broad tradition of representation, Egyptomania is a voracious, acquisitive craving for a packaged antiquity. It is the sphinx-headed armrest of a Napoleonic-era sofa, the mummy unwrapped as a ghoulish spectacle, and the gilt scarab brooch worn by one who has never seen the Nile—a testament to the power of a dead civilization to haunt the living as mere style, symbol, and souvenir.