The Curious Fascination With Becoming Egypt by America’s Founders

From the very first national symbols to place names on the Mississippi and the monumental skyline of Washington, elites in the early United States repeatedly selected Egyptian forms, language, and imagery. This was not accidental. It projected antiquity, permanence, sacred authority, and empire. Below is a sourced walkthrough of the flag’s star field parallels, the Great Seal’s pyramid and eye, the naming and material links around Memphis, and the national habit of raising obelisks and sphinxes. The closing section weighs what this means for the question of America taking on the role of Egypt, with Deuteronomy 28:68 as a frame.

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1) The first symbol: the flag’s star field and Egyptian star ceilings

The Continental Congress defined the flag on June 14, 1777 as thirteen stripes with a blue canton bearing “thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” Smithsonian Institution+1
After this first flag, the second flag that we all recognize was created with the Flag Act of 1794. Here we see the white stars set against a blue sky in an ordered constellation. This begins the beginning of the Star-Spangled Banner Flag, which flown in the War of 1812. Francis Scott Key then wrote “Defence of Fort M’Henry” based on this flag, and that poem became the “The Star-Spangled Banner” which is the national anthem of the United States.

Ancient Egyptian sacred spaces used literal star fields on rich blue ceilings to represent the heavens. One of the earliest mapped examples is the astronomical ceiling from the tomb of Senenmut at Deir el-Bahri, showing white or yellow stars on a deep blue field, with decans and constellations laid out in gridded order. The Metropolitan Museum of Art+1

No primary document says the flag copied Egypt. Officially the stars signify the new constellation of states. But a blue field filled with bright stars does have a clear visual parallel in Egyptian ritual ceilings, which were well known to European classicists and, by the early 1800s, to American elites through travel reports and museum work. Use the Met’s Senenmut material as a visual reference for a blue star ceiling. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In temples, these designs emphasized the bond between the divine and the mortal world. Ceilings adorned with stars in sanctuaries or hypostyle halls represented the gods’ eternal nature and the cosmic order. They transformed the temple into a reflection of the heavens, a sacred space where the divine could meet the human.

This is the flag today, with the constellation of 50 stars and the 13 stripes.

2) The second symbol: the Great Seal’s pyramid and the all-seeing eye

Congress adopted the Great Seal on June 20, 1782. The reverse is officially described as “a pyramid unfinished” and, “in the zenith an eye in a triangle, surrounded by a glory,” with MDCCLXXVI at the base. Wikipedia

The reverse’s iconography is explicit: a thirteen-tier pyramid for endurance and the founding era, topped by the Eye of Providence with the mottos Annuit Coeptis and Novus Ordo Seclorum. The U.S. Government Printing Office’s educational brief and State Department materials summarize that official meaning. Ben’s Guide to Government+1

The seal’s reverse moved into everyday life in 1935 when the Treasury added both sides of the Great Seal to the back of the one dollar bill. The Smithsonian’s object records and general histories note the 1935 adoption on currency. Wikipedia+2National Museum of American History+2

While the Eye of Providence was framed by the designers as divine oversight in a Christian Enlightenment sense, the use of a pyramid is an unmistakable lift from Egyptian monumental form, meant to signal time-proof strength. Primary and early engravings of the reverse are available through the Library of Congress and official explainer PDFs. The Library of Congress+1

3) “Memphis” on the Mississippi and the founders who named it

Memphis, Tennessee was founded on May 22, 1819 by John Overton, James Winchester, and future president Andrew Jackson. It was explicitly named for Memphis in Kemet, linking the new river city to the Nile capital by name and setting. Wikipedia

The name was not a one-off. Nineteenth century Americans repeatedly mapped Nile language onto the Mississippi system, calling it the “American Nile” and founding Cairo, Thebes, Karnak, and Alexandria along its banks and region. Scholarly and museum voices document the Egyptomania behind those choices. AramcoWorld+2Cambridge University Press & Assessment+2

Material ties exist too. In 1917 Memphis received two quartzite palace blocks from ancient Memphis in Egypt, donated to the city and now stewarded through the University of Memphis’s Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology. University of Memphis

The modern Memphis Pyramid, opened in 1991, is a deliberate echo of the city’s Egyptian namesake and remains one of the tallest pyramidal structures in the world. Wikipedia

4) Obelisks, sphinxes, and temples across the United States

Washington Monument
The monument is an Egyptian-style obelisk by design history and by official interpretation. NPS states that its shape “evok[es] the timelessness of ancient civilizations,” and the project’s redesign in the 1870s intentionally moved to a purer Egyptian obelisk form with a pointed pyramidion. National Park Service+2NPS History+2

Cleopatra’s Needle in Central Park
New York’s genuine ancient obelisk, quarried at Aswan and first erected by Thutmose III, was installed in Central Park in 1881. The Central Park Conservancy gives the dedication year and context. Central Park Conservancy

George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, VA

This was inspired by the ancient Lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt. This massive structure combines neoclassical and Egyptian revival styles to honor George Washington as a Freemason.

Temple of Dendur in New York
An Egyptian temple now installed at the Met, gifted in the 1960s and opened to the public in 1978. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Masonic Egypt in Washington
The Scottish Rite’s House of the Temple on 16th Street NW in D.C. is fronted by monumental sphinxes and draws on pharaonic motifs as part of its architectural program. scottishrite.org+1

Wider Egyptomania
Smithsonian accounts, design histories, and architectural style guides document the nineteenth and early twentieth century waves of Egyptomania that put obelisks, sphinxes, lotus capitals, and pyramid mausoleums into civic landscapes, cemeteries, and theaters. National Museum of American History+2dahp.wa.gov+2

5) Why this fascination

Antiquity on demand
A post-revolution republic wanted instant depth. Egyptian forms signaled primeval legitimacy and endurance. Smithsonian commentary on the Washington Monument’s form calls out the era’s “Egyptomania” and desire to look time-rooted. Smithsonian Magazine

Theology and sovereignty
The eye over a pyramid fuses sacred surveillance with state power. Official texts present the Eye of Providence as divine favor, yet the chosen vessel is an Egyptian pyramid, not a Roman arch. The written blazon and government explainers make that duality plain. Wikipedia+1

Geography and myth-making
Calling the Mississippi the “American Nile” and planting Memphis, Cairo, and Thebes on its edges recast the United States as heir to Nile civilization in the continental heartland. AramcoWorld+1

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6) Has the United States taken on the role of Egypt

Deuteronomy 28:68 warns of a return “into Egypt again with ships,” a metaphor of bondage and reversal used in covenant curses. The verse is explicit in multiple translations, including KJV and modern versions. Bible Gateway+1

Reading America as “Egypt” is a theological and historical claim, not a line in federal law. What can be sourced is this:

1. National symbolism repeatedly elevates Egyptian forms at the highest level of state imagery. Wikipedia+1
2. Cities and monuments along the Mississippi and in the capital adopt Egyptian names and shapes. Wikipedia+2SCRC Exhibits+2
3. Museums and civic institutions literally install Egyptian temples and obelisks in American civic space. The Metropolitan Museum of Art+1

Those documented patterns let writers and communities argue that the United States has placed itself in an Egyptian role symbolically. Whether that fulfills Deuteronomy 28:68 onto America is a theological interpretation that different traditions will answer differently. The primary sources above establish the symbolic groundwork.

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Fast reference timeline

• 1777 Flag resolution with “stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” Smithsonian Institution
• 1782 Great Seal adopted with an unfinished pyramid and the Eye of Providence. Wikipedia
• 1819 Memphis, Tennessee founded, named after Memphis in Kemet, by Andrew Jackson and partners. Wikipedia
• 1881 Cleopatra’s Needle installed in Central Park. Central Park Conservancy
• 1884 Washington Monument completed as an Egyptian-style obelisk by final design. NPS History
• 1917 Ancient Memphis quartzite blocks donated to the City of Memphis. University of Memphis
• 1935 Great Seal added to the reverse of the one dollar bill. Wikipedia
• 1978 Temple of Dendur opens at the Met. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• 1991 Memphis Pyramid opens. Wikipedia

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