Cleopatra was originally founded in Egypt after a demand from the old Egyptian presidentGamal Abdel Nasser for a new Egyptian cigarette brand for both the Egyptian and Syrian market. In the winter of 1961, Egypt held an exhibition in the Cairo exhibition grounds in Gezira for the search of new companies to become part of the United Arab Republic. Gamal Abdel Nasser would visit the exhibition and when the tour was finished, Kamal Katba offered Nasser a Belmont cigar but declined and instead pulled a pack of illegally smuggled Kent cigarettes out of his pocket, much to the surprise of the assistants. Kamal lit up the cigarette with his lighter, but Nasser felt uncomfortable and apologised, claiming that he only smoked Kent cigarettes because any other brand would irritate his lungs. After realising that what he was doing was illegal and not done considering the context of the situation, Nasser told the following to Hovanis Matusian and Kamal Qutbah: "Look here guys, if you make me a cigarette similar to the Kent, I’ll be your first and your best client," to which Matusian replied: "Mr. President, your wishes are our orders." The next day, Matusian called Kamal to discuss creating a new cigarette brand for the President and asked him to go to the Egyptian black market and buy a pack of Kent cigarettes to see how the blends were formed, and create something similar out of it. After three weeks, a meeting was arranged to study the ready-made models of the brands. Matusian got his designers in the company to design a box design that was very similar to the design of the then-Kent design; white with gold inlay. The next step was coming up with the name. At the time, the movie Cleopatra was making headlines due to the fact that the movie was the most expensive film ever made at the time and because of the affaire and scandal surrounding Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor and the movie. The decision was quickly made and the name Cleopatra was chosen for the brand. A few months later, a friend of Kamal married the daughter of General Rashad Hassan, Nasser's aide-de-camp, so Kamal attended since Kamel and Rashad knew both families well. It was held at the Heliopolis Palace Hotel, which is today's Presidential Palace for the President of Egypt. Kamal was seated just next to the main wedding table, and there were rumours that Nasser himself was expected to attend. After a while, Nasser enters the room with his bodyguards. He is given a seat right in between the married couple, which is just a few meters away from Kamal and his wife. He knew that Nasser was a chain smoker and that the first thing that he would do, was light up a cigarette. After hugging the newlyweds and sitting down, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack to put them on the table in front of him. Kamel noted that Nasser wasn't smoking his usual brand of Kents, nor was he smoking the Cleopatras which Matusian and Kemal were working on for months at his request and even were wrapped up and given to the General Secretary of the Presidency Abdel Meguid Farid to give to Nasser himself. Instead, he was smoking L&M, another contraband American cigarette. While it is unknown if Nasser ever smoked or even tried the Cleopatra brand, it became the most popular cigarette brand in Egypt. It's also the ninth-most-sold cigarette brand in the world.
Products
Cleopatra cigarettes come in the following varieties:
