Thebes Grade 1

The moment I smelled Thebes I, I knew it was special. There are compositions that intrigue, those that you like, the ones you love, and a few that strike a certain chord, deep inside. Those are special. To me, it is a perfume of self-reflection. A composition of solitude. It feels cold and dry. There's a vague brightness at first from the aldehydes, and the muguet accord, even some sweetness from resins. But what dominates is this dry, dusty, worn leather accord, together with earthy vetiver and an orris almost chalky in texture. Sprinkled with a dash of animalic accords. I always picture this as the smell of a tomb, being inside a stone pyramid. Outside there's light and fresh air, but as you walk inside, darkness takes over. The stone is cold, the air is damp, the dust has gathered over the leather garments for centuries, and there's a lingering memory of the ceremonial rites that used to take place inside, sending shivers down your spine. A little treasure that I usually enjoy in private, contemplating... IG: @memory.of.scents

Thebes is a homage to Guerlain Djedi. To even attempt such a project is huge because Djedi (which I have tested the Thierry Wasser vintage reproduction of) is such a peculiar and mysterious scent. Djedi is the most atmospheric perfume I have ever smelled, and it doesn't project conventional seduction, on the contrary, it could be described as 'The beautiful dead'. To me, the greatest perfumes make you forget ingredients and composition... and take you elsewhere. Somehow, Sultan Pasha has captured this bizarre and forbidding atmosphere in his attar Thebes. The crisp spring morning opening with lily of the valley prominent to the sky, beautifully balanced with comforting but deep orris to the ground. The whole soon swathed in a strange, beautiful doom, as if visiting an Egyptian tomb, with a peaceful, ancient atmosphere that you have never experienced before. But it is delightful. The dry down is very complex and has, like Djedi, to me anyway, a really ancient leather slippers smell. Not that I have smelled any ancient slippers.

How I love this!!! It is the perfume version of Beethoven's In Questa Tomba Oscura <3

I have both Thebes grade 1 and 2 and will offer reviews of both. For those of you interested in this scent, I'd personally strongly advocate for choosing grade 1 - the two versions aren't sufficiently similar to make them interchangeable. Both Thebes' take inspiration from one of the fabled discontinued darlings of perfume history - Guerlain's Djedi. Sultan Pasha has stated that he was struck upon smelling Djedi by its solemnity, and Thebes, far from an attempt at a clone, is his tribute to Djedi and the way it made him feel. Personally, I didn't find Djedi sad at all, which might be why the teary-eyed melancholy of Thebes took me rather by surprise. Thebes grade 1 is, in my view, the best of the two versions. It's an animalic vetiver, thoroughly rooty and pungent, with a watery, animalic floral drifting in and out of its edges like a spectre. The animality isn't erotic, but rather reminds me of the deer that live in my local graveyard. If you can imagine scraps of fur left on a cold, wet stone surface over which ancient roots are clinging - this captures Thebes grade 1 very well. I'd recommend it for hardcore vetiver lovers but it lacks the soft, spicy warmth and subtle sweetness of my own Djedi sample. It doesn't have the cocooning, chypre-like quality of Djedi, and, in short, Thebes is not sufficiently similar to be a substitute to my nose (I say this as someone who loves many of Sultan Pasha's creations). As far as Djedoids go, I personally prefer Vero Profumo's Onda. Thebes grade 2 is somewhat more animalic and much MUCH less solemn than grade 1. Its animalic notes are more prickly, and the vetiver less smooth. It is drier, dustier, but also somehow deeper and darker than grade 1 - it has a note of ancient library that emerges in the mid and lends a quiet woodiness to the scent. In reference to grade 1, imagining that scrap of fur on stone again, but this time the entire graveyard has been punished by a century-long drought and all the elements are crumbling into a fine dust. I personally find it more challenging than grade 1, and I prefer 1 overall. Both are well worth a try for people who like unsweetened, dry woody scents. For a purer vetiver experience try 1, for a more dry animalic try 2.

Another nice pleasant attar. Floral amber but also leaning towards a green attar. Overall very nice indeed and lasted 7 hours on my skin before starting to really fade but once again these attars have no sillage and its a shame. I am on 9 out of 29 of the sample pack and there’s only one so far i didnt really like but i just couldn’t bring myself to pay sultans prices with the current sillage of these attars.

Cold mix of light gray and violet colors... the smell of a depression, misery. I don ́t like this, but then again a dusty Iris leaning to violet is the main player here, and Iris/violet are far from my favorite notes. Misery. Like real misery, not in some kind of nostalgic, melancholic way.

Taking a step back from this one. I found the opening almost fougere green in a funny way. I'm not sure what is going on with this one? It's odd. More of the iris/orris dominance but it's very wet, and herbal. Strange as when you smell the headspace of this attar from the bottle (or sample vial in my case) it's incredibly sweet and amazingly lush, yet quickly on skin it's dry and unnerving to me. Not dissimilar to irisoir but enough for me to have a preference for that one.

It starts out chewy, can of bitter talc, bright iris, cold shaving blades, overbearing vetiver and thrush. Bergamot and jasmine try unsuccessfully to bring a good mood by warming the environment. This is a diurnal decay. With the flavor of a vintage hair spray. Like unpacking a fur that has been too long in a cupboard with mothballs. On a winter morning, with the sun overcast. Melancholy, sad, ancient.

Thebes and I, admittedly had a bit of a rougher go on our first meeting - not due to the fragrance itself, but rather due to my nose and the conditions surrounding the meeting. To me, Thebes is a bit of an odd man out in the sample pack I had received - let me rephrase that: Thebes is a bit of an odd man out when it comes to fragrance, period. It seemingly defies categorization - it defies expectations that could be built off looking at note breakdowns - it defies. Thebes calls to the ancient heritage we all come from - an olde world that we simply have had our access cut off from, save with divine intervention through experiences like this one. Thebes is bizarre, there's no doubt about that. It's paradoxical in a lot of aspects: clean and dirty, light and heavy, fresh and archaic, we could be at this for some time, but it's all worth noting so that one might have a proper idea of the sort of reverence one should have when approaching Thebes: it's not a fragrance that you can really wear, Thebes instead wears you. This is I'm convinced one of the major names that the Sultan Pasha house can boast as a pure masterpiece in every sense of the word. What would I initially use to describe Thebes? Musky, smoky, green, dusty, bitter, ethereal, heavy, white, clean, aldehydic, cool, earthy... Perhaps I should stop there for now. Thebes starts to me with strange and ancient echoes of bergamot and a earthy dried vetiver surrounding an ancient temple in the middle of nowhere with heavenly (otherwordly and divine) white floral notes being carried by a gusting breeze (aldehydes) from the opening of the temple, and with ancient orris roots jutting from the ground all around its entrance. The bergamot, though ancient, occasionally still drips a drop of dew every few minutes, and as you step forward you brush against the brittle vetiver and into the white florals (jasmine? lilly of the valley?) whose syrupy dew get upon you and combine with the bergamot to keep the humidity from your body from fully leaving you a bone dry mess. The animalics and musk coming from deep, deep within the temple are foreboding, and yet enticing at the same time tempting you to gain entrance, but warning you that your mind might not be able to hand what there is within. Each time I wear Thebes I feel as though I have discovered another room within the temple - on some wearings one finds the room which the orris root has overtaken, and the lovely iris aroma fills the room as the hours have passed from the adventuring deep within, and becomes the primary note you can smell, with a green/dusty vetiver still clinging to your boots - and other times still you will find the room from which all of the animalic qualities and musk came from - a room where ancient Gods icons were represented with towering sculptures - half human half animal - and below them a series of pelts and nuggets of resin/petrified animalic remains hang about - all still smelling relatively fresh and thick with the air of life having just left the room prior to your entrance and the thick, dark musk wraps you up in it's effervescent glow and your remain there until the fragrance ends. Other times still, the floral notes seem to scream from throughout the halls and lead you to a chapel of sorts, where your vision starts to go, and the florals with it - there is a warmth and a sweetness here carried over from the tail end of the florals that seems to appear from out of nowhere, and though it is difficult to make anything out, the room is a very pleasant appearance on the horizon of scent that you previously encountered, and as such it gently whispers against your skin as you carry forward, eventually finding yourself outside of the structure and without an idea of what just happened. Ultimately Thebes is a Mysterious Masterpiece that is as challenging as it is rewarding - one which must be tried by any means possible. A perfect 10/10 YT: Jess AndWesH

Thebes has been compared to vintage Djedi from Geurlain but I've not had the pleasure of trying it so this is a straight review. Like a lot of Sultan Pasha's attars it's a shape shifter. It has many layers and the first layer of this beauty is sharpness with a subtle smoke with a backdrop of papery softness. Very complex and polished! The smokiness is lovely and not overpowering. After 30 mins or so the smoke turns dustier but the geeen sharpness is still there like top C from a gifted soprano. It has layers of orris butter giving a soft oiliness and it shimmers with soft flowers, lily? Jasmine? Rose? All and more......it lasts for many hours and if you want a detailed description read Kafkaesque's review for a really good review. I walked in the garden after I applied this and it changed again, becoming more alive and the damp weather here made it glow. I just don't have enough words to describe it. The drydown is stunning......so important for me. It keeps on giving in wave after wave of heady florals and leathers and salty Ambergris. This is for me probably the best attar ....on my skin. It's singing from a different hymn sheet, a different song and that song is otherworldly and glorious.

Opens with a warm spicy glow with some waxy and buttery creaminess in the background, gives me a slightly marzipan vibe. As the scent develops, the waxy quality increases and a sweetness also develops, with the warm glow ever present along side it, with a touch of a gentle powderiness. The opening is mostly about the orris butter or iris, and the marzipan and the warm spicy waxy quality really reminds me of Irisior also by sultan pasha. As the scent dries down it becomes much deeper and darker, it's joined by an animalic leather accord, though the is powdery floral iris and the warm spicy touch is still at the forefront. The scent gives off a very ancient feeling, like walking into an Egyptian tomb that's just been opened. Projection is strong for the first couple of hours after which is sits a little more closer to the skin. Longevity is around 5 hours. Overall rating of 6/10. You can check out my video review on my YouTube channel: Handsome Smells

When applied to your skin you get the smell of a worn leather jacket coupled with a cool iris accord. Imagine Indiana Jones all by himself approaching a ancient untouched temple in the jungle early on in the morning. As Indy enters this temple their is no longer a roof and all the stonework has been overgrown with thick green vines and tropical flowers. As Indy is searching for something the smell of Lily Of The Valley mixes in with Indy's worn leather jacket and the iris, the cool morning jungle air can be felt giving the scent a freshness. As time goes by as Indy searches the temple, roses and ambergris can be smelled in the mix. The scent is very sombre and meditative with that lonely vibe that you are all by-yourself contemplating the meaning of life. All in all another beautiful fragrance by Sultan Pasha. Wow!

This one is my favorite out of all the 30 attar samples I received. I don’t get any of the death or decay that everyone talks about (including the creator of the scent himself). To me, It’s just a beautiful, well blended leathery, slightly floral and animalic creation. Its hard to describe it other than to say something in me find its aroma intoxicating, and I’m not even sure why. Imo, this is the most well blended concoction out of the other attars I’ve sampled. Pretty sure if this was a designer or niche fragrance, it’ll sell like hot cakes.

I hope this makes sense, but behind the vile IMPENETRABLE wall of horrid vetiver, there is a wonderful animalic-musky iris element, but, unfortunately, vetiver. I'd love to be able to smell using YOUR nose, really I would. A lot of reviewers, with opinions I respect and value, are HUGE fans of vetiver, and I know that the fault lies with me, because I seem to be in the minority here, but I just canNOT hack vetiver at all. Or very little. I'd love to be able to smell this WITHOUT vetiver, because the iris part smells amazing...

this is my favourite sultan's attar so far. i like to stick to the notes and be rather objective when reviewing a fragrance, but I really struggle to describe this one. calm, fragile, meditative...despite heavy animalic notes Thebes feels airy and almost foggy. it makes you slow down and observe. id suggest to give it 15-20mins to unfold...and let the magic begin

Thebes Grade 1 vs. Thebes Grade 2: Grade #1 is extremely deathly and somber, dark, brooding and animalic, but I find #2 actually quite cheerful, humorous, even witty. I couldn't wear #1 myself, but #2 agrees with me a lot. They are two completely different orchestrations (possibly constructed out of the same materials, with the exception of a few notes).

Unusually clean green opening reminiscent of the stem of a flower, gradually picks up more floral accords, notably a mildly indolic jasmine. I have no clue what's going on here, this is pleasant but is nothing like what the other reviewers are describing, will have to revisit. Source: Official Tiny Sample

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