Pharaoh, one of Impressions Software's impressive games  :)  in their City Building Series  

  Basically, Pharaoh is a strategic city-building game set in Egypt, from roughly 2900 to 700 BC. This is an excellent game which has been constructed on the solid foundation of Impressions' Caesar III.

  There is a demo out, which can be found linked to at the official site. The goal of the third and final mission of the demo is to construct your 'mastaba' tomb, of which here is a screenshot. Pharaoh is almost two games in one. It presents a challenge, somewhat similar to a puzzle game, but it also allows creativity & some artistic expression, especially with the monuments and statues. So, I can kind of get that right brain, left brain thing going.  :)  One of the nice features is the ability to then go further to build attractive cities and dress up the monuments/tombs and city with statues, gardens, etc. This screenshot shows some of my experimentation with what was available in the demo.

  Cleopatra, the official Pharaoh expansion is out (July, 2000)!

  A free, official, Pharaoh Enhancement Pack was released on March 3rd, 2000, for download. Among other items, it contains:

• A Mission Editor, to create new scenarios.
• New custom missions.
• Tweaks and fixes.

  Pharaoh Heaven, an excellent site for game info, the FAQ, and friendly, informative forums (their forums are strongly recommended over the forum at the official site). Also lots of scenarios for download, with difficulty level and the author's description as well as player comments.

  Some recommendations for further background. This is a copy of my post to a message thread in the Pharaoh Heaven's Forums on book recommendations.

  Which Way To Thebes?, a site with first-class information & strategy advice.

  Another quality service at the Pharaoh Heaven site, a page of  links to other Pharaoh sites.

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