India, Dec. 5 -- When I walked into the Amon Papyrus Museum on the outskirts of Cairo on Abo el Houl Street, near the Giza plateau, I expected a quick tour and perhaps a souvenir or two. What I didn't expect was to be completely transported into the ancient workshops of Egyptian craftsmen, into the mythology surrounding the Nile, and into the material that carried the world's first written stories. A warm, intimate and bright space punctuated by moments of deliberate darkness when paintings come alive with an otherworldly glow, the museum's significance is monumental. "Following the age of the Pharaohs, the Qaramos community remains the world's sole producer of papyrus," says Walid, the owner of the museum.

Rahma, my guide, took me towar...