In this painting the German-Swiss painter Paul Klee shows a “view from the barren mountains of the Valley of the Kings into the fertile country”. Here he is processing the impressions he gained on travels through Egypt in the winter of 1928-1929. This knowledge turns the geometric forms into pyramids and temples in the eye of the beholder, who now also sees the Nile flowing peacefully by, and fertile fields of grain. The depiction not only documented an interest in the culture of ancient Egypt – something Klee shared with many of his contemporaries – but also the unity of art, nature and subject he experienced in the landscapes of the Orient.