Egypt. Finally ticking this off the bucket list after months buried in business law and financial planning coursework.
Spent yesterday inside the Great Pyramid at Giza. Being in that ancient tomb feels like falling through time itself. The narrow passages, oppressive darkness, stone corridors that seem to breathe around you. Tourist guides warn about claustrophobia, but they don’t mention the psychological weight.
Valley of the Kings was even more intense. KV62, Tutankhamun’s tomb – standing where Howard Carter first glimpsed golden artifacts nearly a century ago. The hieroglyphs aren’t just decoration, they’re instructions. Maps for navigating the afterlife. Ancient interactive fiction, in a way.
This isn’t just holiday tourism. Research for the next book has been consuming my thoughts for months. Interactive horror novel about descending into a living abyss. The pyramid experience gave me visceral understanding of what that descent should feel like.
The way your mind processes being underground, surrounded by millions of tonnes of stone. How darkness plays tricks on perception. The claustrophobic panic that creeps in despite rational thought. Physical sensations that become psychological pressure.
Ancient Egyptians understood something about liminal spaces. Thresholds between life and death, known and unknown. Their tomb architecture isn’t just functional – it’s designed to transform the experience of moving through it.
My interactive novel needs that same architectural psychology. Reader choices that feel inevitable yet terrifying. Passages that narrow your options whilst amplifying the stakes.
The abyss is calling. Time to answer.
Daria Ryzhikova Writer