Many historians have tried to determine how beautiful she was; far fewer have wondered how she smelt. Now scientists believe that they have recreated the perfume worn by Cleopatra.

A team of archaeologists and perfume experts have concocted a scent that they say was the Chanel No 5 of the day, and which may have been used by the last queen of ancient Egypt.

Legend has it that when Cleopatra visited Marc Antony in Tarsus she doused the purple sails of her royal golden ship in enough perfume that it could be smelt long before it reached shore.

The recipe for the recreated scent was a result of a decade-long dig by a team of archaeologists from the University of Hawaii at a site north