The symbolic and historical dimension of the main founding archetypes of Freemasonry – the Orient with a special focus on Egypt – are at the core of this book, which aims to recover the red thread with which masons tie together Masonry and Oriental esotericism. If, on the one hand, the Author points out mystifications and inventions that have characterised part of the Masonic narrative on its origins; on the other hand, she unearths the history of real contaminations and intersections between esotericism of the East and the West, digging up the common matrix that nourished them.