The plot revolves around the Necronomicon aka the Book of the Dead. This is the same book bringing the dead to life in the Evil Dead films starring Bruce Campbell, who was in the series.
Ramses uses the phrase "Klaatu Barada Nikto" when reading the Book of the Dead. This is the phrase used in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) to prevent Gort from destroying the world. It is also said in Army of Darkness (1992) starring Bruce Campbell, frequent co-star in Hercules.
City of the Dead aka the Cairo Necropolis is the huge cemetery surrounding the Egyptian capitol.
The ancient Egyptians did have a book of funerary texts named "The Book of Coming Forth By Day" which is often called the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The Necronomicon is a fictional grimoir invented by H. P. Lovecraft in the early 1920s, supposedly written by the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred, called the book of the dead, and devoted to bringing back those evil ancient entities called The Old Ones.