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😉 Greetings, history lovers! The article “The Mystery of the Egyptian Sphinx: Interesting Facts, Video” contains interesting information about the mysterious guardian of eternity – the Egyptian Great Sphinx.
The Mystery of the Sphinx
Neighborhoods of the capital of Egypt, Cairo. The Great Sphinx, located on the western bank of the Nile in Giza, is the oldest surviving monumental sculpture on Earth. He mysteriously looks towards the East, as if meeting the dawn.
This sculpture can rightfully be called a statue dedicated to the high-water Nile and the Sun. But, perhaps, it was on this Sphinx that the sacred and honorable duty was entrusted to be the guardian of eternal peace, gone to a better world, the pharaohs.
The giant sculpture has the body of a lion and the head of a man. This ancient giant is 72 meters long and 20 meters high. This is the largest statue that has survived to this day.
Of course, he was pretty battered by the merciless time. He saw a lot in his long life spanning several millennia. We will never know if he was alone all this time or if someone kept him company.
The Sphinx was carved from a huge monolithic lump of lime. School textbooks claim to have created it around the fifth century BC, at the behest of the reigning pharaoh of the fourth dynasty, Khafra.
It was this pharaoh who ordered the construction of one of the pyramids of Giza in order to find in it eternal rest from the affairs of the world. This is where the unsolved mystery begins, which disturbs the peace of many historians even in our time.
New questions and hypotheses in the Sphinx case
If the Sphinx was sculpted by order of the ruler, then he should have had the features of his face. However, it is not. Although his face has been badly damaged by climatic conditions and erosion, it immediately betrays the features of the Negroid race.
But Pharaoh Khafra was an Egyptian, which is confirmed by other lifetime portraits and complex studies using the most modern computer technology.
In addition, Professor Silin Hasan, who has been studying the history of Ancient Egypt for many years and a well-known expert on the Sphinx, has argued that the giant is much older than its neighbors – the pyramids.
In support of this version, the nature of the erosion also speaks. About forty years ago, Egyptologists noticed that the traces of erosion are located vertically. This can only be the case if the Sphinx has been under heavy rains for several tens, or even hundreds of years.
If traces of erosion originated from sandstorms, they would go horizontally. As you know, ancient and modern Egypt is characterized by the abundance of sandstorms. And these footprints of water are deep and very ancient.
Scientists confirm that there was no heavy rainfall in Egypt after the ice age. That is, at least 12 millennia. It’s hard to believe, but given all this evidence, we can confidently say that the Sphinx was still in the so-called. pre-dynastic period of Egypt, when there were simply no pharaohs.
A natural question arises, what people built this giant? Modern scientists put forward a new hypothesis. The civilization of Ancient Egypt was preceded by another, even more ancient one. Will we ever learn about these skilled craftsmen? The mystery of the Egyptian Sphinx has not yet been solved.
Napoleon is not to blame!
The most important work in the study of the circumstances of the destruction of the face of the Sphinx was the book of the English scientist-Napoleonist Tom Holmberg. He provides evidence that accusing Napoleon Bonaparte of mocking an ancient Egyptian shrine during the campaign is nothing more than fiction.
In fact, when French troops came to Egypt in 1789, they found the face of the Sphinx in this state. The researcher says that the head of a human lion was used as a target for shelling the Mamluk cannons, which at one time captured Egypt.
This is evidenced, for example, by the engraving of 1755 by the traveler Frederick Norden. The nose of the Sphinx was shot by one fanatic – an Arab at the beginning of the XIV century. This is confirmed by the Arabic texts.
Video
Read more in this interesting documentary on the topic: The Mystery of the Egyptian Sphinx
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