French and English articles mostly related to Egypt, Customs, Places, Sites ...Etc...
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After over 10 years of analyzing
DNA samples from hundreds of people, the National Geographic Genographic
Project (NGGP) surprisingly uncovered the fact that Egyptians are not Arabs as
most of them believed.
Egyptian Girls
The study presented graphs that
show the global genetic makeup of nationals in each country. These help answer
people's questions about ethnicity, race, and the overall origins of the human
population.
As the graph below shows, only 17
percent of Egyptians are Arabs " )Arab invasion by "Amr Ebn El-As" 642AD), while 68 percent of the indigenous population
is from North Africa, four percent are from Jewish (Philistine) ancestry, three percent are
of East African origins, another three percent from Asia Minor and three
percent are South European (Greek & Roman occupation).
The Egyptian population presented
by genetic origin
Egyptian Nomad in desert 68% north African
"This reference population is
based on native Egyptians. As ancient populations migrated from Africa, they
passed first through northeast Africa, then to southwest Asia. The Northern
Africa and Arabian components in Egypt are representative of that ancient migratory
route, as well as later migrations from the Fertile Crescent (Palestine/ Syria) back into Africa;
with the spread of agriculture over the past 10,000 years, and migrations in
the seventh century, with the spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula,"
the NGGP study said.
The East African component in the
Egyptian genes reflects the localized movement up the navigable Nile River,
according to the NGGP; while the Southern Europe and Asia Minor components
reflect the geographic and historical role of Egypt as a key player in the
economic and cultural growth of the Mediterranean region.
The DNA samples proved that
Kuwaitis are mostly Arabs, as their genetic makeup is as follows: 84 percent of
Kuwaitis are Arabs, seven percent are from Asia Minor, four percent are North
African and three percent from East Africa.
Typical Egyptian Men
The NGGP said that as ancient
migrants passed through the Middle East when moving from Africa to Asia, some
of them decided to stay, developing their genetic patterns that were passed
down to other generations. While there is small percentage from North and East
Africa, maybe due to the Arab slave trade which was common from the 8th to
the19th century.
Meanwhile the Lebanese society is
the most diverse among Arab countries, as 44 percent are of Arab origins, 14
percent are Jewish, 11 percent are from North African descent, 10 percent are
from Asia Minor, five percent are South European and only two percent are East
African.
The Tunisian population had the
lowest percentage from Arab descent, as only 4 percent are Arabs, while 88
percent are North African, five percent are from Western Europe, and two
percent from West and Central Africa.
The first African to become
secretary-general of the United Nations is a native of Egypt .
From the article below you’ll find
out information about the life and deeds of this remarkable person.
He headed the secretariat, which
is one of the 6 main institutions of the union. The significance of his
activities is difficult to deny. In many respects, he differs from his
followers and predecessors.
Family, youth, and scientific
activity
MARK MY WORDS
He was born on November 14, 1922,
came from a fairly influential, well-known Christian Coptic family that occupied
important positions in Egypt. His mother Safeya Mikhail Sharobim was the
daughter of a prominent public servant and historian Mikhail Bey Sharobim.
During the monarchy, representatives of this Christian familles were
ambassadors, chamberlains and ministers.
The paternal grandfather of the future
United Nations secretary general whose name was Boutros Pasha Ghali, was the prime minister of Egypt at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1910, he was shot to death at the hands of nationalist. The uncle of Boutros Ghali - Wassif was the Egyptian minister of
Foreign Affairs in 1924. His nephew Youssef Boutros Ghali, was the Minister of
finance for a long time during the era of Mubarak and was Chair of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (2008). His little cousin Mounir Abdelnour was minister of Tourism and then minister of Industry under President Sissi.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali's wife, Leia
Maria Boutros-Ghali, née Leia Nadler, (Daughter of Nadler, owner of a
sweets factories in Alexandria) was raised in an Egyptian Jewish family later
converting to Roman Catholicism as a young woman. They had no children.
The young Boutros followed the
route of his famous ancestors and built a career for himself in the political
industry and in law and economics. Boutros received his education at the
University of Cairo. Three years later he became a doctor of philosophy after
studying international law at the University of Paris.
This man was fluent in Arabic,
French and English, which further gave him an edge in the struggle for the post
of UN Secretary General. He was also invested in political science, public law,
and economics.
For each of these sciences, he had
prestigious diplomas. Between 1949-1977 he was engaged in international
relations and law as a professor. He also worked at Columbia University in the
1950s. He headed the research department at the Hague academy and acted as a
freelance professor in Paris. Many Egyptian diplomats werethe students of Boutros at Cairo
University.
From 1960 to about 1975 , Boutros-Ghali founded,edited and wrote for the Egyptian news paper Al-Ahram (El-Ektesady) , where his beat was regional and international law, diplomacy and political science.
Political career
DOCTOR BOUTROS BOUTROS-GHALI
He headed the Egyptian Foreign
Ministry as foreign political adviser (Minister) to two presidents - Anwar Sadat and
Hosni Mubarak from 1977 to 1991. During is tenure, Egypt made a fateful peace
with Israel, for which Sadat received the Nobel Peace Prize, and then paid with
his life at the hands of the Islamists.
Boutros became the first UN secretary general among
representatives of Arab states and Africa and held this post from 1992 to 1996. Boutros-Ghali largely foresaw changes in global politics, having issued a document in
1992 titled "An Agenda for Peace" where he outlined the views of the
diplomat on the political development of the world community. This document is
very relevant to this day.
The period of his work is described in his memoirs.
"As SG, I defended the independence of the UN," he said. Guided by
this goal, he took several steps that affected the interests of the US (and
Israel), which ultimately deprived him of chances of re-election as UN head for a second term.
Despite his great diplomatic efforts, he was unable to prevent the genocide in
Rwanda in 1994, where more than 1 million people died.
VISITING THE PEACE KEEPER
The politician said that
he contacted the leaders of various states, asking them to send troops to
prevent the monstrous crisis. "Unfortunately, let me say that I failed.
This is a scandal " Boutros-Ghali said when the Rwandan Hutus began to
routinely destroy the Tutsi. Critics argued that his active intervention only
spurred the violence. Two years later, in 1996, despite the pressure from the
US, he authorized the publication of a report on the tragedy in the Lebanese
village of Qana in spring of the same year. As a result of the shelling of UN
peacekeeping force post in Lebanon by Israeli artillery, about 100 refugees
(including 52 children) were killed and 116 people were injured. The UN experts conducted
an investigation and came to the understanding that the bombardment was
intentional. The US then persistently advised the SG not to publish the report
on the investigation in Qana, but to only declare it verbally. However, Boutros
Ghali felt that people had the right to know everything.
Ultimately, the United
States vetoed his re-election as secretary general, and he was the only SG in
this post who served 1 term. In his last years, he lived between Cairo and Paris, a city that
he loved very much.
Critic of the USA
Ghali was critical about the role
of the United States in the UN, saying in an interview after his resignation
that the organization had turned into an "instrument of American foreign
policy." He is remembered for his irreconcilable resistance to American
actions in the Balkans.
ANOTHER DOCTORATE
The diplomat also spoke out against the bombing of
Bosnia, which the US planned to carry out. In 1999, in his autobiographical
book "Unvanquished: A US-UN Saga" Boutros-Ghali criticized many
representatives of the US administration during the tenure of Bill Clinton and,
in particular, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, calling her "an
insignificant political adviser" and a bad diplomat. The book caused a
negative reaction from the White House. He was not an American "protégé".
He was
the secretary general with his own opinion which were very extraordinary and
that's why the Americans forced him to resign. The job of this Egyptian diplomat
was particularly difficult since it was a morbid time for many countries. New
world political system emerged at the time. This was primarily due to the
consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union, one of the founders of the
UN. The Soviet Union disintegrated, the world became unipolar, and in this
world, he had to conduct peacekeeping operations.
Father of peacemaking his "An Agenda for Peace" is especially important for modern peacekeeping
within the UN. Ghali defined this quite easily: "Practically feasible
mandate; good cooperation in the fulfillment of mandate; continued support from
the SC; the readiness of members to send the necessary military, police and
civilian personnel, including specialists; due command of the UN; adequate
logistical, financial support ". All modern international peacekeeping
operations are organized precisely on the basis of these principles.
THE MAN BEHIND THE SMILE
After
leaving the post of UN head in 1996, Ghali continued his work at Hague Academy
of International Law. Then he became a Director for Human Rights in Egyptian
National Council. The name of this charismatic and charming diplomat is well
known to many people interested in world politics. But even those who know a
little about the work of the UN remember this man at least for his unusual
double name. It has often been mentioned in skits with an international theme.
Ghali himself valued good humour and even gave an interview to the famous
British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, who acted under the pseudonym Ali G. - Boutros-Ghali gave him good advice on how to achieve peace throughout the
world. "Lower the cannon and listen to Bob Marley," advised the
experienced diplomat.
The formal creation of the Agence
intergouvernementale de la Francophonie in 1997 entrusted the former
Secretary-General of the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali to be the first secretary-general
of "La Francophonie". At the end of his mandate in 2002 Boutros was leaving a trail of innovations and had raised the influence of the organization world
wide.
From 2003 to 2006, Boutros-Ghali served
as the chairman of the board of the South Centre an intergovernmental research organization
overseeing research for developing countries. At last Boutros-Ghali played a
"significant role" in creating Egypt's National Council for Human
Rights, and served as its active president until 2012.
The former United Nation Secretary General died on the 16th February 2016 in Cairo at the age of 94. He was Buried after a state military funeral in the “Boutrosiya” (St-Peter) church build in 1912 for the Boutros family and were his grand father “Boutros Ghali” was laid to rest, this same church was bombed in December 2016 by Islamist terrorists. Boutros Boutros-Ghali left behind a long list of good deeds very worthy of respect.
Video tribute to Boutros Boutros-Ghali - Bibliotheca Alexandrina
CLICK ON ARROW IN THE CENTER OF PICTURE TO VIEW VIDEO
Some books from the legacy of Boutros Boutros-Ghali
·Egypt's Road to Jerusalem::
A Diplomat's Story of the Struggle for Peace in the Middle East
·Agenda for Peace
1995
·60 ans de conflit
israélo-arabe: Témoignages pour l'histoire
·Mes années a la maison de
verre
·En attendant la prochaine
lune --
·The United Nations and
Rwanda 1993-1996 VX
Egypt's road to Jerusalem (1997), about the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty.
·Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga (1999), about his time as Secretary-General at the UN.
Fayoum (Arabic: الفيوم El
Fayyūm, Coptic:̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ Phiom) is a
city in Middle Egypt. Located 100 kilometres southwest of Cairo, in
the Faiyum Oasis, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate.
Originally called Shedet in Ancient Egypt, the Greeks called it Crocodilopolis
or Krocodilopolis, the Romans Arsinoë. It is one of Egypt's oldest cities due
to its strategic location.
OLD PICTURE OF FAYOUM CITY
The modern name of the city comes
from Coptic ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ /Ⲡⲉⲓⲟⲙ epʰiom / peiom (whence the proper name Ⲡⲁⲓⲟⲙ payom),
meaning the Sea or the Lake, which in turn comes from late Egyptian pꜣ-ymꜥ of the
same meaning, a reference to the nearby Lake Moeris; the extinct elephant
ancestor Phiomia was named after it.
Archaeological evidence has found
occupations around the Fayoum dating back to at least the Epipalaeolithic
period. The middle Holocene occupations of the area are most widely studied on
the North shore of Lake Qarun, where archeologists did a
number of excavations of Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic sites, as well as a
general survey of the area. Recently a team from the UCLA/RUG/UOA known as the
“Fayoum Project” has further investigated the area.
BIRDS ON LAKE QARUN
In the Pharaonic era, the city was
called Shedet. The 10th-century Bible exegete, Saadia Gaon, thought el Fayoum to
have actually been the biblical city of Pithom, mentioned in Exodus 1:11. It
was the most significant centre of the cult of Sobek, the crocodile-god. In
consequence, the Greeks named it Crocodilopolis, "Crocodile City",
from the particular reverence paid by its inhabitants to crocodiles. The city
worshipped a tamed sacred crocodile, named Petsuchos that was adorned with gold
and gem pendants. The crocodile lived in a special temple pond and was fed by
the priests with food provided by visitors. When the Petsuchos died, another
replaced it.
Under the Ptolemies, the city was
for a while called Ptolemais Euergetis. Ptolemy II Philadelphus (309–246 BC)
rechristened the city as Arsinoë after the name of his sister and wife Arsinoë
(316–270).
RAISING PIGONS IN FAYOUM
Under the Roman Empire, Arsinoë
became part of the province of Arcadia Aegypti. To distinguish it from other
cities of the same name, it was called Arsinoë in Arcadia. With the arrival of
Christianity, Arsinoë became the seat of a bishopric, a suffragan of the
Oxyrhynchus, the capital of the province and the metropolitan see. Lequien
gives the names of several bishops of Arsinoë, nearly all of them associated
with one heresy or another.
Fayoum has several large bazaars,
mosques, baths and a much-frequented weekly market. The canal called Bahr Yussef
runs through the city, its banks lined with houses. There are two bridges over
the river: one of three arches, which carries the main street and bazaar, and
one of two arches, over which is built the Qaitbay mosque, that was a gift from
his wife to honour the Mamluk Sultan in Fayoum.
LAKE KAROUN
Lake Karoun / Qarun
Lake Moeris (Ancient Greek: Μοῖρις,
genitive Μοίριδος) is an ancient lake in the northwest of the Fayoum Oasis, 80
km (50 mi) southwest of Cairo, Egypt. In prehistory, it was a freshwater lake,
with an area estimated to vary between 1,270 km² (490 mi²) and 1,700 km² (656
mi²).
It persists today as a smaller
saltwater lake called Birket Qarun. The lake's surface is 43 m (140 ft) below sea
level, and covers about 202 square kilometers (78 sq mi).
It is a source for tilapia and
other fish from the local area. The lake is a magnet to migrating fowl from
Europe thus a heaven for hunters.
WATER WEEL
When the Mediterranean Sea was a
hot dry hollow near the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis in the late
Miocene, Faiyum was a dry hollow, and the Nile flowed past it at the bottom of
a canyon (2,400 m deep or more where Cairo is now). After the Mediterranean refolded
at the end of the Miocene, the Nile canyon became an arm of the sea reaching
inland further than Aswan. Over geological time that sea arm gradually filled
with silt and became the Nile valley.
Eventually, the Nile valley bed
silted up high enough to let the Nile in flood overflow into the Fayoum hollow
and make a lake in it. The lake is first recorded from about 3000 BC, around
the time of Menes (Narmer). However, for the most part it would only be filled
with high floodwaters. The lake was bordered by Neolithic settlements, and the
town of Shedet grew up on the south where the higher ground created a ridge.
FISHERMEN ON LAKE KARUN / QARUN
In 2300 BC, the waterway from the
Nile to the natural lake was widened and deepened to make a canal, which is now
known as the Bahr Yussef, a project started by Amenemhat III, or perhaps
by his father Senusret III. This canal fed into the lake and meant to serve
three purposes: control the flooding of the Nile, regulate the water level of
the Nile during dry seasons, and serve the surrounding area with irrigation.
There is evidence of ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty using the
natural lake of Faiyum as a reservoir to store surpluses of water for use
during the dry periods.
The immense waterworks undertaken
by the ancient Egyptian pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty to transform the lake
into a huge water reservoir gave the impression that the lake was an artificial
excavation, as reported by classic geographers and travelers. The lake was
eventually abandoned due to the nearest branch of the Nile shrinking from 230
BC.
SKELETON OF A WALE
Wadi El Hitan in Fayoum Oasis
Wadi El Hitan (Arabic: وادي الحيتان,
"Whale Valley") is a paleontological site in the Faiyum Governorate
of Egypt, some 150 km southwest of Cairo. It was designated a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in July 2005 for its hundreds of fossils of some of the earliest
forms of whale, the archaeoceti (a now extinct sub-order of whales). The site
reveals evidence for the explanation of one of the greatest mysteries of the
evolution of whales: the emergence of the whale as an ocean-going mammal from a
previous life as a land-based animal. No other place in the world yields the
number, concentration and quality of such fossils, as is their accessibility
and setting in an attractive and protected landscape. This is why the UNESCO
added it to the list of protected World Heritage sites .
The fossils found at the site may
not be the oldest but their great concentration in the area and the degree of
their preservation is to the extent that even some stomach contents are intact.
The presence of fossils of other early animals such as sharks, crocodiles,
sawfish, turtles and rays found at Wadi El-Hitan makes it possible to
reconstruct the surrounding environmental and ecological conditions of the
time, adding to its justification to be cited as a Heritage site.
FOSSILS IN THE DESERT
The first fossil skeletons of
whales were discovered in the winter of 1902-3. For the next 80 years they
attracted relatively little interest, largely due to the difficulty of reaching
the area. In the 1980s interest in the site resumed as four wheels drive
vehicles became more readily available. Continuing interest coincided with the
site being visited by fossil collectors, and many bones were removed, prompting
calls for the site to be conserved. The remains display the typical streamlined
body form of modern whales, yet retaining some of the primitive aspects of
skull and tooth structure. The largest skeleton found reached up to 21 m in
length, with well-developed five-fingered flippers on the forelimbs and the
unexpected presence of hind legs, feet, and toes, not known previously in any archaeoceti.
Their form was serpentine and they were carnivorous. A few of these skeletal
remains are exposed but most are shallowly buried in sediments, slowly
uncovered by erosion. Wadi El-Hitan provides evidences of millions of years of
coastal marine life.
Watch the amazing "Wales In the Desert" Documentary below
NOTE: In my previous post the reference to the documentary was somehow
difficult to notice and therefore was missed by most readers
The Great Sphinx of Giza (Arabic: أبوالهول ) Abū
al-Haul, English: The Terrifying One; literally: Father of Dread, commonly
referred to as the Sphinx of Giza or just the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of
a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of
a human. Facing directly from West to East, it stands on the Giza Plateau on
the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx is generally
believed to represent the Pharaoh Khafre.
GENERAL VIEW OF THE SPHINX (Giza)
Cut from the bedrock, the original
shape of the Sphinx has been restored with layers of blocks. It measures 238
feet (73 m) long from paw to tail, 66.3 ft (20.21 m) high from the base to the
top of the head and 62.6 feet (19 m) wide at its rear haunches. It is the
oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and is commonly believed to have
been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the
Pharaoh Khafre (c. 2558–2532 BC).
Construction
The Sphinx is a monolith carved
into the bedrock of the plateau, which also served as the quarry for the
pyramids and other monuments in the area. The nummulitic limestone of the area
consists of layers, which offer differing resistance to erosion (mostly caused
by wind and windblown sand), leading to the uneven degradation apparent in the
Sphinx's body. The lowest part of the body, including the legs, is solid rock.
The body of the lion up to its neck is fashioned from softer layers that have
suffered considerable disintegration. The layer in which the head was sculpted
is much harder.
Origin and identity
The Great Sphinx is one of the
world's largest and oldest statues, but basic facts about it are still subject
to debate, such as when it was built, by whom and for what purpose. These
questions have resulted in the popular idea of the "Riddle of the Sphinx.”
alluding to the original Greek legend of the "Riddle of the Sphinx."
First century writer Pliny the
Elder mentioned the Great Sphinx in his Natural History, commenting that the
Egyptians looked upon the statue as a "divinity" that has been passed
over in silence and "that King Harmais was buried in it."
Names of the Sphinx
1800's picture of the Sphinx
It is impossible to identify what
name the creators called their statue, as the Great Sphinx does not appear in
any known inscription of the Old Kingdom and there are no inscriptions anywhere
describing its construction or its original purpose. In the New Kingdom, the
Sphinx was called Hor-em-akhet (English: Horus of the Horizon; Hellenized: Harmachis),
and the pharaoh Thutmose IV (1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC) specifically referred
to it as such in his "Dream Stele."
The commonly used name
"Sphinx" was given to it in classical antiquity, about 2000 years
after the commonly accepted date of its construction by reference to a Greek
mythological beast with a lion's body, a woman's head and the wings of an eagle
(although, like most Egyptian sphinxes, the Great Sphinx has a man's head and
no wings) The English word sphinx comes from the ancient Greek Σφίγξ
(transliterated: sphinx) apparently from the verb σφίγγω (transliterated:
sphingo / English: to squeeze), after the Greek sphinx who strangled anyone who
failed to answer her riddle.
The name may alternatively be a
linguistic corruption of the phonetically different ancient Egyptian word Ssp-anx
(in Manuel de Codage). This name is given to royal statues of the Fourth
dynasty of ancient Egypt (2575–2467 BC) and later in the New Kingdom (c. 1570–1070
BC) to the Great Sphinx more specifically.
Medieval Arab writers, including
al-Maqrīzī, call the Sphinx balhib and bilhaw, which suggest a Coptic
influence. The modern Egyptian Arabic name is أبوالهول (Abū al Hūl, English: The Terrifying One).
Builder and timeframe
Profile of the Sphinx
Though there have been conflicting
evidence and viewpoints over the years, the view held by modern Egyptology at
large remains that the Great Sphinx was built in approximately 2500 BC for the
pharaoh Khafra, the builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza.
Selim Hassan, writing
in 1949 on recent excavations of the Sphinx enclosure, summed up the problem:
Taking all things into consideration, it seems that we must give the credit of
erecting this, the world's most wonderful statue, to Khafre, but always with
this reservation: that there is not one single contemporary inscription which
connects the Sphinx with Khafre; so, sound as it may appear, we must treat the
evidence as circumstantial, until such time as a lucky turn of the spade of the
excavator will reveal to the world a definite reference to the erection of the
Sphinx.
The "circumstantial"
evidence mentioned by Hassan includes the Sphinx's location in the context of
the funerary complex surrounding the Second Pyramid, which is traditionally
connected with Khafra. Apart from the Causeway, the Pyramid and the Sphinx, the
complex also includes the Sphinx Temple and the Valley Temple, both of which
display the same architectural style, with 200-tonne stone blocks quarried out
of the Sphinx enclosure.
Napoleon in front of the Sphinx
A diorite statue of Khafre, which
was discovered buried upside down along with other debris in the Valley Temple,
is claimed as support for the Khafra theory.
The Dream Stele, erected much
later by the pharaoh Thutmose IV (1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC), associates the
Sphinx with Khafra. When the stele was discovered, its lines of text were
already damaged and incomplete, and only referred to Khaf, not Khafra. An
extract was translated: which we bring for him: oxen ... and all the young
vegetables; and we shall give praise to Wenofer ... Khaf ... the statue made
for Atum-Hor-em-Akhet.
The Egyptologist Thomas Young,
finding the Khaf hieroglyphs in a damaged cartouche used to surround a royal
name, inserted the glyph ra to complete Khafra's name. When the Stele was
re-excavated in 1925, the lines of text referring to Khaf flaked off and were
destroyed.
Early Egyptologists
Sphinx & Pyramids
Some of the early Egyptologists
and excavators of the Giza pyramid complex believed the Great Sphinx and other
structures in the Sphinx enclosure predated the traditionally given
construction date of around 2500 BC in the reign of Khafre.
In 1857, Auguste Mariette,
founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, unearthed the much later Inventory
Stela (estimated Dynasty XXVI, c. 678–525 BC), which tells how Khufu came upon
the Sphinx, already buried in sand. Although certain tracts on the Stela are
considered good evidence, this passage is widely dismissed as Late Period
historical revisionism, a purposeful fake, created by the local priests with
the attempt to certify the contemporary Isis temple an ancient history it never
had. Such an act became common when religious institutions such as temples,
shrines and priest's domains were fighting for political attention and for
financial and economic donations.
George Sandys drawing of Sphinx (1615)
Gaston Maspero, the
French Egyptologist and second director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,
conducted a survey of the Sphinx in 1886. He concluded that because the Dream
stela showed the cartouche of Khafre in line thirteen, that it was he who was
responsible for the excavation and that the Sphinx must therefore predate Khafre
and his predecessors (i.e. Dynasty IV, c. 2575–2467 BC) English Egyptologist E.
A. Wallis Budge agreed that the Sphinx predated Khafre's reign, writing in
The Gods of the Egyptians (1914): "This marvelous object [the Great
Sphinx] was in existence in the days of Khafre, or Khephren, and it is probable
that it is a very great deal older than his reign and that it dates from the
end of the archaic period [c. 2686 BC]."
Modern dissenting hypotheses
Rainer Stadelmann, former
director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, examined the distinct
iconography of the nemes (headdress) and the now-detached beard of the Sphinx
and concluded that the style is more indicative of the Pharaoh Khufu (2589–2566
BC), builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza and Khafra's father. He supports this
by suggesting that Khafra's Causeway was built to conform to a pre-existing
structure, which, he concludes, given its location, could only have been the
Sphinx.
Colin Reader, an
English geologist who independently conducted a more recent survey of the
enclosure, agrees that the various quarries on the site have been excavated
around the Causeway. Because these quarries are known to have been used by
Khufu, Reader concludes that the Causeway (and the temples on either end
thereof) must predate Khufu, thereby casting doubt on the conventional Egyptian
chronology.
Sphinx erosion
Frank Domingo, a
forensic scientist in the New York City Police Department and an expert
forensic anthropologist, used detailed measurements of the Sphinx, forensic
drawings and computer imaging to conclude that the face depicted on the Sphinx
is not the same face as is depicted on a statue attributed to Khafra.
In 2004, Vassil Dobrev of
the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo announced that he had
uncovered new evidence that the Great Sphinx may have been the work of the
little-known Pharaoh Djedefre (2528–2520 BC), Khafra's half brother and a son of
Khufu. Dobrev suggests that Djedefre built the Sphinx in the image of his
father Khufu, identifying him with the sun god Ra in order to restore respect
for their dynasty. Dobrev also notes, like Stadelmann and others, that the
causeway connecting Khafre's pyramid to the temples was built around the Sphinx
suggesting it was already in existence at the time.
The Great Sphinx as Anubis
Author Robert K. G. Temple
proposes that the Sphinx was originally a statue of the Jackal-Dog Anubis, the
God of the Necropolis, and that its face was recarved in the likeness of a
Middle Kingdom pharaoh, Amenemhet II. Temple bases his identification on the
style of the eye make-up and the style of the pleats on the head-dress.
Racial characteristics
Over the years several authors
have commented on what they perceive as "Negroid" characteristics in
the face of the Sphinx. This issue has become part of the Ancient Egyptian race
controversy, with respect to the ancient population as a whole.
The face of the Sphinx has been
damaged over the millennia.
Restoration
At some unknown time the Giza
Necropolis was abandoned, and the Sphinx was eventually buried up to its
shoulders in sand. The first documented attempt at an excavation dates to c.
1400 BC, when the young Thutmose IV (1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC) gathered a team
and, after much effort, managed to dig out the front paws, between which he
placed a granite slab, known as the Dream Stele, inscribed with the following
(an extract): ... the royal son, Thothmos, being arrived, while walking at
midday and seating himself under the shadow of this mighty god, was overcome by
slumber and slept at the very moment when Ra is at the summit [of heaven]. He
found that the Majesty of this august god spoke to him with his own mouth, as a
father speaks to his son, saying: Look upon me, contemplate me, O my son Thothmos;
I am thy father, Harmakhis-Khopri-Ra-Tum; I bestow upon thee the sovereignty
over my domain, the supremacy over the living ... Behold my actual condition
that thou mayest protect all my perfect limbs. The sand of the desert whereon I
am laid has covered me. Save me, causing all that is in my heart to be
executed..
Sphinx Restoration efforts
Later, Ramses II the Great (1279–1213
BC) may have undertaken a second excavation.
Mark Lehner, an
Egyptologist who has excavated and mapped the Giza plateau, originally asserted
that there had been a far earlier renovation during the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2184
BC),[39] although he has subsequently recanted this "heretical"
viewpoint.
In AD 1817 the first modern
archaeological dig, supervised by the Italian Giovanni Battista Caviglia,
uncovered the Sphinx's chest completely. The entire Sphinx was finally
excavated in 1925 to 1936, in digs led by Émile Baraize. In 1931
engineers of the Egyptian government repaired the head of the Sphinx. Part of
its headdress had fallen off in 1926 due to erosion, which had also cut deeply
into its neck.
The Sphinx profile in 2010
Limestone fragments of the
Sphinx's beard in the British Museum, 14th Century BC
The one-metre-wide nose on the
face is missing. Examination of the Sphinx's face shows that long rods or
chisels were hammered into the nose, one down from the bridge and one beneath
the nostril, then used to pry the nose off towards the south.
The Sphinx beard in London Museum
The Arab historian al-Maqrīzī,
writing in the 15th century, attributes the loss of the nose to iconoclasm by
Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr—a Sufi Muslim from the khanqah of Sa'id al-Su'ada—in AD 1378,
upon finding the local peasants making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope of
increasing their harvest. Enraged, he destroyed the nose, and was later hanged
for vandalism. Al-Maqrīzī describes the Sphinx as the "talisman of the
Nile" on which the locals believed the flood cycle depended.
There is also a story that the
nose was broken off by a cannonball fired by Napoleon's soldiers. Other
variants indict British troops, the Mamluks, and others. Sketches of the Sphinx
by the Dane Frederic Louis Norden, made in 1738 and published in 1757,
show the Sphinx missing its nose. This predates Napoleon's birth in 1769.
In addition to the lost nose, a
ceremonial pharaonic beard is thought to have been attached, although this may
have been added in later periods after the original construction. Egyptologist Vassil
Dobrev has suggested that had the beard been an original part of the
Sphinx, it would have damaged the chin of the statue upon falling. The lack of
visible damage supports his theory that the beard was a later addition.
Residues of red pigment are
visible on areas of the Sphinx's face. Traces of yellow and blue pigment have
been found elsewhere on the Sphinx, leading Mark Lehner to suggest that
the monument "was once decked out in gaudy comic book colors”.
Mythology
Colin Reader has
proposed that the Sphinx was probably the focus of solar worship in the Early
Dynastic Period, before the Giza Plateau became a necropolis in the Old Kingdom
(c. 2686–2134 BC). He ties this in with his conclusions that the Sphinx, the
Sphinx temple, the Causeway and the Khafra mortuary temple are all part of a
complex predating Dynasty IV (c. 2613–2494 BC). The lion has long been a symbol
associated with the sun in ancient Near Eastern civilizations. Images depicting
the Egyptian king in the form of a lion smiting his enemies date as far back as
the Early Dynastic Period.
Sphinx in sands
In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx
became more specifically associated with the god Hor-em-akhet (Hellenized: Harmachis)
or "Horus-at-the-Horizon", which represented the pharaoh in his role
as the Shesep-ankh (English: Living Image) of the god Atum. Pharaoh Amenhotep
II (1427–1401 or 1397 BC) built a temple to the north east of the Sphinx nearly
1000 years after its construction, and dedicated it to the cult of Hor-em-akhet.
Over the centuries, writers and
scholars have recorded their impressions and reactions upon seeing the Sphinx.
The vast majority were concerned with a general description, often including a
mixture of science, romance and mystique. John Lawson Stoddard made a typical
description of the Sphinx by tourists and leisure travelers throughout the 19th
and 20th century: It is the antiquity of the Sphinx, which thrills us as we
look upon it, for in itself it has no charms. The desert's waves have risen to
its breast, as if to wrap the monster in a winding-sheet of gold. Moslem
fanatics have mutilated the face and head. The mouth, the beauty of whose lips
was once admired, is now expressionless. Yet grand in its loneliness, – veiled
in the mystery of unnamed ages, – the relic of Egyptian antiquity stands solemn
and silent in the presence of the awful desert – symbol of eternity. Here it
disputes with Time the empire of the past; forever gazing on and on into a
future which will still be distant when we, like all who have preceded us and
looked upon its face, have lived our little lives and disappeared.
Greek Mythology Sphinx
From the 16th century far into the
19th century, observers repeatedly noted that the Sphinx has the face, neck and
breast of a woman. Examples included Johannes Helferich (1579), George Sandys
(1615), Johann Michael Vansleb (1677), Benoît de Maillet (1735) and Elliot
Warburton (1844).
Most early Western images were
book illustrations in print form, elaborated by a professional engraver from
either previous images available or some original drawing or sketch supplied by
an author, and usually now lost. Seven years after visiting Giza, André Thévet
(Cosmographie de Levant, 1556) described the Sphinx as "the head of a
colossus, caused to be made by Isis, daughter of Inachus, then so beloved of
Jupiter". He, or his artist and engraver, pictured it as a curly-haired
monster with a grassy dog collar. Athanasius Kircher (who never visited Egypt)
depicted the Sphinx as a Roman statue, reflecting his ability to conceptualize
(Turris Babel, 1679). Johannes Helferich's (1579) Sphinx is a pinched-face,
round-breasted woman with a straight haired wig; the only edge over Thevet is
that the hair suggests the flaring lappets of the headdress. George Sandys
stated that the Sphinx was a harlot; Balthasar de Monconys interpreted the
headdress as a kind of hairnet, while François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz's Sphinx
had a rounded hairdo with bulky collar.
The Sphinx before Photography
Richard Pococke's Sphinx was an adoption
of Cornelis de Bruijn's drawing of 1698, featuring only minor changes, but is
closer to the actual appearance of the Sphinx than anything previous. The print
versions of Norden's careful drawings for his Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie, 1755
are the first to clearly show that the nose was missing. However, from the time
of the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt onwards, a number of accurate images were
widely available in Europe, and copied by others.
⏳ CLICK BELLOW TO WATCH THE SPHINX
NOTE: In my previous post the reference to the documentary was somehow
difficult to notice and therefore was missed by most readers
