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Who knocked off the nose of the Sphinx?

The face of the Sphinx is better preserved than that of most ancient statues, but the nose has been completely destroyed by weathering and vandalism over thousands of years. According to an Arab historian in 1402, a Sufi fanatic had deliberately disfigured him in order to “correct religious errors”. However, there are still many clues as to what the statue was originally like.

In the early 19th century, people unearthed the shedding stone beard and the cobra headdress representing the kingship of Egypt. There is still red dye remaining on the face of the stone statue, which makes archaeologists speculate that the entire face was once red, while yellow and peacocks were also found in other parts. The blue paint, which made Renard suspect, was originally a gaudy color for the statues.

After restoration, the statue is 20 meters high and 57 meters long, including the two front paws, the total length is 72 meters. The face is about 5 meters long and 4.7 meters wide, the nose is 1.71 meters long, and the mouth is 2.3 meters and 1.93 meters wide. It wears a “Nams” crown on its head, a fan-shaped “Nams” turban drooping on the sides of its ears, a sacred snake relief of “Kubola” (ie cobra: cobra) engraved on its forehead, and the emperor’s logo on its lower jaw—— A long drooping beard, a collar around the neck, and eagle feather patterns adorn the lion’s body.

Missing Nose

Since the Sphinx was born thousands of years ago, it has been exposed to wind and sun, and the color on its face has long since fallen off. The exquisitely carved holy snake and drooping long beard have long since disappeared. However, the most regrettable thing is, how did its nose fall off? This is another “mystery”. A widely circulated theory is that when Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, he saw its majesty and majesty, as if “demonstrating” to himself, and ordered his subordinates to blast its nose off with shells in a fit of anger. However, this statement is not reliable. Long before Napoleon, there have been records about its missing nose.

Another theory is that five hundred years ago, the Sphinx was used as a “target” by the Egyptian king’s Mamluk soldiers (the guards in Egypt in the Middle Ages). “Injury”, “color” hanging on the nose. However, according to some records, Egyptian pharaohs and subjects of all dynasties regarded this stone statue as the “sun god”, and worshipers kept coming and going. Later, the wind and sand slowly covered more than half of it.

At this time, an opponent of idol worship, holding a pickaxe, climbed up the sand dune, ruthlessly gouged out the nose exposed in the sand, and ruined its appearance. The strange thing is that tourists who come to “visit” the Sphinx can see a remnant dream tablet between the two claws on its chest. An interesting story is recorded on the stele.

3400 years ago, the young Prince Tomo came here to hunt. Probably exhausted from running, he sat on the sand to rest. Before he knew it, he fell asleep, and dreamed that the stone statue said to him in a hazy state: “I am the great Hur Umm Ukht (the god worshiped by the ancient Egyptians, which means the eagle), and the sand is suffocating me. If you can get rid of the sand on my body, then I will make you the king of Egypt.” After the prince woke up, he mobilized a large number of manpower and material resources to dig the Sphinx out of the sand. And a sand-proof wall was built beside it.

Over the long years, the stone statue has tasted the “pain” of being buried in the sand many times. Perhaps for this reason, when the famous Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt in the fifth century BC, he gave a detailed and vivid description of the pyramids, but did not mention the Sphinx that was close at hand. Likely, it was completely covered by sand dunes by this time. The last time it was dug out of the sand to see the light of day was decades ago.

Another said that the nose of the Egyptian Sphinx was smashed by the Sufi pilgrims of Islam in the Middle Ages.