The Sphinx

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Something random here.. But why and who knocked off the nose of the Sphinx in Cairo?

I could be wrong here but apparently it has something to with someone not accepting that such a master piece of civilisation had a nose resembled people of black ethnic background?
 
The story I was told was Napolean had canon hauled in to blow off the nose and lips they had African tribal features.

Interesting if you go to maps.google.com enter sphinx and you'll see suburban Cairo creeping right upto it and the pyramids....
 
Postmaster said:
Something random here.. But why and who knocked off the nose of the Sphinx in Cairo?

I could be wrong here but apparently it has something to with someone not accepting that such a master piece of civilisation had a nose resembled people of black ethnic background?

If I recall correctly, the story is that Napoleon allowed some of his troops to use it for canon practice, which led to the removal of the nose.
 
Post, This is a good resource for what you want to know.

Great read if you are interested.

Its not just opinion, its has actual data.

The Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race From 4500 B.C. To 2000 A.D.

destructionofblackcivilization.gif


By: Chancellor Williams


Description:

This classic bestseller documents the development, highlights, contributions, and eventual downfall of black African civilizations. From Ethiopia (Egypt), to Ghana, to Kuba, historian Chancellor Williams chronicles the lives and times of proud, industrious peoples and the societies they built and in which they thrived.

More than just a retelling of popular black African history from the point of view of the black populations so often marginalized and rarely acknowledged, Destruction of Black Civilization is characterized by marked detail to the often ignored black African revered figures of antiquity, prosperous kingdoms, and economic, social and political structures that predetermined the development of Western economic, social and political structure. In these pages one will find unmatched and carefully crafted and documented scholarly historical discourse on the growth of black African states such as Ethiopia, great and powerful empires like Mali and Songhay, and venerable rulers, such as Queen Nzinga. Equal detail and attention are given to the discussion of the elements which led to the downfall of these black civilizations, and the literal erasing of the black African--in antiquity and the present--from the critical worldview stage.

This honest, sober text seeks neither to blame nor absolve any particular set of people; nor does it attempt to oversimplify the complex social, political, and economic factors that led to the eventual destruction of black African civilization. The book does not serve as simply a catalogue of obscure human accomplishment and glorified crime, as Williams offers critical commentary on and possible solutions for redressing the peril in which the black African world has found itself for decades. This is a necessary work for any beginning or serious scholar or student of black and African history.
 
from wiki
The one-meter-wide nose on the face is missing. A legend that the nose was broken off by a cannon ball fired by Napoléon's soldiers still survives, as do diverse variants indicting British troops, Mamluks, and others. However, sketches of the Sphinx by Frederick Lewis Norden made in 1737 and published in 1755 illustrate the Sphinx without a nose. The Egyptian historian al-Maqrizi, writing in the fifteenth century, attributes the vandalism to Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, a Sufi fanatic from the khanqah of Sa'id al-Su'ada. In 1378, upon finding the Egyptian peasants making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope of increasing their harvest, Sa'im al-Dahr was so outraged that he destroyed the nose. Al-Maqrizi describes the Sphinx as the "Nile talisman" on which the locals believed the cycle of inundation depended.
 
Here are some more details, aside from the recent episodes with the nose. Esoteric tradition states that the Sphinx, a monument which is even older than the pyramids - 200,000+ years (sic) - would certainly not have originally resembled one of the Pharoahs, let alone one from the 3rd Dynasty!

It would originally have had a Lion's head, being built when the sun was in Leo ... though not the most recent cycle (as Robert Schoch and John Anthony West might suggest), but at least 8 cycles prior. Said cycles run ~26,000 years. Even the erosion damage on the body of the Sphinx evidences an age far older than that currently accepted by science.


Here is West's sketch of the original Sphinx:
lion-sphinx.gif
Supporting the idea that the Sphinx did not originally bear the face of a Pharoah is the testimony of experts from such fields as forensics. I watched a cool show in which the guys who make sketches of criminals for the police, gave their assessment of what or whom the Sphinx was supposed to represent. Definitely not Chephren, they said ... but they went on to confirm that the head is not in proportion to the rest of the body. The whole thing is ancient, weathered - and could easily have been a lion, they suggest.


taijasi
 
Taij:

The REAL Sphinx, as all REAL Americans know, is about fifteen years old and resides in front of the Luxor Hotel and Casino in fabulous Las Vegas. It has a human face, a complete and fairly aquiline nose, and has a hooded cobra protruding from its forehead. It also has a body that could be the body of a reclining animal, possibly a lion.

The front door to the hotel and casino is strategically placed beneath the Sphinx's rear end ( I believe this to be a joke upon the public by the architect). It even has pigeon spikes on its flanks to discourage the nasty grey birds from indiscriminately depositing guano on this sacred form. :p

Otherwise your findings make sense to me, except the 200,000 year origin date. Lots of things that I've read date it and perhaps the major pyramids at Giza to about 10,000 years or so. Besides, there was a piece I caught on a science site the other day which noted the opinion of scientists that all traces of human habitation on the earth would likely disappear over a 200,000 year duration.

BTW, the 26,000 year cycle represents the rotational precession of the earth's axis through a 360 degree arc in space defining the full zodiacal cycle, and among other things was probably the basis for the earliest Sumerian numbering system which is based upon the number "60". Six sixties made-up a sacred cycle to them, and their highest expression of royalty, AN, together with his retinue and consort was the god of the sixty year cycle, and would return to Sumer every sixty years to be worshipped by the people. They also had gods that were denoted by 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 year durations. This was the belief in the earliest periods of civilization in Sumer, and may have even had its origin in the beliefs of the culture that preceeded it in what is now Iraq, the Ubadian culture. Of course, beginning about 600 years ago we began to adopt this "60" system to measure time.

There is some anecdotal evidence that significant earth changes occur at the two extremes of the precessional cycle, or every 13,000 years or so. In our cycle this would denote the end of the last ice age and the warming and moderation of the climate which enabled the development of human civilizations over the past ten to twelve thousand years or so. But those who know of this stuff ( mostly cultural anthropologists ) don't elaborate on the subject very much. It is interesting to note, however, that ancient cultures all over the world were obsessed with the cycles of celestial events, and astronomers were prevalent in ancient Egypt, Sumer, the Indus River Valley, and among several civilizations in the Americas. Their function seemed to be to try and predict significant earth changes through their observations and measurements of the movement of objects in the skies and advise the ruling class of their findings.

flow....:cool:
 
Thanks for the article paste, Wil - interesting indeed that it was vandalised long before Napoleon. :)
 
flowperson said:
The REAL Sphinx, as all REAL Americans know, is about fifteen years old and resides in front of the Luxor Hotel and Casino in fabulous Las Vegas. It has a human face, a complete and fairly aquiline nose, and has a hooded cobra protruding from its forehead. It also has a body that could be the body of a reclining animal, possibly a lion.

The front door to the hotel and casino is strategically placed beneath the Sphinx's rear end ( I believe this to be a joke upon the public by the architect). flow....:cool:

:D Thanks. Got a good laugh from this.:D
 
Thanks Dor:

It has been one of my observations as I've passed this way that levity and laughter does more to bring differing people together than anything else.
I tend to think that's because life is mostly a joke, so if liberals and conservatives alike learn to laugh together at its absurdities, things may become a little more agreeable and easier for both of us as things go along. Thanks again.

flow....:p
 
Taijasi, that sketch doesn't seem like it would work too well. There is a problem with the chin, I think. I still think it could have been a human face. There's this website which has stuff about the Sphinx in relation to Cydonia and the 4 animals of the Tetramorph. It looks a little sketchy, whatwith the extraterrestrialist perspective, but I'm not too picky when it comes to ancient Egypt anyway.
 
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