Hadn't heard that one about the Sphinx, but it wouldn't surprise me.

I agree that there are a various 'articles of faith' among elements of the African-American middle- to upper-class. Not being particularly happy with the sub-Saharan civilizations that are truly their own (e.g., the ruins at Greater Zimbabwe, impressive in their own right), a substantial fraction of African-Americans do indeed believe that Egyptian civilization was built by blacks. Although it's true that there were 'Black Pharaohs' from Nubia for a brief time (~60 years), somehow this was conflated into blacks  being principally responsible for ancient Egypt. In it's more extreme form, it's even claimed that Cleopatra was black, despite her established lineage from the Macedonian Ptolemies.

Other 'articles of faith' include AIDS being a virus that was engineered by white supremacists to kill the blacks. A corrolary of this theory is that the polio immunizations in Africa that were carried out by Western governments were responsible for heavy HIV infections in Africa. However, they provide no substantial evidence to support these theories.

People do tend to believe what they want to believe, irrespective of the facts.

Ahh the Sphinx... the name itself is synonymous with mystery, ancient legend, and the Ultimate Riddle.

"What is the only creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the night?"

There are so many oddities about this unique and truly ancient structure. Such a huge body, such a small head.
Did the French use it for target practice to obscure its Negroid features? Maybe. Conventional science has held that the Sphinx was carved out of an outcropping during the reign of King Khafre around 2500 B.C.. In 1979, though, an amateur archaeologist named John Anthony West wrote a book entitled Serpent in the Sky. In the book West suggested that the Sphinx was far older than the pyramids and its severe erosion was the result of rain, not blowing sand. Therefore, concluded West, the Sphinx must have been built thousand of years earlier when the land was much wetter.

Nobody gave West's theory much attention until West brought in a trained geologist from Boston University named Robert Schoch. Schoch examined the Sphinx and thinks some of the fissures in the rock were indeed created by running water or rain. His conclusion is that the front and side of the Sphinx dated from 5000 to 7000 BC and was remodeled during Khafre's era to give the likeness of the pharaoh.

I do not have the time or space here to go into all the details, but I'm going to throw out a theory here:

I think the Sphinx is a leftover relic from a prior era of humanity. I think it was originally carved into the shape of a lion, and was crafted at the ENTRANCE to a great metropolitan civilization fueled by the ancestral river we now call the Nile. Atlantis? No. But a great and advanced civilization, much much older.


"What is the only creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the night?"

Do you know the Answer?

-- Modified on 10/12/2006 11:30:25 AM