okay, okay... hold on there. Back to the thing about the Sphinx being mutilated by Napoleon. Read this:
Another book from about the same time, In the Footsteps of Napoleon (1915) by James Morgan (p 85), states "There is a tradition among the Arabs of
the Pyramids that all the scars ...which the Sphinx carries, were inflicted by Napoleon's soldiers, who used its mystifying and majestic countenance
as a target. That, however, is only a legend for the tourist. Long before the discovery of gunpowder, the Arabs had laid iconoclastic hands on the
beard of this god of the desert..." Though the Arab guides may have originally spread this tale, this myth appears to have been perpetuated over the
years by countless teachers the world over who have passed this bit of "history" on to their students.
This error has persisted in spite of the fact that the truth can be readily found in such common reference sources as the Encyclopedia Americana
(Danbury, CT: Grolier, 1995). vol.25, p.492-3 under "Sphinx", which states: "Over the centuries the Great Sphinx has suffered severely from
weathering...Man has been responsible for additional mutilation. In 1380 A.D. the Sphinx fell victim to the iconoclastic ardor of a fanatical Muslim
ruler, who caused deplorable injuries to the head. Then the figure was used as a target for the guns of the Mamluks."
In the book The Egyptian Pyramids: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1990), p.301, the author, J.P. Lepre, adds the
fact that, in addition to the 14th century damage, "The face was further disfigured by the eighteenth century A.D. ruler of Egypt, the Marmalukes
[Mamluks]."
The whole honkin' Huge Article:
www.napoleonseries.org...