Looks like Obama to me.

Harte

Hey, not bad! It probably would be fun to reconstruct a face of a statue like that. Good work, its just I really don't think that is what it looked like back in the day, but I will give you props for a nice piece of art.

I watched a show on the Discovery channel years ago about the great sphinx. Some Egyptologist believe that the sphinx was constructed when the Nile river emptied into the Atlantic ocean, meaning that the area where the sphinx is was once a lush forest hence the water erosion. They also speculated that an unknown, lost culture built it and that they were a black race. All the facial features, minus the nose, resemble a negroid. They say that the nose was broken off due to that fact that the nose being on the face showed that the face was in the image of a black man. Now remember that centuries ago the thought of blacks having an advanced civilization was blasphemy of sorts. Maybe this is also why many other statues are intact minus the nose.

Yes and also The out of Africa theory is the norm for believing where modern man came from but the oldest known, closest relative to modern man was found in Europe. But you don't hear much about that do you? Maybe people are hiding something, like in the Chinese pyramids, how many archaeologist are allowed to enter the Chinese pyramids? Also, there is no absolute proof that people came out of Africa or that Northern Africans were dark skinned. The only "proof" is that scientist have discovered more mutations in the DNA on black Africans. That doesn't necessarily mean they were the first people. But after all, blacks have been oppressed since written history so why not give them credit for the beginnings of modern man? Not all people In the Middle East are a caramel color either, their is a tribe of whites In Afghanistan. Just my .02

What I would like to know is the nose was damaged,.. Why
and why in SO many other historical statues are the noses damaged.

As another poster stated, just look at the dimensions of the sphinx, it has undergone reshaping of the whole of the head area. The Egyptians were big on symmetry and proportion in their art. The Sphinx is out of proportion, either the head was reworked or there was a LOT of erosion on the head, it just doesn't look the right size for the body.

the myth says that Napoleon was the one that shoot at the nose of the sphynx, but that's it, just a myth.

From the research I've done I've read that the Sphinx the oldest structure in Egypt was originally created with a lions head to go with the rest of the body to symbolize the constellation Leo. A later Pharoah not knowing or caring what the Sphinx was originally for resculptured the Sphinx's head in his image, probably Khafre.

Here's a different version, in color combining the Sphinx face with a bust of Khafre in Leipzig. For what it's worth, the ears don't actually match, suggesting that the face is NOT that of Khafre's.

Originally posted by Blue Shift

Here's a different version, in color combining the Sphinx face with a bust of Khafre in Leipzig. For what it's worth, the ears don't actually match, suggesting that the face is NOT that of Khafre's.

They were sculptors and not photographers. With modern tools it's very easy to sculpt something that was tiny and make a huge sculpture out of it. In ancient Egypt, with copper tools and limestone, it's not that easy.

The art of the era is VERY stylized... I think if we could examine the mummies, we'd find that the bone structure doesn't really match the depictions. It's close, but it's not exact. And matching a small bust with a monument will really give some distorted proportions (because the characteristics of the material change the results. I can do things with clay that I can't replicate in limestone.)

Yep, Mount Rushmore is a slight example. While it's recognizably similar, there's still a fair difference between depictions of the presidents, and how they look in the rock carvings.
Especially if you compare some of the depictions on the quarter of Washington and the carving.
And Abe Lincoln look much more like Uncle Sam, to me.

[edit on 16-3-2010 by RuneSpider]

Originally posted by kimish
I watched a show on the Discovery channel years ago about the great sphinx. Some Egyptologist believe that the sphinx was constructed when the Nile river emptied into the Atlantic ocean, meaning that the area where the sphinx is was once a lush forest hence the water erosion.

This is the reason that some researchers think the Sphinx and Pyramids are much older then originally thought, the erosion at the base of the Sphinx is to thought to be caused by water not wind and sand.