The sands of Egypt carry some of the most interesting stories of human history.
A civilization that still holds the record of the longest surviving culture of all time
is home to many fascinating mysteries that we are yet to uncover but perhaps never will.
Whose face is depicted on the head of the mighty Great Sphinx? What did Pharaoh Khufu hide in his
great Pyramid that we may never find? Who were the mysterious ancient Pirates of the Mediterranean?
Welcome to Nutty History and today let’s shed some light on some of the most
important mysteries of ancient Egypt and find out their untold stories. Just like the great Sphinx,
the massive pyramids of ancient Egypt are an integral element of their legacy
and another riddle that Egyptologists have still not fully solved. The architecture poses a dire
and bewildering question: how come an ancient civilization managed to transport the giant,
heavy stones needed to build these enormous establishments without any modern equipment?
Certain historians think it was the wet sand that made this extraordinary ambition
feasible. According to some Egyptologists, wetting the Egyptian desert sand can reduce the friction
significantly and cut the requirement of people necessary to pull a sled by half. This is sort
of supported by an ancient wall painting that depicts Egyptians wetting the sand as
they pulled a sled bearing a giant statue. But the questions regarding the pyramids of ancient
Egypt go further beyond how were they built? There is also curiosity regarding what they are hiding.
The greatest pyramid in Egypt was built nearly four and a half millennia ago for Pharaoh Khufu.
Despite its massive size being nearly 500 feet tall and made up of more than 2.3 million stone,
there seem to be only three chambers inside it. Sounds like quite an awful lot of waste of space,
isn’t it? However, in 2015 a thermal scan was conducted of the great pyramid of Giza and it
revealed “thermal anomalies” in the structure. Another scan in 2017 discovered signs that there
might be a large hidden chamber as big as the biggest room in the whole pyramid. Strangely,
according to these findings, ancient Egyptians deliberately built these hidden chambers to be
entirely inaccessible. These chambers have no pathways or corridors connecting them to
the rest of the interior. It is theorized that these chambers were built and valuables were
stored in them while the pyramid was still being built and they were sealed afterward. Nobody
in the contemporary world has managed to peep inside these chambers of secrets. Definitely,
Pharaoh Khufu didn’t want anybody to see the contents of these chambers. Maybe it’s the records
of his browsing history? Who knows? The Great Sphinx of Giza is perhaps the most mysterious
sculpture that has survived from ancient times. We are still speculating about its age, purpose, how
was it constructed, does it contain any concealed chambers, what was its role in Egyptian religion
and society, and why is it next to the pyramids? Located on the Giza plateau, the sculpture is
positioned to face the rising sun for a reason. The name Sphinx was coined by the Ancient Greeks
who saw it for the first-time centuries after it was sculpted. To put their experience into
perspective, it is no different than us looking at statues of Roman Emperors today for the first
time. The earliest known name of the statue is Hor-Em-Akhet which means Horus of the Horizon.
That makes the statue named after their sky god Horus. So, does that mean the face on the
lion-like statue is of God Horus? Unfortunately not, and that’s why this statue is such an enigma
to all Egyptologists and archaeologists. Based on available tangible evidence,
the consensus among Egyptologists is that the face on the Great Sphinx belongs to the Khafre
or Chephren who was a pharaoh from the fourth dynasty. This would mean that
most likely he was the one who commissioned the sculpting of the mythological creature as well.
Sadly, there is no evidence confirming it. There are no inscriptions found in Egyptian history
that could tie the great sphinx to Khafre. But wait, it gets more baffling as in fact, Sphinx
or Hor-Em-Akhet has no mention of its construction whatsoever anywhere, as far as we know. Moreover,
according to an expert in identification who looked into the Sphinx’s imagery in 1996
and concluded that the face of the Great Sphinx doesn’t match with Khafre. Interestingly,
his analysis suggested that the great sphinx has a much better resemblance with Khafre’s elder
brother Djedefre. Author John Anthony West was the first to notice something peculiar about the Great
Sphinx that doesn’t match with other structures on the plateau of Giza. The weathering patterns on
the Sphinx were consistent with water erosion and not wind and sand erosion as it should have been.
This is throwing archaeologists off the loop because although Egypt is an arid land today,
nearly ten thousand years ago the land had ample rain and greenery. This means the great
Sphinx would date somewhere between seven to ten thousand but Egyptologists do not agree.
They dismissed West’s theory pointing out that the once prevalent great rain storms over Egypt
had stopped long before the Sphinx was built. Additionally, there were no other signs of water
erosion found on the Giza plateau to validate West’s theory. Similar to West, another Author
Robert Bauval tried to date the Great Sphinx based on his theory that the Sphinx, the three
Pyramids of Giza, and the River Nile create some sort of astronomical map connected with
the constellation Orion. According to this theory, Sphinx dates from around 10,500 BC which again is
understandably disputed among Egyptologists. The biggest oddity about the sculpture is
that its head is disproportionate to its body and Egyptologists believe that the reason behind that
holds the key to the dating of the Great Sphinx. It is theorized that the head of the sculpture may
have been carved again and again several times by different pharaohs of the Old Kingdom. It is also
possible that the original head could have been non-human and of a ram or a hawk. If somehow,
we could recreate the original structure, we may be able to date this amazing structure accurately.
Ancient Egyptian texts and inscriptions written close to the bronze age collapse in the thirteenth
century BC occasionally mention a mysterious naval force that challenged the integrity of
ancient Egypt. Between the 13th century BC and 12th century BC these so-called “sea people”
were the bane of everybody on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and intimidated the cities
of Hittites, Levant, and ancient Egypt. Some historians also consider these wayward seafarers
as the cause of the late Bronze age collapse. But who exactly were these pirates of the
Mediterranean? According to all surviving ancient sources, Ancient Egypt was the place where the sea
people participated in their most known battles. Often foes, sometimes allies, and even hired as
mercenaries by the Egyptians on a few occasions, the sea people were primarily documented during
the reign of Ramesses the second, his son Merenptah, and Ramesses the third. Oddly, even
though Ramses the second’s inscriptions depict swift and decisive victories against sea people,
they were still a headache for the Egyptian government during the rule of Ramses the second’s
son Merenptah. From the documents provided by father and son pharaohs, historians believe that
the sea people always attacked from the north. They also mention sea people’s city names. Teresh,
Ekwesh, Lukka and Sherden. Ramses the Third’s account holds the sea people responsible for the
fall of Hittites. For a heavy toll on the Egyptian treasury, Ramses the third was able to defeat the
sea people once and for all in Xois in 1178 BC. It has been theorized that the Sea Peoples might
have emerged by various means and from a variety of places, from the Aegean or Western Asia Minor
to the Mediterranean islands. The Philistines, Etruscans, and Minoans have all been suggested
as possible contenders for Sea People, but without specific details from primary sources,
this is all guesswork. Unfortunately, there are no records of what happened to these formidable
foamy foes after their defeat in Xois and their demise is lost in historical obscurity
just like their origins. Despite the significance of the Holy land of Punt in Egyptian religion,
there is a severe lack of description or directions on where it was located. The only
help ancient Egyptian texts have provided us is that Punt was somewhere to the south and east of
Egypt and it was accessible by sea and land both. The problem is this is quite a vague description
and doesn’t narrow the possible location from anywhere in the Arabian Peninsula to northeast
Somalia, southern Sudan, and northern Ethiopia or Eritrea. Land of Punt holds an important place in
Ancient Egyptian history, religion, mythology, and culture. Egyptian writing suggests Punt was a rich
location that prospered between 2450 BC and 1155 BC. People from the famous civilization apparently
went to Punt when they sought gold, aromatic resins, African blackwood, ebony, ivory, wild
animals, and slaves. One of the most prominent references to the elusive holy land is a relief
in the temple of Athribis that depicts Punt as a lush, tropical land. Another important depiction
is at Deir el-Bahri where the relief depicts the outcomes of a mysterious overseas expedition that
was led by queen Hatshepsut. This image, known as the Portico of Punt, presents five ships carrying
210 men while loaded with gold, trees, and exotic animals like leopards, apes, and giraffes,
interestingly all animals that are found across Africa. In 2020, Nathaniel Dominy, a primatologist
and professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire realized an oddity
about Ancient Egypt that could be the answer to the location of Punt. According to him, baboons,
the animals that were often used by ancient Egyptian guards for policing work, aren’t native
to Egypt. The researchers found that the New Kingdom baboons were likely born outside of Egypt.
Their origin could have been in the region that constitutes modern-day Eritrea, Ethiopia,
and Somalia, none of which share a border with Egypt. This study used mummified baboons found
in ancient Egyptian temples and necropolises to find their real home. Based on Dominy’s research,
Punt must have existed in the southern Red Sea region, very likely on the coasts of Eritrea and
Somaliland. But he also thinks that this finding is provisional and needs more research. Tell
us in the comments who you think the sea people were or what is hidden in Khufu’s great pyramid?
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