One of the most bizarre properties of ancient Egyptian statues is that the vast majority of them lack noses, including the Great Sphinx, which stands on the Giza plateau near the Great Pyramids.
Until now, even among the authoritative archaeologists and historians, there were many people who did not attach any importance to this. Say, the statues are old, and therefore could not survive in perfect condition to this day.
Despite this, the selective nature of such damage and the frequency with which the noseless sculptures of Ancient Egypt are found, made Edward Bleiberg of the Brooklyn Museum think that this phenomenon may have an alternative explanation. As a result, the specialist was surprised to determine that the destruction of the statues' noses, it turns out, was a deliberate act of vandalism by the plunderers of antiquities.
Thus, breaking the noses of the statues, the tomb robbers tried to make sure that people from the other world could not breathe and, as a result, be in the world of the living. It is a pity that many priceless ancient artifacts were damaged because of such superstition.
As for the Sphinx, there is a version that the French of Napoleon's army beat off his nose. However, today, Egyptologist researchers are sure that this could not be, since Bonaparte respected the culture of Ancient Egypt, there were many scientists in his team. In addition, in one of the sketches of 1786 you can see the Great Sphinx already without a nose, that is, it was so even before the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon (1798 - 1801).
But if we accept another version that this is the work of the vandal Muhammad Saim al-Dah, who committed this barbarism in 1378 (there is a mention of this in ancient manuscripts), then the current assumption of Edward Bleiberg is quite true.
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Author: Daniil Myslinsky