According to a widespread legend, the famous Egyptian structure lost its nose due to the fault of a French commander. We checked if this is true.

This is what he writes in his memoirs famous Soviet diplomat Nikolai Kanaev: “During his campaign in Egypt, Napoleon visited these places. For a long time I peered into the face filled with greatness and pride of the keeper of the pyramids and the pharaohs sent by God and, as it were, the defender of all of Africa. It is unknown what associations the greatness of the sphinx evoked in Napoleon, but he ordered a cannon to be pointed at the sphinx... The cannonball hit the nose and knocked off most of it. The head remains."

A similar statement can be found in the journal "Ogonyok" for 1956, a famous Soviet writer also writes about him Nikolay Tikhonov. And the popular publicist and author of a number of historical works Sergei Kara-Murza reports: “The Russians beat the French, but they did not hate France and would not, like Napoleon, knock the nose off the Sphinx and blow up the Kremlin.” The legend is still spreading today - for example, thanks to an informative article on the radio website Relax.fm.

The story of Napoleon is well known in the West. In 1995, the leader of the African-American radical organization Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, during his “Million Man March” stated: "White supremacy became the reason that Napoleon removed the Sphinx’s nose because it reminded you (whites) too much of the greatness of the black man.” The same statement appeared in 2020 on a popular Facebook page African Diaspora.

It would be possible to cite one more book quote — at first glance professional: “Europeans captured Egypt at the end of the 18th century during Napoleon’s famous Egyptian expedition. Before this, Egypt was under the rule of the Mamelukes. Around this time, the “scientific treatment” of Egyptian history may have begun. It is well known, for example, that Napoleon's cannon batteries fired directly at the famous Sphinx of Giza and severely damaged his face.

The question is, why was this done? Perhaps due to the ignorance of ordinary French soldiers? But Napoleon’s army included a staff of Egyptologists. Where were they looking? Why didn’t they like the face of the Great Sphinx and the inscriptions on the tombs of the pharaohs? But it was precisely with Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign that the rapid development of European Egyptology began. They decipher hieroglyphs, find papyri, etc. And at the same time they knock down inscriptions from tombs and shoot ancient monuments from guns.”

However, there is a very important point here, namely the identity of the author of the quote. His name is Anatoly Fomenko, and he is the creator of the infamous new chronology, which sets out an alternative view of world history that has nothing to do with reality. Therefore, let us turn to the conclusions of real historians.

In 1798, then General Napoleon Bonaparte headed hike French army with the aim of conquering Egypt, turning it into a French colony and undermining British dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean. Despite a number of high-profile victories, in the end the French army was forced to retreat, and Napoleon abandoned it and returned to Paris ahead of schedule, after realizing that final defeat was inevitable. Nevertheless, the campaign also had important cultural significance, since Bonaparte included advanced scientists in his expedition. As a result, interest in the ancient civilizations of the East grew exponentially in Europe, and the Rosetta Stone, discovered during the expedition, opened up the possibility of deciphering ancient Egyptian writing.

What happened to one of the main attractions of Egypt during the days of Napoleon's stay there? The facts say it's nothing special. For example, the drawings of the Danish captain Friedrich Norden, made in 1737 and published 18 years later in the book, have survived "Journey from Egypt to Nubia":

As is easy to see, even then, long before Napoleon’s arrival, the Sphinx’s nose was almost completely absent and has remained almost unchanged since then. Perhaps Napoleonic soldiers practiced their accuracy on the colossal figure, but without any noticeable consequences for the monument.

What caused the loss of an important element by the great creation of antiquity? Versions on this matter vary. Back in the 15th century, the Egyptian Arab historian Abul Abbas al-Makrizi accused in the vandalism of the Sufi fanatic Muhammad Saim al-Dah. Allegedly, in 1378, upon learning that Egyptian peasants still brought offerings to the sphinx in the hope of a good harvest, Saim al-Dah became so furious that he knocked off the nose of the giant figure. The Sufi paid dearly for this - a crowd of local residents tore him to pieces. According to a German Islamic scholar and historian Ulrich Harmann, this version is confirmed by a number of other significant Arab scientists of the Middle Ages. And at least in 1546, Europeans learned about this shortcoming - a French naturalist visited the country Pierre Belon, who subsequently reported that the Sphinx “no longer bears the stamp of grace and beauty that [the Arab scholar] Abdul Latif so admired in 1200.”

Some authors suggest, that the face of the Great Sphinx was completely disfigured after shots from the Mamluks in the 18th century. One more versions, the Egyptian pharaohs themselves tried in this way to interrupt the afterlife of their predecessors, which supposedly depended on the integrity of the mummy or monument. There is also a natural science theory - some scientists thinkthat the cause was wind and sharp fluctuations in air temperature. It turns out that the Arabic proverb “The world is afraid of time, and time is afraid of the pyramids” does not apply to the neighbor and peer of these majestic structures.

One way or another, Napoleon Bonaparte, as we have seen, has nothing to do with the loss of the Sphinx’s nose.