One of the sayings: building pyramids on a large scale made the broad masses angry and launched an uprising. The Sphinx became people's punching bag, and the beard and nose were all knocked off by the workers at that time.
The second statement: 500 years ago, the Sphinx was regarded as a "target" by the Mamluk soldiers of the Egyptian king (the guards of medieval Egypt). Maybe it has been "injured" and its nose has been "colored".
Third statement: The ancient Egyptians were forced to bow to the Sphinx under the threat of Pharaoh. Some brave people who opposed idolatry destroyed its face with pickaxes. There is another saying about the nose of the Sphinx related to Napoleon:1When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 798, he was on his high horse. Many people fell down in front of him and came to the pyramids of Giza, but the Sphinx looked down at the east and had no intention of bowing. Napoleon flew into a rage He ordered the shelling of the Sphinx. As a result, Napoleon's soldiers took the Sphinx as the target of practice, and the nose of the Sphinx was blown off during the test shot.
Another record is that after Napoleon led Egypt, in order to find the hidden hole under the Sphinx, Napoleon ordered his soldiers to dig everywhere, but they still couldn't find the hole to enter the treasure house for many days, so Napoleon, who was ashamed and angry, ordered his soldiers to bombard the Sphinx with artillery, so he blew up the nose of the Sphinx.
These two statements, for whatever purpose, were rejected in a rage after Napoleon became angry from embarrassment.
To tell the truth, neither of these statements holds water. Although Napoleon was an invader, from his diaries and memoirs, Napoleon was not only a soldier, but also reckless. He has been interested in history since childhood. He is a man with great respect for science and culture. There is a popular saying in his army that "let scholars walk in the middle of the team". Moreover, he himself is a very knowledgeable person. When he was young, he was an excellent student in mathematics, history and other natural sciences. His study of Egyptian culture is no less than that of the famous scholars at that time. 1798 When he led his troops to Egypt, he took a scientific and artistic delegation of nearly 200 people, composed of scholars in history, mathematics, architecture, language and archaeology, with the purpose of studying the history and culture of Egypt. How can a person who respects culture so much do such a blasphemous thing?
Later, after detailed investigation, scientists gave their own conclusions.
In fact, nature is the first culprit that caused serious damage to the Sphinx. Pyramid of khufu is located in the west of Egypt, and strong storms are carrying a lot of sand and stones, which constantly impact the pyramids. The impact of sand and stone was so strong and frequent that the Sphinx was completely swallowed up by the desert many times. When Napoleon arrived here in the18th century, sand had flooded the neck of the Sphinx. It was not until the end of19th century that Egypt vigorously rectified these quicksands, and it took 70 years to clean up the sand around the Sphinx. At that time, the nose of the stone statue had been destroyed.
In addition, pyramid of khufu is in the desert, and the temperature difference between day and night is very large. The nose of the Sphinx will also be damaged when it expands with heat and contracts with cold, and the stone will break.
Another reason that can't be ignored is that the stone of the Sphinx itself is very soft limestone, and it can't be as strong as a pyramid. Years of sun and rain, coupled with the strong sandstorm attack in western Egypt, are not damaged, that's strange.