Egypt is one of the countries with the earliest origins of civilization in the world, and it is also the earliest civilized country in Africa. African myths and legends are mainly Egyptian myths and legends.
Egypt is located in the lower reaches of the Nile River in northeastern Africa and in the plains south of the Mediterranean Sea. The land there is fertile, the water is abundant, the products are rich, and the people are industrious, which created favorable conditions for the emergence of ancient civilization. Around 3000 BC, Egypt established the earliest unified kingdom in ancient times. With the unification of the country, writing came into being, and Egyptian hieroglyphs became one of the earliest writings in the world. After having writing, the Egyptians learned to use reed poles dipped in smoke and ink mixed with glue to write on a kind of "papery", thus leaving the world's earliest papyrus documents. Because of its fragile texture, papyrus cannot be stored for a long time, so many of them rotted and cracked. Only part of the papyrus preserved in the pyramid remained. The mythological information of ancient Egypt was passed down from these papyrus documents hidden in the pyramid. of.
In ancient Egyptian civilization, the pyramid was a symbol of the pharaoh's ruling power. The Egyptian pharaohs built luxurious cemetery pyramids for themselves when they were still alive. The more majestic the pyramid, the more it showed the authority of the pharaoh. At the same time, the Egyptians believed that a person's life is not only limited to life, but also includes death. Only in this way can people enter heaven after death and the human soul can live forever. Therefore, the pharaohs built pyramids one after another and established the sacred paradise of their imagination. In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs of the past dynasties were also regarded as the incarnation of gods. People regarded the pharaohs as gods of heaven, earth, and sun. The pyramids where they were buried were regarded as the permanent residence of gods. Therefore, some pharaohs were even carved into statues and placed there. Worshiped in temples. Perhaps it is precisely because the divine power of Egypt is inseparable from the royal power of the Pharaoh that papyrus documents such as myths, poems praising the gods, and proverbs were buried in the pyramid as the Pharaoh's collection to show that the gods were with the Pharaoh.
If the pyramid is a symbol of Egypt's ancient history, then the famous Sphinx standing in front of the pyramid is a witness to Egyptian civilization. The most famous existing Sphinx is a stone statue in front of the tomb of Pharaoh Khafre at Kizer. For many years, it was this statue that accompanied Egypt through centuries and generations of history. Today, Although it is riddled with holes and has been weathered several times, it still stands tall and stands proudly. It is this statue that has caused regret to many Westerners, because it reminds them of their ancient history. Legend has it that in ancient Greek mythology, there is also a monster with the head of a woman, the body of a lion, and two giant wings. People call him "Sphinx". In the legend of the city of Thebes, it was mentioned that Oedipus bravely solved the riddle of the Sphinx to save the people of the city and saved the city of Thebes. Therefore, when Westerners came to the Sphinx, they all thought about it. It's very intimate. However, although the Egyptian Sphinx has the same shape as the Sphinx in ancient Greek mythology, their human faces are not women. Instead, they wear striped turbans and have Ulay (the divine snake, Pharaoh) engraved on their foreheads. The face of the king with the guardian of the gods). The appearance of the Sphinx in front of the Pyramid of Khafre completely bears the portrait characteristics of Pharaoh Khafre. It can be seen that both the pyramid and the Sphinx guarding the pyramid embody the supreme majesty of the Pharaoh. Although all this has become a thing of the past, the remaining monuments are regarded as national treasures by the Egyptian people and have become monuments to Egypt's history, culture and religious beliefs. Interestingly, an interesting legend is still recorded on a granite stone tablet between the two paws of the Sphinx. It was when Thutmose was the fourth young man in ancient Egypt. He loved to go hunting. Once he went hunting in the desert not far from the Pyramid of Khafre. During his lunch break, he fell in front of the Sphinx. He fell asleep, and then he had a dream in which God came to him, predicted that he would be a king in the future, and told him to clean the Sphinx. When he woke up, he did as God asked and had people build a high wall around the Sphinx to prevent the stone sculptures from being eroded by wind and sand. His actions were praised by the gods, and Thutmose IV became a great king of ancient Egypt. Although this is a historical legend, it fully reflects the important status of Egyptian gods in people's minds.