Significance Of The Sphinx Of Taharqo

The Nile River is typically associated with the Egyptians and is even considered to be the “life line” of Egypt. Yet if you take a closer look, you will see that a majority of the Nile River runs through the African country of Sudan. For centuries, the Egyptians have claimed the Nile as their own. The majority of the Nile River runs through Sudan, not Egypt. This has caused many conflicts between the two countries. Kush, which is now modern day Sudan, is one of the oldest African Kingdoms. Egypt has always been the more powerful of the two and often looked down upon their neighbor, Kush. Over the years the relations and interactions between the two civilizations through war, culture, religion and politics have created a new imagery of the
Kushite culture. My object, the Sphinx of Taharqo, is a symbol of these two cultures merging together to become one for a brief period of time. The Sphinx is a mythical creature with either the body of a lion, ram, or bird and the head of a human. It is used as a symbol of kingship in the Egyptian culture. The image of the Sphinx was used as a guardian figure for temples and tombs of Kings. The Sphinx of Taharqo was created around 680 BC in the town of Kawa, in northern Sudan. It is made of granite stone and is taupe in color. The Sphinx of Taharqo is estimated to be as big as a medium sized dog. This Sphinx of Taharqo has the body of a lion, a long mane of hair, and long paws. All of these characteristics are associated with Egyptian culture. There are two cobras on top of the Sphinx’s head, which is an Egyptian symbol for royalty. Printed on the chest of the Sphinx in Egyptian hieroglyphics, is the Kings name, Taharqo. The intriguing thing about the Sphinx of Taharqo is the face; It has a face of African descent rather than Egyptian. This is because it was made for the King Taharqo, who was both King of Kush and Pharaoh of Egypt from 690-664 BC. This sphinx was created for Taharqo by Egyptian architectures to be placed at a temple in Kawa, in the center of Kush. Kawa is the location of where the Egyptian God Amun lived. The temple was built in 684-680 BC and the Sphinx was only to be seen be the King himself and other priests. It symbolized the merging of the two ancient cultures that were once enemies and are now comrades living amongst each other. For many years, Egypt ruled with wealth, religion, and power over their empire. The Egyptians often took advantage of the Kushites for their valuable resources such as: gold, ebony, copper, animal hides, ostrich eggs, and salves. There was always conflict between the two neighbors for they both claimed the Nile as their own. Things began to change in the year 728 BC when Egypt’s reign began to fall. The Kushite Kingdom seized the chance and their leader, King Piankhi (also know as Piye) sent his armies north to conquer Egypt and take back what they already considered theirs, the Nile River. The Kushites eventually took over all of Egypt and Piye became the pharaoh of Egypt. He established what is called Egypt’s 25th Dynasty. When Piye died he was laid rest in an Egyptian pyramid and his son Taharqo, was soon named King. Taharqo is considered one of the most influential and important rulers of this dynasty. He began the golden age for his dynasty by adopting the Egyptian customs instead of pushing his Kushite culture on the Egyptian people. Unlike the pharaohs before him, Taharqo wanted to embrace the Egyptian culture into his society because the assimilation of the two cultures was very important to him. During this time he was very successful at ruling He began to build temples in Kush and Egypt that worshipped the Egyptian God, Amun and the Kushite God, Apedemake. He also restored temples and kept their Egyptian style and even had his nobles’ write in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Because Taharqo incorporated the Egyptian culture with his Kushite beliefs his dynasty was very powerful and the people of Egypt were accepting of the two traditions coming together. Taharqo was both Pharaoh of Egypt and King of Kush, and his legacy was the merging of the Kushite and Egyptian cultures that were once enemies. Taharqo wanted to expand his dynasty beyond Egypt and that eventually led to his demise. The Assyrians King was not happy about Taharqo wanting to gain more territory so he took his army to invade Egypt. In 671, Taharquo fled to his home of Kush. The Sphinx of Taharqo is the symbolism of Taharqo’s legacy.
The origin of the Sphinx is Egyptian yet it has Taharqo’s face that incorporates his Kushite roots. For a brief period in time, the Kushites and Egyptians were equals among one another, accepting each other’s values and beliefs. Taharqo, the son of Pyie took his fathers conquest of Egypt and turned it into a political and cultural statement that has become history. Until the discovery of the Sphinx of Taharqo, many historians and archeologists thought that the Kushites were copying or stealing Egyptian cultural symbols. We know this is no longer true because of The 25th Dynasty. The Kushites were choosing to incorporate the Egyptian way of life in to theirs so that they could expand their worldview and gain more power from combining the two cultures together. Although they adopted Egyptian techniques, they still stayed prominent to their Kushite traditions. I think the Kushites were very intelligent for combining the two ways of life into one. During ancient times it was custom that once you invaded land you force their citizens to adopt and practice your customs. This typically ended in a revolt by the citizens or a war by another civilization that sees you’re failing. Taharqo made the bold decision to infuse his culture with theirs and accept the people for their way of life not change it. This is why he was so successful in ruling over Egypt, a land that once ruled his. Kush was a powerful, cultural and globally aware civilization that used its knowledge of integration to successfully reign over
Egypt. When choosing my object, I literally had no idea what I wanted or what I was looking for. As I flipped through the pages of the book, the Sphinx caught my eye. I remember learning about it in textbooks growing up and seeing it in movies. My intentions of this paper were to simply learn about the Sphinx of Egypt and what its symbolism meant. I know now that I was under the impression I was going to be writing about The Great Sphinx of Giza. Once I started actually reading about my object, The Sphinx of Taharqo and learning about its culture I was intrigued. I never knew that a majority of the Nile River ran through Sudan. I always associated it with the Egyptians. I think that the Kushites were well beyond their time of global integration. Although the Kushites have had a lot of tension with the Egyptians over territory, when they invaded Egypt they didn’t punish them for taking advantage of their resources or natural goods. Instead they embraced their culture and incorporated into their own. I admire how they combined Egyptian customs and merged it with theirs by creating objects such as the Sphinx of Taharqo. Although I did not know coming into this assignment what I was really going to learn about, I am very grateful for the opportunity to expand my knowledge of ancient civilizations. I feel as if I have a better understanding of African culture as well as a new outlook on Egyptian culture.