How many times is the Great Sphinx referenced in ancient Egypt ?
Around 1785 Volney stated , " When I visited the sphinx ... on seeing that head , typically Negro in all its features , I remembered ... Herodotus says : " ... the Egyptians ... are black with woolly hair " ... " Another early description of a " Negroid " Sphinx is recorded in the travel notes of a French scholar , who visited in Egypt between 1783 and 1785 , Constantin - François Chassebœuf along with French novelist Gustave Flaubert .