(...) Having visited the Sphinx, and seeing that head marked as a Black African in all its features, there was no doubt:

"(...) Having visited the Sphinx, and seeing that head marked as a Black African in all its features, there was no doubt: 

*the ancient Egyptians were true Black African of the species of all the natives of Africa. To think that this race of black men, today our slave and the object of our contempt, is the very one to whom we owe our arts, our sciences, and even the use of speech." 

stated The Comte de Volney  

A brilliant French philosopher and orientalist in the field, renowned for his historiographical work

 

Earl of Volney

(Constantin-François de Chassebœuf – 1757-1820)

  

The Comte de Volney, now recognized as the father of twentieth-century sociologists, anthropologists and ethnologists, gave a very detailed description of Egypt, after visiting it alone, in a work entitled Journey to Egypt and Syria, for which he received a gold medal from the hands of Empress Catherine II of Russia in 1787.