Was Pharaoh Menkaure, the son of Khafre, really Black as some Afrocentric people claim while sharing that photo of him on Google?
This is Queen Meresankh III, the wife of King Khafre, granddaughter of King Khufu, and mother of King Menkaure:
This is Khafre, the son of Pharaoh Khufu and the father of Pharaoh Menkaure:
There is no way in HELL that this is their son, Pharaoh Menkaure..
If they insist on using AI, then this is the closest representation of him:
Him and his wife:
Please report this inaccurate photo of Pharaoh Menkaure on Google as inaccurate. Ancient Egyptians were indigenous North Africans, NOT BLACK and modern racial categories should not be projected onto ancient history.
Ancient Egyptians were masters of color symbolism. The color black was highly sacred to them and had nothing to do with skin color.
Black was the color of the underworld and of Osiris, the god of resurrection. Carving a king in black stone was a way to promise him eternal life and safe passage into the afterlife.
To the Egyptians, black represented the dark, fertile silt deposited by the annual flooding of the River Nile. This dark mud was the source of life and agricultural wealth in Egypt.
Hard stones like diorite and basalt are incredibly tough and resistant to weathering. Egyptians chose these materials for statues meant to last for eternity, not to represent race or skin color.
Leave Egypt to Egyptians.
