In 1787, Count Constantine de Volney — a French nobleman, philosopher, historian, orientalist, and politician — began a journey to the East in late 1782 and arrived in Ottoman Egypt, where he spent almost seven months. Constantine de Volney was deeply affected by the institution of slavery. His opinion that the ancient Egyptians were black Africans deviated from the typical late 18th-century European view but gave him many reasons for reflection. During his visit to Egypt, he expressed astonishment to find that the Egyptians — whose civilization was highly admired in Europe — were not white.
“All Egyptians,” Volney wrote, “have a swollen face, bulging eyes, flat nose, thick lips — in short, the true face of Black African. I was tempted to attribute this to the climate, but when I visited the Sphinx, its appearance gave me the key to the riddle. Seeing that head, typically black in all its features, I'm reminded of the remarkable passage in which Herodot says: 'As for me, I consider the colchians to be a colony of the Egyptians, because, like them, they are black and have curly hair.' When I visited the Sphinx, I couldn't help but think that the figure of that monster provided the real solution to the enigma (of how modern Egyptians acquired their 'mulatto appearance').”
"In other words, the ancient Egyptians were true blacks just like all native Africans. Being so, we can see how their blood, mixed for centuries with that of the Greeks and Romans, must have lost the intensity of its original color, but still retains the mark of its original mold."
“Imagine,” declared the disbelieving Volney, “that this race of black men, today our slaves and object of our contempt, is the same race to which we owe our arts, sciences, and even the use of language! Imagine, at last, being in the midst of peoples who call themselves the greatest friends of freedom and humanity but have approved the most barbaric slavery.
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