A winged giant from the land of the pharaohs

 The legend of the Bennu bird 

  Ancient Egypt has been enigmatic in every sense, with these people having a strong connection with animals, praising some as Gods and giving others an ostentatious status, sparing no effort even when representing them in their art, sometimes giving us enigmas that need to be studied, Today we will see one of them, (personally my favorite), come with me to analyze it.

 The Bennu bird was a type of bird reported in Egypt, similar to a giant heron that was used to represent the ancient Egyptian deity Bennu, The Bennu bird was depicted in Ancient Egyptian art as a huge heron taller than a man, with a pair of straight plume-like feathers on the head and, occasionally, a shorter feather on the breast.

In the myths linked to Heliopolis, Bennu plays a prominent role in Egyptian cosmogony, According to some sources, he created himself from the fire with which a sacred tree burned in one of the precincts of the temple of Ra, Other versions place its origin in the bursting of Osiris's heart.

Additionally, as described in Egyptian documents from the Pharaonic period, the Nile Delta was once home to a giant bird, supposedly a stork, that lived in large flocks, according to art the individuals of both sexes had white plumage, long tail feathers and long, straight beaks, while the males They were also distinguished by a plume of feathers on the back of the head and another on the chest, although the most striking thing is their size, which could rival the size of a person.

Evidence of its existence 

  The evidence of the existence of this bird goes beyond simple texts and vague mentions, since they are spoken of in papyri and historical records of royalty, so also in the Egyptian hieroglyphs, in their art and their own cultural memory, since it has been said for a long time how a Giant Heron still existed in the Nile delta during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu or Khufu (in the 26th century BC), when she was sometimes caught by local peasants.

Although the strongest evidence came from Egyptologist James Burton, who between 1821 and 1823 came across "three enormous conical nests, all within the space of a mile", On the Red Sea coast of Egypt, near a place called Gebel ez Zeit or Gebel Zeit, the nests were built with sticks, herbs, fish bones, a shoe, woolen cloth, a watch and a human ribcage, had a height of about 15 feet and a diameter of 2.5 to 3 feet, when Burton asked locals about the nests, they told him they were made by huge stork-like birds that used to live in the area, but that they had disappeared shortly before Burton's arrival, possibly exterminated by themselves.

Interestingly, ancient writers, such as Homer, Aesop, Hecataeus of Miletus, Herodotus, Aristotle, Philostratus, Pliny the Elder, Juvenal and Others frequently referred to the enmity and war between the pygmy tribes and a race of birds resembling cranes, although these texts are mostly lost, It could be said that mentions of this breed of large cranes could have their origin in the Egyptian Bennu, if it existed....or maybe it did.

Fossil evidence.

  During the 1970s, the remains of a huge heron were discovered in material unearthed on the island of Umm an-Nar, in the Persian Gulf, under the jurisdiction of the United Arab Emirates Based on the bone alone, it is a fragment of the tibiotarsus, and on the remains found later, it was estimated that this heron could have reached almost 7 feet in height, with a wingspan of almost 9 feet. In addition, several remains date back to 2,600 BC. C. to 2,000 BC. C., and around 1,800 BC. C., period in which the Bennu bird is illustrated. 

Realizing that this bird would have been the most likely model for the Bennu bird, its discoverer described it as Ardea bennuides, giving only a brief description, without mentioning the size of the bone or the exact location of where it was found, however it cannot be considered a nomen nudum, Since a photo of the bone has been published, it is now theorized that Garza could have lived much longer and been present for a long time, in the Egyptian lands but anyway, you have the last word, although personally I do believe that a species like this could be real and if it existed, it is a shame that we could not know it.

[Reading links]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennu

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennu_heron