The Black Egyptian hypothesis is the hypothesis that ancient Egypt was a predominately Black civilization, as the term is currently understood in modern American ethnic perception. Mainstream scholars[who?] recognize that many indigenous Egyptians (e.g. Nubians), including several Pharaohs, were of ancestry that, in the modern era, would be considered "black". The Black Egyptian hypothesis goes much further, claiming that Egypt, from north to south, was a black civilization. It includes a particular focus on identifying links to Sub-Saharan cultures and the questioning of the race of specific notable individuals from Dynastic times, including Tutankhamun,[1] the king represented in the Great Sphinx of Giza,[2][3] and Cleopatra.[4][5][6]

Since the second half of the 20th century, typological and hierarchical models of race have increasingly been rejected by scientists, and most (but not all) scholars have held that applying modern notions of race to ancient Egypt is anachronistic.[7][8][9]

At the UNESCO "Symposium on the Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of the Meroitic script" in Cairo in 1974, the Black hypothesis met with profound disagreement.[10] Nearly all participants concluded that the ancient Egyptian population was indigenous to the Nile Valley, and was made up of people from north and south of the Sahara who were differentiated by their color.[11]