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And shadows deep and starlit skies where ancient whispers never die. We walk the path where legends tread, and summon tells the world once.

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Welcome to Creature Chats, where a myth and magic come to life through the eyes of a mother, me, and a daughter. I'm Maisie. And I'm Jana. Each week I'll introduce a mythical creature to Maisie, explore its origins, stories, and secrets.

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And I'll share my thoughts, ask weird questions, and maybe even challenge the myths.

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So cozy in and join us for a journey into the enchanted forests, misty mountains, and mysterio mysterious waters of folklore and the creatures that reside there. So it's been a while since we've recorded. It's been a couple weeks, probably. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 1:08

Good. We've so we've done a lot. They've been to Mexico. Uh-huh. And I hated it. Um, and I've been, and we've been to this me. Yep. It's that one thing. Kids out there, don't if your dad wins an award at work, don't make them, don't make them go anywhere. Cause it because well, Nina, I'm sorry if you're listening to this, but um No, we're gonna cut that out.

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No, it was great. Maisie had a great time.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

No, I didn't.

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No, it was a really good trip for dad and I. It sucked for you, I know.

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Yeah, it sucked for me.

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Yeah.

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It took me like nine hours to get to sleep.

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Okay. Well, what have you been busy with otherwise? School. Mm-hmm. Anything else? Nothing going on? No. That's kind of boring. I know. I know. You've been excited for this episode for a while.

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Yeah, because I want to know what creature it is.

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Yeah, you don't know yet. You don't have a clue. What was the clue I told you?

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It's something that you've seen in person before.

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Uh-huh. It's something that you've seen in person before that Maisie and I have seen in person before.

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In real life.

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In real life.

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But mythical creatures are myths.

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Well, we saw a version of this. Oh like a statue of this. Oh. And then tonight you thought you saw something in my notes.

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I saw some spikes.

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Spikes. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm going to read you a riddle first, okay? I I'm good at riddle to do it. Okay. Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed? I don't know. Okay. We're going to find out. Well, I know the creature of this. Please just tell me now. The reason why I ask you this is because this creature is known for its wit. It's known for its riddles. And it's also very important to guard important areas. The Sphinx. Yeah. You got it right. How did you know that? Uh, because, well, I'm good at riddles. Okay, but how did you know it belonged to the Sphinx?

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It's the Sphinx, right? Yeah. Okay. How do I know it belonged to the Sphinx?

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Yeah, like how do you know Riddles is part of its character?

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Because I watched Expedition Unknown. Oh, I didn't know that was part of it. Okay. I love that show. Our sponsor for today. That would be cool. You wish. Our sponsor for today. Expedition Unknown. Okay. Please pay us.

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Okay, so for those of who don't quite know what a Sphinx is, do you know? Can you describe it?

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Yeah. So it's like a half lion, half human. And it lost his nose. Yep. It doesn't have a nose, but no one knows why. It's from Egypt. And they made it to protect stuff. And if you answer three verbs correctly, you might get his jewels, but it's kind of just a myth. But and actually, and actually, well, I'm watching Mr. V's video. Actually, I'm watching Mr. V's video. And it's and and they look down in the Sphinx, but there is no treasure. But there is treasure now because he put a swarm in there. He put a what in there? He has he has these like toys that like are swarms. Okay. And he put one of and he put the golden swarm in there that's worth$10,000.

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Right. The place that nobody else is allowed to go in. Yeah. Okay, you are right. So the Sphinx has the head of a human, the body of a lion, and in some cases, the wings of an eagle. And in all these cases, it is always used to guard an important area or to guard someplace to keep people out. Okay. Okay. It is most well known in Egyptian mythology, but it also is well known in Greek mythology. That's actually where the riddle comes from. So in Greek mythology, it has the head of a woman and it guards the entrance to Thebes and challenges those who want to enter the underworld. And what happened is it would challenge others by asking riddles. And if people didn't get the riddle right, it would strangle them and eat them that got it wrong.

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Hey mom, I have an idea for this end of the episode. Maybe I could try to answer three riddles.

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I don't have three riddles.

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I do. Okay. Well, I have well, just look them up on your phone.

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Oh, okay. Okay.

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And that'll be our exit out.

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Okay. Um, okay, so that is Greek mythology. And in Greek mythology, the person who actually got the riddle correct was Oedipus, who got it right and then later is known to have killed the Sphinx.

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S must be why it's missing its nose.

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Nope, that's in Egypt. Remember, this is Greek.

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Also, that is not what Oedipus is best known for.

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No, I didn't say Redipus was best known for that. What is Oedipus best known for? Uh, we'll tell you when you're older.

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Yeah.

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Please. Can you tell me?

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Floyd says no.

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Okay, we won't tell it on this one until later.

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Nope. Nope. Please. So in in Egyptian mythology, there is a man, man's head with the body of a lion, but in this version, it has no wings. Okay. Again, in Egypt, it is known for strength and ferocity and used to guard important areas like tombs, like we talked about. Yeah, because it's Egypt. The Sphinx has become a well-known symbol in Egypt and is very important in different emblems, like on stamps, coins, and important documents and paperwork. And we see that like throughout history.

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Ooh, paperwork, wait, paper, wait, paperwork? Wait, paperwork. Yeah, like documents. Yeah, but paperwork was in like when the Sphinx was built.

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Yeah.

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Wait, does it say what year the Sphinx was built in there?

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Yes. Okay, what year was it built? Um, it was built between 2590 and 2532 BC.

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What does BC mean?

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Um old old way of saying is before Christ. There's a new way of saying it, but I don't remember what it is. What is before Christ? Like before Jesus Christ was born. Oh, okay. Um, and that the pyramid of Giz the the Pyramid of Giza, the Great Sphinx of Giza was built in the old kingdom in Egypt, which was from like which yeah bravo, mom, bravo. The oldest known sphinx is was found in Turkey, and it was thought to be um made 11,500 years ago.

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Wait, Turkey? Turkey! Gava Gava Gov. Wrong Turkey. Gavel Gava Gov. Gavel Gava, Gavel Gava.

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Um, so did you know that there's now new speculation that the head of the Sphinx in Giza is not the original? Yeah, I don't I don't watch the news. No, I know, but I've I've heard this in two different ways where one it the Sphinx Sphinx original head was like taken off or removed or something, or it was built without a head, and then later the head that we see now was built at a later date, which is why it's why the nose fell off, isn't it? Nope. I'll get to the nose. I know that's very important. I just want to nose by the nose. You want to know about the nose? Yes, can we just skip it? No, let me tell you this. I want the nose. I want to tell you this. The reason why that people speculate the head to be at a different time is because the head is made of different stone, and it's also significantly smaller or disproportioned to the body.

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Or maybe it's because they ran out of the stone they were making, so then they had to go grab some new ones.

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I don't Egypt is not really well known for running out of stones. They would like go find some.

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Well, maybe just got tired of that stone, so they changed it. Maybe maybe they wanted it to look cooler.

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I I think it's just cool that it seems like it's different than what the original. Yeah, I think that's why they did it. Okay. So, do you want me to tell you about the nose? Yes. Okay. No one officially knows what happened to the nose.

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Oh nose.

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Well, I well, well, well, I'm doing some stuff. I'm gonna find out what's up with that nose. So my first thing is maybe in a war they got shot off.

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Is that what you've heard? I'm just I'm just naming something that comes. No, seriously, like is that what you've heard? Yeah, from the Who Wa Show. Yeah, because did they tell you in the Who Wes Show that that wasn't actually real?

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Wait, the nose actually is on still? No.

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But it being shot shot off in war is not true.

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It's just a very well-known Maybe it just fell off because of old, because it got because the snow maybe the stone was wearing and it took off, and the Egyptians were just like, I'm not getting that back up. Probably.

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There there is a rumor that Napoleon himself shot the nose off the Sphinx. But that is not true.

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Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So ever so I think everyone knows that Caesar, Julius Caesar, was dating, was like, was in love with the Egyptian girl. Yep. What what was her name? Cleopatra? Yeah, Cleopatra. One of the Cleopatras? Maybe, maybe he got angry and took it off. Uh, I think you I don't know about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I just created a new rumor, boom, boom. Okay, but why are we starting rumors? Because we can bow bop op pow.

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Okay. Either way, the rumor about Napoleon, let's get this out there, is not true because the nose has was missing long before Napoleon was in Egypt.

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Well, my well, my thing is true. Okay.

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Um, do you want to know what I was talking about at the beginning where you have seen one? You've you have visited a real Sphinx. I've been to Egypt. No. Okay. Yes, please. Think about where we've been that has a lot of like Egyptian The museum. Uh-huh.

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We were at the museum and we saw one.

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Yeah.

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Oh, that was a while ago. I think it's a member. Was it the art museum? It was a museum in New York, right? It was the Met. The museum at New York.

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Yeah. Okay. Yep, one of the museums in New York.

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Oh, speaking of New York, we had this funny story, went to the wrong art museum.

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Yep, we did. But that's how we saw this. Okay. So we got to see that. Do you remember whose sphinx that was? That was Egypt's. Yes, but do you remember who its head was on or whose head was on it? This is what makes it really cool. King Tut? No, because most sphinxes in Egypt have whose head on them. A man or a woman's? Yeah. A man. A man. This one has a woman. Finally, a woman's chance to rise. She is actually a very cool woman who is actually called herself a pharaoh. Nope. This is this is one, her name is Hatishpu. No.

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Halapula. Halapula, halapuna, halabola, halabola.

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No, this one is called Hashepsut.

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Hashepsuta.

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Yep. And she was known as actually taking over and becoming her labeled herself as Pharaoh. And that was when like women were not allowed to do that or could not do that. And definitely could not be called Pharaoh. So what we saw was one of six sphinxes that were in her temple when they found it. One of six? Six. Do you remember how big it was? Yeah, it was like that. I have a picture of you standing next to it.

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It was it was like as big as this whole room.

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Uh maybe as big as the desk, yeah. This desk? Yeah. If not bigger.

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Our desk is like, how much feet is our desk?

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Four foot by two foot.

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I will put a picture of it on our Instagram. And if you want to see it, you gotta go follow us at Creature Chats on Instagram.

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Plug. We will have a keyword below. Okay.

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It's an audio thing. You can't hear the keywords going on.

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It will be below the thing in Spotify. Okay. There you go. So after a while, uh like or just or just search on Instagram, creature chats, and then you'll see all the cool pictures. Exactly. And you might see some of our bloopers. If our editor does good.

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Yeah, we already get to hear the bloopers at the end. You are the bloopers.

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Oh, oh, I remember the crack and we did this hilarious blooper.

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Okay, let's not. Um, so there's other places that a Sphinx is also popular in that I learned that I did not know. I didn't even know it was popular in Greek mythology. I just thought it was Egyptian mythology. So in South and Southeast Asia, there is a lion that has a head of a human. And in South India, it's similar and it's known to remove the sins of devotees while entering their temple. So again, it's another thing that is yet guarding things, protecting things, kind of taking things and so on and so forth. Yep. And it's also kind of known for its mystery. Mystery. Yep. Um, it came about and became more popular again in the 15th to 17th century in Europe. And a lot of times when they would recreate the sphinxes, they would make it have a woman's head with pearl earrings. Yeah. I just thought that was kind of fascinating.

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Yeah.

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Um, so I'll tell you about some of the places that we might hear about a sphinx today, aside from Egypt. Japan? Nope. I'm just gonna Japan. Um, there this is you're too young for this, but there was a sphinx that was in Xena Warrior Princess. What's that? It's an old show. A Sphinx that appears in Percy Jackson in the Olympians. That's Percy Jackson. It's a very popular series of books about different mythologies.

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Oh, and there also I was in mythical creature in in Magic Triass, I believe. Nope, I haven't seen that. I bel I th I swear there was.

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I think it might be in the background of a book when they're in Egypt.

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Yeah, when they s no, they see it.

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Yeah, but they don't do anything with it. These are characters that like interact in these shows.

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Oh, I believe it was wait. Um, remember that like show where there was this museum and like it came alive and I couldn't stop watching it? Like that Explorer Girl. Nighteth Museum? No.

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Oh, I remember this one.

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Yeah, and like she got the Sphinx to talk. And the Sphinx was talking, and then she had to do some riddles.

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Um Riley Riddle or something. Yeah, something something. It rhymes. It's rhymes. Ridley something.

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Yeah, it's yeah, I like it's off of Netflix now, actually. Because like, yeah.

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Okay, so we got Xena Warrior Princess, and then it's in Percy Jackson and the Olympians. And then there's actually a mention of the Sphinx in Chronicles of Narnia. I remember that. Um, and in this in Chronicles of Narnia, it guards an ancient hall. Yeah. And then in a book called, in a book series called The Sandman by Neil Guiman, um, it is uh a character in the books takes on the Sphinx as like a battle of wits. So again, more with with wits and riddles and trying to protect things and like trying to keep people out from where they're not supposed to go all the time.

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Oh, and just so you know, if you if you haven't watched Chronicles and Narnia, read the book first. And and if you and if you ever watch Wrinkle in Time, don't watch the movie first because the movie is terrible. It's not at all like the books, because they added a whole mean girl.

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Okay. And also the show was Ridley Jones.

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Yes, yeah.

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That was more relevant to the I was close.

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You were, you were Ridley Jones. Yeah, yeah, where she her mom owns the museum and then she goes on all these adventures. It's actually a very good show. I know.

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Oh, why did I have to take it off? It was amazing. Like that was the one show you didn't get annoyed with me. Yeah. I would have watched that instead of YouTube.

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That and um history, the history show. The Who Was Show? The Who Was Show. Yeah, I really like that one. Okay, so in all of these instances and all of this time, the Sphinx itself is always known for protection, yeah, pursuit of knowledge, and using wit and riddles.

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Okay, do que it's time for my three riddles.

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There you have it.

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Three riddles. Well, what did you think? I liked it, I wanted My three minutes.

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Okay. Can you wait on that, please? Sure. Okay. I want to know your opinion.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Well, my opinion is okay. I don't know what I'm doing right now. So my opinion is my opinion.

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Great.

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That is my opinion.

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I've always been fascinated with the sphinx. I've always been fascinated with like Egypt.

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Yeah. Egypt is cool.

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Yeah.

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Like like all the myths in Egypt. Like that aliens built the temples. That is so not true. Whoever created that is so wrong. Yep. If you are watching this, I am sorry. No, we're not sorry. We are not sorry.

unknown 20:46

Aliens.

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Aliens bound. Can her next bone pee alien? No.

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Three riddles. Okay. What has a head, a tail, and is brown and it has no legs. Snake? What has a head, a tail, is brown and has no legs. Snail? Nope, it's not an animal. Oh, it's not an animal. Oh no. Give me a penny. Oh, wait, but what? Heads, tails.

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Oh! No, that should be a quarter.

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It can be anything, except it's not brown. True. Quarters are silver.

unknown 21:33

Okay.

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Okay. The person who makes it has no need for it. The person who buys it has no use for it. The person who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it? Air. A person, the person who makes it has no need for it. The person who buys it has no use for it. The person who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it? A ghost? Nope. A coffin. Oh. Okay. An electric train is headed east. Where does the smoke go? West. Nowhere. An electric train is headed, because it's electric. Good job. You got it. There you go. One more, please. Um, okay, one more. It can be seen, can't be felt, can't be heard, and can't be smelled. It lies behind stars and under hills, and empty holes it fills.

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Moon.

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What is it?

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It's moon.

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It can't be seen. We can see the moon. Can't be felt, can't be heard, and can't be smelled. It lies behind stars and under hills and empty holes it fills. What is it?

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Can't touch the sky. Way. Clouds. Close.

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Way. The sky? What lies by stars and fills empty holes? Asteroids? No. Does dad know?

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Space.

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The dark.

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The dark. Oh yeah.

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Dad's is more of an existential answer, but yeah. Dark.

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There you go. I have a riddle for you. What? Okay. What travels the world but always stays in the corner?

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What travels the world and always stays in the corner? A globe? No. I don't know. A stamp. Oh, yep. Clever.

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I wish people could see the look on your smug face right now.

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A stamp of satisfaction.

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In shadows, deep in starlit skies where ancient whispers never die. We walk the paths where legends tread. And summon tells the world once.

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No, it's too late. Mom, I let me I then I'm reading your You don't even know what I'm looking for. Where's the ending?

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It's at the top. What?

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Changing us a think of question convert unknown. Rumor. Reminder that messing can be stand big toots. I read big toots up there. By those. By those no one knows.

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By those brave enough. By those brave enough. The Sphinx challenges us to think, question, and confront the unknown. And it's a reminder that mysteries can be saved by those brave enough. Be saved. Be solved. Okay. And a reminder, and a reminder that mysteries can be solved by those brave enough.