{"it":{"id":"W11A03","kind":"artifact","sub":"Authenticated","name":"Saqqara bird","place":"Cairo","mat":"sycamore wood","dims":"wingspan 18 cm","loc":"Egyptian Museum Cairo","acc":"SR 4/6347 [unverified]; JE 33109 [unverified, advocate site only]","find":"Saqqara tomb, 1898","flag":"genuine ancient","src":[65,66,67,452],"lat":30.048,"lon":31.234,"tags":[],"sum":"A small wooden bird from Saqqara, found in 1898, has no legs and straight wings, and some see an aircraft in its upright tail.","why":"A wooden bird from a Saqqara tomb looks like a glider to some. A flow simulation says it cannot fly straight.","nfacts":11,"nsrc":10,"yt":"A bird figure looks like a glider to modern eyes. How much of the \"mystery\" comes from us?","rel":["W11A21","W11A04"],"hook":"A wooden bird from Saqqara looks like a glider. A 2023 simulation says it cannot fly straight."},"S":{"65":["Wikipedia Saqqara Bird","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"],"66":["egpelo.ch (fringe site; cites Cairo catalogue no. 6347)","https://www.en.egpelo.ch/egyptians/6347-high-wing-airplane.htm"],"67":["OverClassified Saqqara bird page (JE 33109 / SR 4/6347 claim)","https://overclassified.org/ancient/saqqara-bird.html"],"452":["Wikipedia: Saqqara Bird","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saqqara_Bird"]},"rec":{"id":"W11A03","alias":["ART004","W15A03"],"ms":[{"a":"wingspan","v":"18","u":"cm","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M019","s":["W11S05"],"c":"Wikipedia Saqqara Bird","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"},{"a":"mass","v":"39.12","u":"g","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M020","s":["W11S05"],"c":"Wikipedia Saqqara Bird","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"},{"a":"wingspan","v":"18","u":"cm","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W15M034","s":["W15S29"],"c":"Wikipedia Saqqara Bird","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"},{"a":"length_DUAA","v":"18","u":"cm","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W15M035","s":["W15S47"],"c":"Digging Up Ancient Aliens: Saqqara bird (cites Cairo Museum registration dept e-mail 2022)","url":"https://diggingupancientaliens.com/Saqqara-bird.html"},{"a":"mass","v":"39.12","u":"g","unc":"","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W15M036","s":["W15S29"],"c":"Wikipedia Saqqara Bird","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"},{"a":"find_year_WP","v":"1898","u":"year","unc":"","by":"","yr":"1898","m":"excavation (tomb of Pa-di-Imen)","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W15M037","s":["W15S29"],"c":"Wikipedia Saqqara Bird","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"},{"a":"find_year_DUAA","v":"1899","u":"year","unc":"","by":"","yr":"1899","m":"excavation (Victor Loret)","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W15M038","s":["W15S47"],"c":"Digging Up Ancient Aliens: Saqqara bird (cites Cairo Museum registration dept e-mail 2022)","url":"https://diggingupancientaliens.com/Saqqara-bird.html"},{"a":"length","v":"18","u":"cm","unc":"","by":"Egyptian Museum Registration Dept (via DUA)","yr":"2022","m":"museum record via e-mail","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W18M002","s":["W18S08"],"c":"Digging Up Ancient Aliens: The Saqqara bird (cites Egyptian Museum Registration Dept e-mail 2022; saved prim/dua_saqqara.html)","url":"https://diggingupancientaliens.com/Saqqara-bird.html"},{"a":"record: museum numbers","v":"JE 33109; SR 4/6347","u":"id","unc":"","by":"Egyptian Museum Cairo (via DUA e-mail; OverClassified)","yr":"2022","m":"museum register","b":"V","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W18M003","s":["W18S08","W18S09"],"c":"Digging Up Ancient Aliens: The Saqqara bird (cites Egyptian Museum Registration Dept e-mail 2022; saved prim/dua_saqqara.html)","url":"https://diggingupancientaliens.com/Saqqara-bird.html"},{"a":"record: excavation","v":"1898, tomb of Pa-di-Imen, Saqqara","u":"year","unc":"","by":"via Wikipedia","yr":"","m":"literature","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W18M004","s":["W18S05"],"c":"Wikipedia Saqqara Bird","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"},{"a":"record: excavation","v":"1899, Victor Loret (findspot not recorded by museum)","u":"year","unc":"","by":"via DUA","yr":"2022","m":"museum record","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W18M005","s":["W18S08"],"c":"Digging Up Ancient Aliens: The Saqqara bird (cites Egyptian Museum Registration Dept e-mail 2022; saved prim/dua_saqqara.html)","url":"https://diggingupancientaliens.com/Saqqara-bird.html"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","v":"sycamore wood","b":"S","s":["W11S05"],"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"},{"k":"Materials","v":"sycamore wood","b":"S","s":["W15S29"],"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"},{"k":"Lab test","mat":"CFD simulation","v":"aerodynamic CFD investigation of the artefact geometry","m":"computational fluid dynamics","by":"Acta Mechanica et Automatica 2023 authors 2023","b":"V","s":["W15S49","W15S29"],"url":"https://doi.org/10.2478/ama-2023-0046"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[{"a":"find_circumstances","r":"not in staged/legacy artifact record (free sources)"}],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA083","a":"Model glider/aircraft","who":"popular AA literature/TV","main":"Bird figure/toy or weathervane; 2023 aerodynamic study examined lift","ms":"https://doi.org/10.2478/ama-2023-0046 ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saqqara_Bird ; https://doi.org/10.2478/ama-2023-0046","st":"contradicted","n":"status from artifacts row; no new lab rows this batch","nl":1},{"id":"AA156","a":"Model of a glider/aircraft","who":"Khalil Messiha (year not verified)","main":"Toy or weather vane / bird figure; lacks tail stabiliser elevator in original","ms":"W11S05;W11S41;W11S105","st":"unresolved","n":"","nl":"1"},{"id":"AA210","a":"Model glider / aircraft","who":"Khalil Messiha; von Daniken (per egpelo)","main":"Ptolemaic bird figure c.200 BCE (Ptolemaic, 305 BCE-30 CE per DUAA); not capable of flight","ms":"W15S29;W15S47;W15S48","st":"contradicted","n":"GEM/Cairo catalogue not reachable; accession still unverified at museum level. Find year 1898 vs 1899: separate rows.","nl":"1"}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[{"who":"egpelo.ch (agrees with von Daniken)","med":"website","ep":"egpelo.ch","v":"Vertical rudder makes it a high-wing aircraft model","b":"S","s":["W15S50"]},{"who":"Khalil Messiha","med":"author","ep":"Khalil Messiha","v":"Ancient Egyptians developed first aircraft","b":"S","s":["W15S47"]}],"cq":[],"sd":[],"art":{"claimed_anomaly":"Model of a glider/aircraft","mainstream_reading":"Toy or weather vane / bird figure; lacks tail stabiliser elevator in original","provenance_flag":"genuine ancient","current_location":"Egyptian Museum Cairo","find_circumstances":"Tomb of Pa-di-Imen, Saqqara, 1898","claimant":"Khalil Messiha (year not verified)","status":"unresolved","dimensions":"wingspan 18 cm; mass 39.12 g","material":"sycamore wood","date":"","culture":"","museum_accession":"SR 4/6347 [unverified]; JE 33109 [unverified, advocate site only]","b":"V","s":["W11S05","W11S41","W11S105"]},"alias_rows":[{"id":"ART004","v":"Model glider/aircraft","main":"Bird figure/toy or weathervane; 2023 aerodynamic study examined lift","b":"S","s":[]},{"id":"W15A03","v":"Model glider / aircraft","main":"Ptolemaic bird figure c.200 BCE (Ptolemaic, 305 BCE-30 CE per DUAA); not capable of flight","b":"V","s":["W15S29","W15S47","W15S48"]}],"sub":[],"src":[{"id":"W11S05","t":"Wikipedia Saqqara Bird","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"},{"id":"W15S47","t":"Digging Up Ancient Aliens: Saqqara bird (cites Cairo Museum registration dept e-mail 2022)","u":"https://diggingupancientaliens.com/Saqqara-bird.html"},{"id":"S0079","t":"Acta Mechanica et Automatica 2023 authors 2023","u":"https://doi.org/10.2478/ama-2023-0046"},{"id":"W15S50","t":"egpelo.ch: 6347 high-wing model","u":"https://www.en.egpelo.ch/egyptians/6347-high-wing-airplane.htm"},{"id":"W15S29","t":"Wikipedia Saqqara Bird","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"},{"id":"W15S48","t":"OverClassified: Saqqara Bird","u":"https://overclassified.org/ancient/saqqara-bird.html"},{"id":"W15S49","t":"Aerodynamic Investigation on the Artefact Bird of Saqqara (Acta Mech. Autom. 2023)","u":"https://doi.org/10.2478/ama-2023-0046"},{"id":"W11S41","t":"egpelo.ch (fringe site; cites Cairo catalogue no. 6347)","u":"https://www.en.egpelo.ch/egyptians/6347-high-wing-airplane.htm"},{"id":"W11S105","t":"OverClassified Saqqara bird page (JE 33109 / SR 4/6347 claim)","u":"https://overclassified.org/ancient/saqqara-bird.html"},{"id":"S0601","t":"Wikipedia: Saqqara Bird","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saqqara_Bird"}],"sum":"A small wooden bird in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo has outstretched wings, an upright tail and no legs. It came from a tomb at Saqqara. To some modern eyes it looks less like a bird than a model aircraft.\n\nThe anatomist Khalil Messiha made that case in print, in a chapter titled \"African Experimental Aeronautics: A 2,000-year-old model glider\", in Ivan Van Sertima's collection Blacks in Science. In 2023 two engineers, Michel Zierow and Leon Lesemann, put the claim to a test in the journal Acta Mechanica et Automatica, published by Bialystok University of Technology. They worked from a 3D scan made with the museum's staff, built a computer model of the carving, and ran a flow simulation at a range of angles.\n\nWhat is hard to explain is the shape itself. The carver gave it wings spread wide and a tail set like a fin, details that drew Messiha's eye. Yet the simulation found a low glide ratio, a centre of gravity behind the point where the wing balances, and uneven lift along the span that makes it roll. The model, the engineers conclude, cannot fly a straight path.\n\nThe mainstream reading is that it is a bird figure, shaped by a carver rather than an engineer. Messiha's view is that it is a scale model of an Egyptian glider. The 2023 study found no link between the carving and any knowledge of aerodynamics in ancient Egypt, and no glider or flying craft has been found in Egypt to support the idea.\n\nIf Egyptians had known how to fly, where would we expect to find the evidence?","qs":["A bird figure looks like a glider to modern eyes. How much of the \"mystery\" comes from us?","Messiha saw an aircraft in a museum case. Why do some readings stick once they are made?","If Egyptians had known how to fly, where would we expect to find the evidence?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Photo_1-plane_front_view1.jpg/1280px-Photo_1-plane_front_view1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photo_1-plane_front_view1.jpg","title":"Photo 1-plane front view1.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Dawoud Khalil Messiha","cap":"front view of the Saqqara glider model discovered by Dr. Khalil Messiha"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Photo_2-plane_side_view1.jpg/1280px-Photo_2-plane_side_view1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photo_2-plane_side_view1.jpg","title":"Photo 2-plane side view1.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Dawoudk","cap":"side view of the glider model of Saqqara-the model resembles a bird but with vertical tail, no legs and straight wings"}],"article":{"id":"W11A03","mode":"rewrite-plus-quick-research","research":"quick","title":"The Saqqara bird: a wooden bird with a tail like a plane","dek":"A palm sized sycamore bird in Cairo has no legs and an upright tail fin. One doctor saw a model glider. Engineers who tested it saw something else.","byline":"The Nommo","updated":"1 Nov 2026","sections":[{"h":"The strangest true fact","p":["Among the wooden bird models in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum is one with no legs, no painted feathers and a tail that stands upright like the fin of an aircraft [3] [1].","The museum’s own curator calls it a unique piece that differs from every other bird figure found in ancient Egypt [1].","Yet when engineers fed a 3D scan of it into a flight simulator in 2023, it rolled over and stalled [2]."]},{"h":"What it is and why it matters","p":["The figure is carved from sycamore wood, with a wingspan of 18 cm and an overall length of 14 cm including the tail, according to curator Dalia Mohamed [1].","It now stands at the entrance to Room 22 of the museum on Tahrir Square [1].","John Lienhard of the University of Houston dates it to the 3rd century BC, the age of invention after Alexander the Great [3].","Lienhard notes that this was the Hellenistic period, which also produced gears, screws, plumbing and Archimedes [3].","Its fame comes from one question: did an Egyptian carver understand how to make something fly, more than 2,000 years before the Wright brothers [3] [2]?"]},{"h":"Key facts and measurements","p":["Wingspan: 18 cm, about the width of a large hand, per the museum curator [1].","Length with tail: 14 cm [1].","Material: sycamore wood [1] [3].","Found: 1898, in a tomb at Saqqara, among other bird models, according to AFP [1].","Weight: published figures disagree, with one magazine giving 14 g and a newspaper 31 g, numbers the glider tester Martin Gregorie called deeply suspect [4].","Lift: the Bremen simulation found a top lift coefficient of 0.47, against about 0.9 for a standard test wing shape known as NACA 0012 [2]."]},{"h":"How it was found","p":["The bird came out of a tomb at Saqqara, the great burial ground of ancient Memphis, in 1898 [1].","For decades it sat among the museum’s other bird models without drawing attention [3].","That changed in 1969, when Khalil Messiha, an Egyptian doctor who had built model aircraft as a boy, noticed it was unlike the rest [3].","In 2023 a team in Bremen worked from a 3D photo scan made by Maximilian Schecker with the museum’s staff [2]."]},{"h":"The strongest alternative case","p":["Messiha’s case, as Lienhard retells it, rests on what the figure lacks: legs and feathers, which every other bird in the set has [3].","Real birds have flat tails, he noted, while this one tapers into a vertical fin, the part a model plane needs to fly straight [3].","He also saw a wing with the curved cross section of an airfoil, the shape that makes lift [3].","The curator agrees on the facts, if not the reading: it has no legs, and its wings and rear are straight, unlike other Egyptian bird figures [1].","Messiha’s brother, a flight engineer, built a balsa copy and reported that it flew, Lienhard says [3].","Lienhard added his own speculation that nobody could reach this shape without first working with larger flying models [3].","He conceded that archaeologists have looked in vain for such a prototype, and suggested a large, light model would not survive 2,300 years [3]."]},{"h":"The strongest mainstream case","p":["Michel Zierow and Leon Lesemann ran a computer airflow simulation on the scanned shape and found very high drag and only low lift [2].","Its centre of gravity sits 54 mm behind the nose, near the back of the wing, too far rearward for stable flight [2].","Lift was also lopsided across the wings, so the model would turn right, bank ever more steeply and stall [2].","In their model it reached its best lift at an angle of 9 degrees, with a stall setting in between 6 and 11 degrees [2].","They concluded it could not fly a straight path and could not work as a hand glider [2].","They also pointed out that simple throwing tests were easy in ancient Egypt, and anyone who understood flight would soon have found ways to improve it [2].","Gregorie, a glider designer, built a balsa copy and reported that without an added horizontal tail it simply pitched and tumbled [4].","Weighted to about 21 g to match his estimate for the wooden original, his copy with the big tail flew, in his words, more like a brick with fins than an aircraft [4].","Even with a large tail added, his best glide was poor: 3 metres forward for 1.3 metres of drop, where a modern sailplane does better than 40 to 1 [4].","The curator’s view is that it is a bird as its maker saw one, and a fine piece of craft, not a lesson in flight [1]."]},{"h":"What is still unexplained","p":["Nobody has shown what the figure was for, and the Bremen team urged that future work look at a religious or cultural use [2].","They suggested that the upright fin might suit a weathervane, and Gregorie found his copy pointed steadily into the wind on a pivot [2] [4].","Gregorie also saw signs, such as iron nails, that the wing had been remounted in modern times, which would change its angle and offset [4].","Why one carver left off the legs and turned the tail upright is a question no published study has answered [1] [2]."]},{"h":"Related places","p":["Other ancient objects read as lost technology follow below; whether any of them share a story with this bird is an open question."]},{"h":"A closing thought","p":["A child’s toy, a weathervane and a sacred offering would all leave the same wooden bird behind, so which clue, still buried in a Saqqara tomb, could tell them apart?"]}],"sources":[{"n":1,"text":"AFP Fact Check (Arabic service), “This image is not of an ancient Egyptian model aircraft”, 7 November 2024, with comments from Dalia Mohamed, curator at the Egyptian Museum, Tahrir Square, Cairo (in Arabic; translated for this article)","url":"https://factcheckarabic.afp.com/doc.afp.com.36LQ83Z"},{"n":2,"text":"Zierow, Michel, and Leon Lesemann, “Aerodynamic Investigation on the Artefact ‘Bird of Saqqara’”, Acta Mechanica et Automatica 17(3), 2023, Institute of Aerospace Technology, City University of Applied Sciences Bremen (peer reviewed, full text)","url":"https://doi.org/10.2478/ama-2023-0046"},{"n":3,"text":"Lienhard, John, “An Egyptian Model Airplane”, The Engines of Our Ingenuity, episode 328, University of Houston College of Engineering (radio essay retelling Khalil Messiha’s case, citing Messiha in Blacks in Science, 1991)","url":"https://engines.egr.uh.edu/episode/328"},{"n":4,"text":"Gregorie, Martin, “Flying the Saqqara Bird”, Catchpenny Mysteries (secondary: a flight test by an experienced free flight glider designer, not peer reviewed)","url":"https://www.catchpenny.org/birdtest.html"}],"source_note":"Record measurements: the 18 cm wingspan is kept, now from the Cairo museum curator via AFP, with her 14 cm overall length added; the 1898 find year is kept from AFP. The 39.12 g mass, the tomb of Pa-di-Imen, the 1899 date and the museum numbers came only from Wikipedia or enthusiast sites not reopened, and are cut; two published weights of 14 g and 31 g are shown only as Gregorie reports them, with his warning that they are suspect. Gregorie is labelled as a secondary hobbyist test.","related":["W11A04","W11A21","W11A02"]}},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"18","u":"cm","h":"Wingspan; it weighs only 39 g","s":[182]},{"v":"wingspan 18 cm","h":"Recorded dimensions: wingspan 18 cm; mass 39.12 g","s":[183]},{"v":"Sycamore wood","h":"Made of","s":[183]},{"v":"Tomb of Pa-di-Imen","h":"Where it was found: Tomb of Pa-di-Imen, Saqqara, 1898","s":[183]}],"hs":{"182":["Wikipedia: Saqqara Bird (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saqqara_Bird"],"183":["Wikipedia Saqqara Bird","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Saqqara_Bird&oldid=1337657903"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/W11A03.webp","w":1280,"h":893,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Photo_1-plane_front_view1.jpg/1280px-Photo_1-plane_front_view1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}