Dog-Headed Men Were Documented by Explorers Marco Polo & Christopher Columbus

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As strange and disturbing as it may seem, throughout history, there have been numerous accounts of dog-headed people living in distant lands. You’ve probably seen images of cynocephalus before.. “cyno”, means dog- and “cephalus” means “of the head.”

The characteristic of cynocephaly, or cynocephalus, having the head of a dog or jackal, is a widely documented phenomenon existing in many different forms and contexts. The literal meaning of "cynocephaly" is "dog-headed"; however, that this refers to a human body with a dog head is implied. Such cynocephalics are known in mythology and legend from many parts of the world, including ancient Egypt, India, Greece, and China. In addition, documented, concise notes exist from the writings of Christopher Columbus along with Marco Polo detailing their own sightings.

Reports of dog-headed races can also be traced back to Greek antiquity. In the fifth century BC, the Greek physician Ctesias, in his Indica, wrote a detailed report on the existence of cynocephali in India. Similarly, the Greek traveler Megasthenes claimed to know about dog-headed people in India who lived in the mountains, communicated through barking, wore the skins of wild animals and lived by hunting.

Claudius Aelianus also mentioned the dog-headed tribes in India, and he, too, wrote that they are of human shape and clothed in the skins of beasts. He also added that although they have no speech and howled to communicate, they were capable of understanding the Indian language. Herodotus reports claims by ancient Libyans that such creatures inhabit the east of their lands, as well as headless men and various other anomalies.

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