The mastiff is perhaps the oldest breed of dog in the world. There are mastiffs on early Egyptian wall paintings and on the friezes of the Assyrians. His closest living relative is the Anatolian mastiff shepherd, a breed that spread across the kingdom of Alexander from Turkey, where they are called Kangal or Karabash (meaning black-faced), to Uzbekistan. The British Museum holds a copy of a Greek statue of a mastiff of the period of Alexander. It is two and a half feet high at the shoulder and sits with its great paws in front of it and its hindquarters folded sideways. It has cocked its head.
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