Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx

After decades of research, American archaeologist Mark Lehner has some answers about the mysteries of the Egyptian colossus

By Evan Hadingham
Smithsonian magazine, February 2010, Subscribe

Carved in place from limestone, the Sphinx is among the world's largest statues. (Sandro Vannini / Corbis)

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This past fall, at the behest of “Nova” documentary makers, Lehner and Rick Brown, a professor of sculpture at the Massachusetts College of Art, attempted to learn more about construction of the Sphinx by sculpting a scaled-down version of its missing nose from a limestone block, using replicas of ancient tools found on the Giza plateau and depicted in tomb paintings. Forty-five centuries ago, the Egyptians lacked iron or bronze tools. They mainly used stone hammers, along with copper chisels for detailed finished work.

Bashing away in the yard of Brown’s studio near Boston, Brown, assisted by art students, found that the copper chisels became blunt after only a few blows before they had to be resharpened in a forge that Brown constructed out of a charcoal furnace. Lehner and Brown estimate one laborer might carve a cubic foot of stone in a week. At that rate, they say, it would take 100 people three years to complete the Sphinx.

Exactly what Khafre wanted the Sphinx to do for him or his kingdom is a matter of debate, but Lehner has theories about that, too, based partly on his work at the Sphinx Temple. Remnants of the temple walls are visible today in front of the Sphinx. They surround a courtyard enclosed by 24 pillars. The temple plan is laid out on an east-west axis, clearly marked by a pair of small niches or sanctuaries, each about the size of a closet. The Swiss archaeologist Herbert Ricke, who studied the temple in the late 1960s, concluded the axis symbolized the movements of the sun; an east-west line points to where the sun rises and sets twice a year at the equinoxes, halfway between midsummer and midwinter. Ricke further argued that each pillar represented an hour in the sun’s daily circuit.

Lehner spotted something perhaps even more remarkable. If you stand in the eastern niche during sunset at the March or September equinoxes, you see a dramatic astronomical event: the sun appears to sink into the shoulder of the Sphinx and, beyond that, into the south side of the Pyramid of Khafre on the horizon. “At the very same moment,” Lehner says, “the shadow of the Sphinx and the shadow of the pyramid, both symbols of the king, become merged silhouettes. The Sphinx itself, it seems, symbolized the pharaoh presenting offerings to the sun god in the court of the temple.” Hawass concurs, saying the Sphinx represents Khafre as Horus, the Egyptians’ revered royal falcon god, “who is giving offerings with his two paws to his father, Khufu, incarnated as the sun god, Ra, who rises and sets in that temple.”

Equally intriguing, Lehner discovered that when one stands near the Sphinx during the summer solstice, the sun appears to set midway between the silhouettes of the pyramids of Khafre and Khufu. The scene resembles the hieroglyph akhet, which can be translated as “horizon” but also symbolized the cycle of life and rebirth. “Even if coincidental, it is hard to imagine the Egyptians not seeing this ideogram,” Lehner wrote in the Archive of Oriental Research. “If somehow intentional, it ranks as an example of architectural illusionism on a grand, maybe the grandest, scale.”

If Lehner and Hawass are right, Khafre’s architects arranged for solar events to link the pyramid, Sphinx and temple. Collectively, Lehner describes the complex as a cosmic engine, intended to harness the power of the sun and other gods to resurrect the soul of the pharaoh. This transformation not only guaranteed eternal life for the dead ruler but also sustained the universal natural order, including the passing of the seasons, the annual flooding of the Nile and the daily lives of the people. In this sacred cycle of death and revival, the Sphinx may have stood for many things: as an image of Khafre the dead king, as the sun god incarnated in the living ruler and as guardian of the underworld and the Giza tombs.

But it seems Khafre’s vision was never fully realized. There are signs the Sphinx was unfinished. In 1978, in a corner of the statue’s quarry, Hawass and Lehner found three stone blocks, abandoned as laborers were dragging them to build the Sphinx Temple. The north edge of the ditch surrounding the Sphinx contains segments of bedrock that are only partially quarried. Here the archaeologists also found the remnants of a workman’s lunch and tool kit—fragments of a beer or water jar and stone hammers. Apparently, the workers walked off the job.

The enormous temple-and-Sphinx complex might have been the pharaoh’s resurrection machine, but, Lehner is fond of saying, “nobody turned the key and switched it on.” By the time the Old Kingdom finally broke apart around 2,130 B.C., the desert sands had begun to reclaim the Sphinx. It would sit ignored for the next seven centuries, when it spoke to a young royal.

When Mark Lehner was a teenager in the late 1960s, his parents introduced him to the writings of the famed clairvoyant Edgar Cayce. During one of his trances, Cayce, who died in 1945, saw that refugees from the lost city of Atlantis buried their secrets in a hall of records under the Sphinx and that the hall would be discovered before the end of the 20th century.

In 1971, Lehner, a bored sophomore at the University of North Dakota, wasn’t planning to search for lost civilizations, but he was “looking for something, a meaningful involvement.” He dropped out of school, began hitchhiking and ended up in Virginia Beach, where he sought out Cayce’s son, Hugh Lynn, the head of a holistic medicine and paranormal research foundation his father had started. When the foundation sponsored a group tour of the Giza plateau—the site of the Sphinx and the pyramids on the western outskirts of Cairo—Lehner tagged along. “It was hot and dusty and not very majestic,” he remembers.

Still, he returned, finishing his undergraduate education at the American University of Cairo with support from Cayce’s foundation. Even as he grew skeptical about a lost hall of records, the site’s strange history exerted its pull. “There were thousands of tombs of real people, statues of real people with real names, and none of them figured in the Cayce stories,” he says.

Lehner married an Egyptian woman and spent the ensuing years plying his drafting skills to win work mapping archaeological sites all over Egypt. In 1977, he joined Stanford Research Institute scientists using state-of-the-art remote-sensing equipment to analyze the bedrock under the Sphinx. They found only the cracks and fissures expected of ordinary limestone formations. Working closely with a young Egyptian archaeologist named Zahi Hawass, Lehner also explored and mapped a passage in the Sphinx’s rump, concluding that treasure hunters likely had dug it after the statue was built.

No human endeavor has been more associated with mystery than the huge, ancient lion that has a human head and is seemingly resting on the rocky plateau a stroll from the great pyramids. Fortunately for Lehner, it wasn’t just a metaphor that the Sphinx is a riddle. Little was known for certain about who erected it or when, what it represented and precisely how it related to the pharaonic monuments nearby. So Lehner settled in, working for five years out of a makeshift office between the Sphinx’s colossal paws, subsisting on Nescafé and cheese sandwiches while he examined every square inch of the structure. He remembers “climbing all over the Sphinx like the Lilliputians on Gulliver, and mapping it stone by stone.” The result was a uniquely detailed picture of the statue’s worn, patched surface, which had been subjected to at least five major restoration efforts since 1,400 B.C. The research earned him a doctorate in Egyptology at Yale.

Recognized today as one of the world’s leading Egyptologists and Sphinx authorities, Lehner has conducted field research at Giza during most of the 37 years since his first visit. (Hawass, his friend and frequent collaborator, is the secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and controls access to the Sphinx, the pyramids and other government-owned sites and artifacts.) Applying his archaeological sleuthing to the surrounding two-square-mile Giza plateau with its pyramids, temples, quarries and thousands of tombs, Lehner helped confirm what others had speculated—that some parts of the Giza complex, the Sphinx included, make up a vast sacred machine designed to harness the power of the sun to sustain the earthly and divine order. And while he long ago gave up on the fabled library of Atlantis, it’s curious, in light of his early wanderings, that he finally did discover a Lost City.

The Sphinx was not assembled piece by piece but was carved from a single mass of limestone exposed when workers dug a horseshoe-shaped quarry in the Giza plateau. Approximately 66 feet tall and 240 feet long, it is one of the largest and oldest monolithic statues in the world. None of the photos or sketches I’d seen prepared me for the scale. It was a humbling sensation to stand between the creature’s paws, each twice my height and longer than a city bus. I gained sudden empathy for what a mouse must feel like when cornered by a cat.

Nobody knows its original name. Sphinx is the human-headed lion in ancient Greek mythology; the term likely came into use some 2,000 years after the statue was built. There are hundreds of tombs at Giza with hieroglyphic inscriptions dating back some 4,500 years, but not one mentions the statue. “The Egyptians didn’t write history,” says James Allen, an Egyptologist at Brown University, “so we have no solid evidence for what its builders thought the Sphinx was....Certainly something divine, presumably the image of a king, but beyond that is anyone’s guess.” Likewise, the statue’s symbolism is unclear, though inscriptions from the era refer to Ruti, a double lion god that sat at the entrance to the underworld and guarded the horizon where the sun rose and set.

The face, though better preserved than most of the statue, has been battered by centuries of weathering and vandalism. In 1402, an Arab historian reported that a Sufi zealot had disfigured it “to remedy some religious errors.” Yet there are clues to what the face looked like in its prime. Archaeological excavations in the early 19th century found pieces of its carved stone beard and a royal cobra emblem from its headdress. Residues of red pigment are still visible on the face, leading researchers to conclude that at some point, the Sphinx’s entire visage was painted red. Traces of blue and yellow paint elsewhere suggest to Lehner that the Sphinx was once decked out in gaudy comic book colors.

For thousands of years, sand buried the colossus up to its shoulders, creating a vast disembodied head atop the eastern edge of the Sahara. Then, in 1817, a Genoese adventurer, Capt. Giovanni Battista Caviglia, led 160 men in the first modern attempt to dig out the Sphinx. They could not hold back the sand, which poured into their excavation pits nearly as fast as they could dig it out. The Egyptian archaeologist Selim Hassan finally freed the statue from the sand in the late 1930s. “The Sphinx has thus emerged into the landscape out of shadows of what seemed to be an impenetrable oblivion,” the New York Times declared.

The question of who built the Sphinx has long vexed Egyptologists and archaeologists. Lehner, Hawass and others agree it was Pharaoh Khafre, who ruled Egypt during the Old Kingdom, which began around 2,600 B.C. and lasted some 500 years before giving way to civil war and famine. It’s known from hieroglyphic texts that Khafre’s father, Khufu, built the 481-foot-tall Great Pyramid, a quarter mile from where the Sphinx would later be built. Khafre, following a tough act, constructed his own pyramid, ten feet shorter than his father’s, also a quarter of a mile behind the Sphinx. Some of the evidence linking Khafre with the Sphinx comes from Lehner’s research, but the idea dates back to 1853.

That’s when a French archaeologist named Auguste Mariette unearthed a life-size statue of Khafre, carved with startling realism from black volcanic rock, amid the ruins of a building he discovered adjacent to the Sphinx that would later be called the Valley Temple. What’s more, Mariette found the remnants of a stone causeway—a paved, processional road—connecting the Valley Temple to a mortuary temple next to Khafre’s pyramid. Then, in 1925, French archaeologist and engineer Emile Baraize probed the sand directly in front of the Sphinx and discovered yet another Old Kingdom building—now called the Sphinx Temple—strikingly similar in its ground plan to the ruins Mariette had already found.

Despite these clues that a single master building plan tied the Sphinx to Khafre’s pyramid and his temples, some experts continued to speculate that Khufu or other pharaohs had built the statue. Then, in 1980, Lehner recruited a young German geologist, Tom Aigner, who suggested a novel way of showing that the Sphinx was an integral part of Khafre’s larger building complex. Limestone is the result of mud, coral and the shells of plankton-like creatures compressed together over tens of millions of years. Looking at samples from the Sphinx Temple and the Sphinx itself, Aigner and Lehner inventoried the different fossils making up the limestone. The fossil fingerprints showed that the blocks used to build the wall of the temple must have come from the ditch surrounding the Sphinx. Apparently, workmen, probably using ropes and wooden sledges, hauled away the quarried blocks to construct the temple as the Sphinx was being carved out of the stone.

That Khafre arranged for construction of his pyramid, the temples and the Sphinx seems increasingly likely. “Most scholars believe, as I do,” Hawass wrote in his 2006 book, Mountain of the Pharaohs, “that the Sphinx represents Khafre and forms an integral part of his pyramid complex.”

But who carried out the backbreaking work of creating the Sphinx? In 1990, an American tourist was riding in the desert half a mile south of the Sphinx when she was thrown from her horse after it stumbled on a low mud-brick wall. Hawass investigated and discovered an Old Kingdom cemetery. Some 600 people were buried there, with tombs belonging to overseers—identified by inscriptions recording their names and titles—surrounded by the humbler tombs of ordinary laborers.

Near the cemetery, nine years later, Lehner discovered his Lost City. He and Hawass had been aware since the mid-1980s that there were buildings at that site. But it wasn’t until they excavated and mapped the area that they realized it was a settlement bigger than ten football fields and dating to Khafre’s reign. At its heart were four clusters of eight long mud-brick barracks. Each structure had the elements of an ordinary house—a pillared porch, sleeping platforms and a kitchen—that was enlarged to accommodate around 50 people sleeping side by side. The barracks, Lehner says, could have accommodated between 1,600 to 2,000 workers—or more, if the sleeping quarters were on two levels. The workers’ diet indicates they weren’t slaves. Lehner’s team found remains of mostly male cattle under 2 years old—in other words, prime beef. Lehner thinks ordinary Egyptians may have rotated in and out of the work crew under some sort of national service or feudal obligation to their superiors.

According to the legend engraved on a pink granite slab between the Sphinx’s paws, the Egyptian prince Thutmose went hunting in the desert, grew tired and lay down in the shade of the Sphinx. In a dream, the statue, calling itself Horemakhet—or Horus-in-the-Horizon, the earliest known Egyptian name for the statue—addressed him. It complained about its ruined body and the encroaching sand. Horemakhet then offered Thutmose the throne in exchange for help.

Whether or not the prince actually had this dream is unknown. But when he became Pharaoh Thutmose IV, he helped introduce a Sphinx-worshiping cult to the New Kingdom (1550-1070 B.C.). Across Egypt, sphinxes appeared everywhere in sculptures, reliefs and paintings, often depicted as a potent symbol of royalty and the sacred power of the sun.

Based on Lehner’s analysis of the many layers of stone slabs placed like tilework over the Sphinx’s crumbling surface, he believes the oldest slabs may date back as far as 3,400 years to Thutmose’s time. In keeping with the legend of Horemakhet, Thutmose may well have led the first attempt to restore the Sphinx.

When Lehner is in the United States, typically about six months per year, he works out of an office in Boston, the headquarters of Ancient Egypt Research Associates, a nonprofit organization Lehner directs that excavates the Lost City and trains young Egyptologists. At a meeting with him at his office this past fall, he unrolled one of his countless maps of the Sphinx on a table. Pointing to a section where an old tunnel had cut into the statue, he said the elements had taken a toll on the Sphinx in the first few centuries after it was built. The porous rock soaks up moisture, degrading the limestone. For Lehner, this posed yet another riddle—what was the source of so much moisture in Giza’s seemingly bone-dry desert?

The Sahara has not always been a wilderness of sand dunes. German climatologists Rudolph Kuper and Stefan Kröpelin, analyzing the radiocarbon dates of archaeological sites, recently concluded that the region’s prevailing climate pattern changed around 8,500 B.C., with the monsoon rains that covered the tropics moving north. The desert sands sprouted rolling grasslands punctuated by verdant valleys, prompting people to begin settling the region in 7,000 B.C. Kuper and Kröpelin say this green Sahara came to an end between 3,500 B.C. and 1,500 B.C., when the monsoon belt returned to the tropics and the desert reemerged. That date range is 500 years later than prevailing theories had suggested.

Further studies led by Kröpelin revealed that the return to a desert climate was a gradual process spanning centuries. This transitional period was characterized by cycles of ever-decreasing rains and extended dry spells. Support for this theory can be found in recent research conducted by Judith Bunbury, a geologist at the University of Cambridge. After studying sediment samples in the Nile Valley, she concluded that climate change in the Giza region began early in the Old Kingdom, with desert sands arriving in force late in the era.

The work helps explain some of Lehner’s findings. His investigations at the Lost City revealed that the site had eroded dramatically—with some structures reduced to ankle level over a period of three to four centuries after their construction. “So I had this realization,” he says, “Oh my God, this buzz saw that cut our site down is probably what also eroded the Sphinx.” In his view of the patterns of erosion on the Sphinx, intermittent wet periods dissolved salt deposits in the limestone, which recrystallized on the surface, causing softer stone to crumble while harder layers formed large flakes that would be blown away by desert winds. The Sphinx, Lehner says, was subjected to constant “scouring” during this transitional era of climate change.

“It’s a theory in progress,” says Lehner. “If I’m right, this episode could represent a kind of ‘tipping point’ between different climate states—from the wetter conditions of Khufu and Khafre’s era to a much drier environment in the last centuries of the Old Kingdom.”

The implication is that the Sphinx and the pyramids, epic feats of engineering and architecture, were built at the end of a special time of more dependable rainfall, when pharaohs could marshal labor forces on an epic scale. But then, over the centuries, the landscape dried out and harvests grew more precarious. The pharaoh’s central authority gradually weakened, allowing provincial officials to assert themselves—culminating in an era of civil war.

Today, the Sphinx is still eroding. Three years ago, Egyptian authorities learned that sewage dumped in a nearby canal was causing a rise in the local water table. Moisture was drawn up into the body of the Sphinx and large flakes of limestone were peeling off the statue.

Hawass arranged for workers to drill test holes in the bedrock around the Sphinx. They found the water table was only 15 feet beneath the statue. Pumps have been installed nearby to divert the groundwater. So far, so good. “Never say to anyone that we saved the Sphinx,” he says. “The Sphinx is the oldest patient in the world. All of us have to dedicate our lives to nursing the Sphinx all the time.”

Evan Hadingham is senior science editor of the PBS series “Nova.” Its “Riddles of the Sphinx” aired on January 19.

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Comments (100)

great facts

Posted by on April 18,2013 | 01:29 PM

Thank you i loved this web site it was very helpful!!! <3

Posted by kate on March 12,2013 | 06:48 PM

i love this cite it is so imforming on the sphinx

Posted by trevor f on February 7,2013 | 10:12 AM

very good website x greaty facts

Posted by deborah on January 24,2013 | 05:45 AM

good website full of facts

Posted by lilly on January 24,2013 | 05:43 AM

This information only has one topic: trying to find an underground secret room where some "alantians" put their records before "atlantis" sank below the ocean. This doesn't help me at all. I'm trying to write a 3-page essay on the sphinx in my social studies class, and this is the worst website i've been too. You say you are "uncovering the sphinx" but all your doing is writing a biography on that Lehner guy.

Posted by Alex Barberini on January 21,2013 | 08:19 AM

this stuff is very interesting before I read this I knew nothing about the sphinx now I know like everything. this passage is so informative I can get a 1,000,000 word essay and do it all

Posted by Ayslinn on January 14,2013 | 03:14 PM

The proportions of the Great Sphinx show me not a lion, but a cheetah. Look at the long legs, relatively small head. Wild cheetahs today have a very unexpected genetic pattern- they are all genetically practically identical. This suggests that the species has an unusual history. We know that cheetahs were kept as hunting animals in ancient Egypt, but it may go far beyond that. I think today's cheetahs might be survivors of cats domesticated ages ago and bred by prehistoric African cultures, and that the Great Sphinx is a record of the connection between man and cheetah in forgotten, pre-dynastic Egypt.

Posted by joe poore on December 19,2012 | 09:29 PM

Not very helpful

Posted by Octavia Evans on December 12,2012 | 10:13 AM

I have read the article thru. It's wrong to assume ancient Egyptians lacked steel tools. They had them! You have dug only 1/16 to get to the bottom of Giza where they lay. It is simple; If NY is covered with sand, and a primitive man see one of its tallest building at his foot he will claim that he has discovered something interesting. But then he has seen only a roof. You can never see cranes which built the skyscraper at the roof. What you see at Giza is only a roof. Simple.

Posted by Allan Lema on December 8,2012 | 06:55 AM

interesting! :D

Posted by bob on December 7,2012 | 04:31 PM

Very intresting stuff!

Posted by hi on October 28,2012 | 02:24 PM

Very intresting stuff!

Posted by hi on October 28,2012 | 02:24 PM

The sphinx and the Great Pyramid was built by The Great Thoth The Atlantean. He reveals its secrets in his Emerald Tablets.

Posted by Alex on September 10,2012 | 02:44 PM

hey guys, do u think that there were other civs that occupied this world before us? Do you think that Earth was once a moon of the mighty planet Jupiter, but was still able to sustain life, resulting in a lower gravitational pull, resulting in all of those 7' humanoids that we keep uncovering in ancient Australia? Do u think that the world was knocked out of jupiters orbit, resulting in the ice age as it floated over to its current orbit? Tell me what u think, im very interested in history and others opinions.

Posted by Michael on August 30,2012 | 11:54 AM

Intriguing information. The Sphinx has been a mystery for a long time, and thanks to science we are starting to unravel the puzzle.

Posted by Telebrands on August 24,2012 | 11:31 AM

Mark lener didn't discover the cavran under the phinxs it was dr west who set out to prove the, spinx is older then what we knw Accidentally came across. The halls of my great ancestors. Among the hall will be a scroll with a orib speaking of how the travelers came to earth what they were escapeing from. And is comeing for us

Posted by qahir on August 6,2012 | 12:01 PM

Yes, I agree that The Sphinx is related to the constellation LEO and the mystery will be revealed at the new cycle when Earth becomes a sacred planet. Therefore certainly older than egyptologist's thought before, at least 12,000.00 years. Right-hand foot contains records. It is so said the for political reason the truth is not admited yet.

Posted by Aniko on August 4,2012 | 05:05 PM

I have discovered the true purpose of the Sphinx and the Sphinx Temple in front of it. When rain fell during the Old Kingdom, the water flowed down the Giza Plateau and descended into the moat that surrounds the Sphinx. This is why it was called Horemakheti, which translates to "King in the water basin". The water was transferred to the Sphinx temple, where it was stored like a cistern. The water was consumed in lieu of any other better source (no one drank the Nile river water). I have also discovered that all of the pyramids were used to catch rainwater. The causeways are aqueducts. The valley temples are cisterns. Please read "Rainwater: The Answer to the Pyramids.

Posted by Patrick Giles on July 9,2012 | 10:15 AM

Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx In 1977, Mart Lehner joined Stanford Research Institute scientists, and he began study the bedrock under the Sphinx, found only the cracks and fissures expected of ordinary limestone formation. Lehner also explored and mapped a passage in the Sphinx’s rump, concluding that treasure hunters likely had dug it after the statue was built. Lehner worked there for five years to examine the structure in detail, and mapped it stone by stone. The Sphinx looks like a huge lion with a human head which was not assembled piece by piece but it was carved from a single mass of limestone. Sphinx is 66 feet tall and 240 feet long, and it is one of the largest and oldest monolithic statues in the world. I agreed with the article that nobody knows its original name. I like the huge construction of the Sphinx because Sphinx was carved from spur of rock, and that statue represented a pharaoh. A lion with a human head was carved in that regime; lion presented for strength likes lion, and a human head stood for intelligence, the head of a pharaoh. The technique construction of Great Sphinx is excellence; it took many years, and many people to do it. Many sculptors combined their jobs excellence, each sculptors worked on their jobs, and at last unique their jobs to have a full imagine of a lion with human head. I do not like the article at the point that explorers did not show any clue about people in the ancient Greek could live under the Sphinx or not, such as any utensils, and stoves remain in carve? And this article also left me a question. Were there any other reasons that ancient Greek to construct Great Sphinx differ to show up strength and intelligence of pharaoh? Such as was it a shelter for soldiers to protect the king? Or was it a shelter for tornado?

Posted by Nghia Cao on June 18,2012 | 08:27 AM

please MR Lehner and Drs Hawass you are 50 percent right. THE SPHINX IS NOT 9000 YEARS OLDER as you clam my I CAN PROVE IT THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESEARCH IT HAS BEEN VERY USEFUL CONTACT ME IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH P.S. EGYPTOLOGY-GIST are only 50 percent right too

Posted by lew hunt on May 16,2012 | 12:49 PM

this is a wonderful article. Where can I get more information from Lehner and Hawass?

Posted by maleisha hurst on May 8,2012 | 03:28 AM

I am always disappointed when theories other than the old version of the history of the pyramids and the Sphinx are mentioned as impossible or ridiculous . There is more to these sites than we know. I look forward to the day when all is revealed, if I live that long. But if that is the case, I will know all in the afterlife.

Posted by Margaret NelsonI am always disappointed on April 19,2012 | 04:15 AM

there is no way the sphynx ever had a beard. the surface of the stone is to smooth. the pile on his chest is most likely his nose. and has anyone considered that they carved the whole place right where it is? why would anyone lift a rock that size twice? why are all the lines of sediment in perfect lines?

Posted by Hickory Donithan on April 12,2012 | 08:15 PM

yeahh

Posted by massum hussain on April 11,2012 | 04:38 PM

The Sphinx is related to the constellation LEO and the mystery will be revealed at the new cycle when Earth becomes a sacred planet. Right-hand foot contains records.

Posted by Cosmic Leo on March 25,2012 | 12:08 AM

Has there been any research into the Sphinx representing the Horse Head Nebula in the constellation Orion?

Posted by Sean Parcells on March 19,2012 | 09:18 PM

In my opinion and after the reading of many books on this subject, I have come to the conclusion that the Pyramids and the Sphinx are much older than what Hawaz claims, at least 13 thousand years or more,if not about 25k years as the sphinx proves with the water erosion details on it. The Sphinx and Pyramids were built in the days before Egypt and that part of the world became a Desert.
Dr`s Schoch and Smith makes more sense and gives more concrete and sensible evidence that the Monuments are far older than suggested by Dr.Hawaz and his Partner.
These monuments were not built by the ARABS.
But by a race of People unknown to us to this day.
The Monuments were discovered by the people we know today as Arabs or Egyptians.
If the Arabs did build these monuments, then why did they not develope as the Europeans have developed to this day.
The Monument builders were more inteligent than present day Europeans. Funny that all People of colour live in a backward way and are called 3rd World Country`s.
So much to learn and so lttle time in a person`s lifespan on Earth.

Posted by Barry on February 19,2012 | 07:44 AM

I have been researching the Sphinx for seven years, and I am convinced that it was used to collect rainwater as it flowed across the plateau. The water was then transferred into the Sphinx Temple, which was actually a cistern.

Posted by Patrick Giles on December 28,2011 | 02:43 PM

At this point I am almost completely convinced that the Sphinx definitely predates the reign of khafre. There is absolutely ZERO evidence to suggest he built it, as the face does not look like him, and the only heiroglyphs that tie him to the structure are not only circumstantial at best, but they are also no longer available for scrutiny. Not to mention the fact that the mud-bricks at the step pyramid of saqaara are still supporting each other even though they are supposed to pre-date the heavily eroded sphinx. In fact, the sphinx and its enclosure are the only areas of the complex to show such high levels of erosion. How is this possible if it was all built in relatively the same period?
In addition, we are also given the fact that the earliest repairs to the sphinx were supposed to have been made a mere 300 years after khafre's death. It would not have been eroded enough to have to repair it in such a small period of time.
And what about the strangely disproportionate features of the sphinx? The length of the base and size of the paws is not even close to being accurate enough to support the hypothesis that it is still in the original form in which it was carved. Even taking the severe weathering into account. Also, how can one explain the fact that even though the head is of harder limestone, it is not NEAR as eroded as the body? Regardless of the fact that it supposedly sat exposed above the sand for thousands of years, being battered by wind and sand, while the body remained sealed beneath the surface of the desert, it just doesn't make sense.
Hopefully over the next few decades, unbaised, truth-seeking individuals and researches will uncover enough evidence to put these greedy, ignorant egyptologists in their place.

Posted by Chris Comland on November 24,2011 | 07:33 PM

To the person above who is so convinced we are being lied to: If you are so convinced you are being lied to take a team of archeologists you trust with you and have them do the sonar and radar and laser light echograms in front of you so you can be assured that the results aren't fabricated.

Posted by David on November 9,2011 | 09:43 AM

Zawi Hawass is a disgrace to all truth seekers.Lehman is automatically discredited by his admitted friendship.My sympathies to the Edgar Cayce Society for being infiltrated and taken to the cleaners by this unscrupulous man.

Posted by Julian Alien on October 16,2011 | 04:40 PM

I've read that some antiquities experts have concluded that the original head of the "Sphinx" was that of a jackal and that a statue of Horus was erected between its paws, directly beneath the head. Timing of these theories may not coincide, however. In any case, I suspect that a powerful motivating force operated behind the construction of all such artifacts, worldwide. The advanced mathematics involved in constructing the pyramids is astounding, the more so as their age may be considerably more than modern investigators will admit. Much of the necessary skills involved in erecting these gigantic structures points to possible involvement of extra-human contributions a very long time ago. Let's hope we get more concrete facts in our lifetimes! All the Best... Russ

Posted by Russell Boerner on September 10,2011 | 01:49 PM

This article with its absence of any mention of Drs. Schoch and West and the confirmation of a longstanding collaboration and friendship between Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehner only strengthens the argument of a deliberate campaign to discredit the theories of Drs. Schoch and West. The possibility of rewriting Egyptian history was not in the best interests of Drs. Hawass and Lehner who used their weight in the world of Egyptology and their popularity with the public to protect their personal positions.

I agree with Jeff's comments oon July 25th. Can anyone respond to the questions of Chris R?

Posted by S Gordon Mark on August 29,2011 | 05:14 AM

It is a pitiful shame how historians are denying the origin and meaning of the Sphinx.

Posted by Anne on July 19,2011 | 10:49 PM

The Sphinx is looking east. It therefore would see the sun rise. 10700 years ago it would have seen the constellation of Leo rise at the time of spring equinox. Virgo was the previous constellation, that may explain the lion/human combination.

It could indeed mean the start of a cycle, a new age.

Posted by Dirk on June 13,2011 | 12:52 PM

ok soo why dont they use ground breaking radar then get perission to dig an appropiate place and see whats down there?!!!!! its simple

Posted by elijuwon on April 3,2011 | 12:24 AM

Very fasinated by all the research and stories on the Sphinx. I do beleive that some day the real truth will come fourth and show that highly advanced civilized humans were here many,many years ago. ( The history books will have to be changed ).IT IS LONG OVER DUE.

Posted by DAVID A VEMB on March 12,2011 | 01:54 AM

All well-known pyramids of Egypt: "Khufu's", "Khafre's", "Menkaure's", Djoser's, Meidum, bent and red pyramids are sacred to Atlantis people, to revere souls of the Atlantis people. Additionally the Giza complex exactly indicates the astronomical date of the deluge (22±1 October 10,465B.C.). Thus the Giza complex had been sacred to global deluge in 10,465B.C. as well. Symbolical graves in the pyramids have been sacred to victims, to their souls. The treasures, things and tools in the closed rooms of the pyramids are the heavenly gifts for the souls.
Best wishes,
K. Margiani
Founder new field of science Cosmogeology

Posted by K. Margiani on December 17,2010 | 12:41 PM

I LOVE this article!!!!!

Posted by Ashley on October 25,2010 | 08:22 PM

Hello,
The Sphinx and three pyramids are marker of time of new αώ cycle that will be finished after few centuries in 2,400 ± 50. This is a message send by ancient civilization to us about finished old αώ cycle. Ancient anniversary Zep-Tepi had been sacred to new αώ cycle and was the proof about the beginning of the new αώ epoch.
We have a greatest epoch of the prohibited History. Lots of artifacts of the pre-flood history are forbidden by false "fathers" of the mainstreams. 30,000 Atlantian or Olmecian artifacts found by Scottish Mineralogist and Archeologist William Niven are hidden in the museums of New York and Mexico. Lots of so called "researches" are written for the money, not for the Truth. They could rise lots of money for the falsification of the our real history. "Fathers" of the falsifications led by Dr. Zahi Hawass and Dr . Mark Lehner have the ostrich position against the modern discoveries made by many investigators. These video clips in the link are taken from the interesting investigations and closely connected to the much more sensational discovery that the Atlantis City. If you know Geology can understand everything!

http://www.cosmogeology.ge/chapter-25.htm

Best wishes,
K. Margiani
Founder new field of science Cosmogeology

Posted by K. Margiani on September 18,2010 | 11:41 AM

I have always thought that the Sphinx's head was once much larger and probably carved as a head of a lion. As it is now carved it is not portioned to the body. I do not know who first erected it but I do not think it was a pharaoh. I think a pharaoh had it re-carved to his liking. The Egyptians were extraordinary builders and artist that I never thought they would not see how the head was too small...but opinion is, well,like the saying goes...

Posted by s. Cowen on September 17,2010 | 09:19 AM

Anyone who knows the politics of this field of research recognizes this article for what it is. I can only conclude that the author and Lehner are buddies...how else to explain the absence in this article of Dr. Robert Schoch and his discovery (not Lehner's) that the erosion was due to moisture, not wind. Lehner very reacted defensively to this information back then (aggressively denying the possibility), and he very publicly ended up on the losing end of that very public debate in which the field of geology placed it's strong support firmly behind Dr. Schoch's research and rejected Lehner's lame arguments against it.

The doddering and archaic field of Egyptology still refuses to recognize Dr. Schoch's work because it very clearly shows that the Sphinx is much older than the entrenched field of Egyptology is willing to agree to - because if they do acknowledge Schoch's much older date, their entire chronology is in the toilet...not to mention the reputations of VIP Egyptologists who's careers would be equally flushed.

Posted by Jeff on July 25,2010 | 02:58 AM

Interesting to note that the height corresponds to the 66 books of the Bible and that the face is African...and is generally understood to mean "the dead coming back to life",like the Second Coming of CHRIST.The two paws may represent a dual meaning to the Sphinx.
It may be the "Pillar of Enoch" and be the figure of the end-time anti-Christ born in the sign of Leo the lion.The beast of the Book of Revelation who is a man. It is much older than they know. Enoch was taken to heaven and given information. He left the pillars and the Sphinx and encoded the secrets of the universe and astronomy and all the codes and formulas we later had to discover. They have been left as a message to endure in the Sphinx and pyramids. It also means Ruti and is the Hebrew form of the name Ruth, who was the grandmother of JESUS born many centuries after they were built. He was called the LION OF JUDAH.

Posted by Hannah Robinson on July 10,2010 | 07:31 PM

BTW, have you noticed how everyone fixates on the idea that Cayce & others have said the Hall of Records is under the sphinx, & entry is between the paws? Cayce did not say that. Cayce said it is in FRONT of the right paw somewhere. There are many chambers & such in that direction, clear to the edge of that area. Google Earth pics even show that. I suggest they probably just haven't found it yet. Or..maybe they have. :)

Posted by Skye-hook on May 6,2010 | 06:12 AM

It was interesting to read & the comments are even more interesting. I just wish that only facts would ever be stated in regard to things like this, with the origin of the facts, & any "conclusions" would be stated only as POSSIBILITIES. All the Egyptologists & archeologists have their own pet theories & pet people to try to please, & like so many scientists they too hate to change any tiny detail in their own theories & beliefs, no matter how many facts may point to other possibilities. Egos should have no place in science, & I for one am so discouraged by it. I feel we may never know the real truths simply due to all the egos & all the trying to please the "authorities" & "experts". I don't care who discovered what or who believes what, I just want the facts, just pure facts. How much of the real facts about this do you think we will know in 200 years? Probably very little. It might influence our attention away from those who want to LOOK like they know it all. Very discouraging. James N., I'd be interested to know your thoughts on the end of the last ice age & all the vulcanism at that time. Regardless of the flame comment at you, I can't help wondering if you might be right, or partially right, about geothermal heat. Have you read recently about fossils in Nebraska that indicate mass animal wipe-out around 10500 BC, & that a huge supervolcano in Idaho at that time may have caused it? Your views are very interesting. Myself, I don't care what was previously thought to be right, if it wasn't. And I like to hear interesting thought, without "believing" it. If it can be proved, great. If not, let us ponder it & wonder. It's good for the brain. I like "known facts" too, if they can be proven beyond doubt. If not, they aren't scientific. I suggest we never jump to conclusions or just believe anything til all the real facts are in.

Posted by Skye-hook on May 6,2010 | 06:06 AM

I have seen pictures of the sphinx and have noticed something that does not add up. When you look at the sphinx's body you will notice a lot of erosion and weathering which should appear on the entire sphinx, yet the head does not show any sort of erosion from water and or wind. If this was built originally with the current head we see now, we should see erosion through out the entire sphinx head included but, we do not. Why is that? and also why is the current sphinx head not proportional to the body. You can't just ignore the erosion. The only answer I can come with is that the head we see on the sphinx is not the original head. There was probably a lions head which eroded away though time and when the the sphinx was found by the egyption, they decided to reface the statue and put a human face on what remained of the original head which would explain why it is small in proportion to the rest of the body.

Posted by Chris R on April 5,2010 | 08:22 PM

I was disappointed that the article didn't mention my favorite mystery: Why is the Sphinx's head so small relative to its body? It seems likely it was designed to have a larger head than its current one. Maybe it once had an animal's head and the muzzle broke off, so that recarving it into a human head was the only feasible way to make use of it. Maybe this happened when the body was covered with sand, so size and incongruity didn't matter. Also, the body looks too long and slender to be a lion. A cheetah, perhaps? I would love to hear what the experts have to say about this.

Posted by Jim Dixon on March 29,2010 | 08:48 AM

Loved the article learned a lot. really hope someone figures out some thing to do with the Sphinx really dont want to see it get more ruined.

Posted by Brady on March 22,2010 | 04:36 PM

Even with all of the pictures that we see of the Sphinx, nothing can really prepare you for the time that you finally see the Sphinx with your own eyes.

Posted by Sphinx Egypt on March 19,2010 | 02:20 AM

There is an atlantean library there,the archeaologists just have high egos and will not admit it yet.I think anti-gravity technology built the pyramids.The japanese tried to build a smaller pyramid using modern technology and failed.

Posted by derek on March 14,2010 | 09:33 PM

THE SPHINX OF EGYPT...

Good-day-Bonjour
I was always fascinated by the Sphinx of Egypt and made lots of researches about this unique monument and the message for what it stands for...
This article is one of the best I have read and studied and would like to thank Smithsonian and all those researchers and those who participated and sharing with us their dedicated and "superbe" work. Hope one day to go and see the Sphinx and feel this magnificent monument full of mystery in person. Again all my congratulations to those involved and also thank you for the very interesting comments of knowledge from the readers. Bravo et merci encore.
Lucien Alexandre Marion, Canada (Québec) Gatineau

Posted by Lucien Alexandre Marion on March 10,2010 | 08:55 PM

To Alan Hewitt, the Sahara was "open grassland" circa 2000 b.c., just google Kingdom of Yam Sahara, there's the proof you need, but when do you think the Sphinx was built?

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 28,2010 | 08:40 AM

The sphinx was carved well before any pharaohnic times.Just look at the proportions of head vs body. The sphinx was originally carved with a lions head, probably when the sahara was open grassland. Nowhere in upper or lower Egypt does any sphinx show the disproportionment of small head to large body. Now if the Egptians had carved the sphinx the head would have been conciderably larger. The whole premise being it was carved with a lions head earlier and usurped my a pharaoh at a later date. Hence they could only carve a head within the proportions of the lions head. Nobody, not even Zahi Hawass, could definitely tell you when the sphinx was carved as there is no evidence whatsoever. Please give the Egyptians credit for very propotioned carving of sphinx after the event, but not the famous one.

Posted by alan hewitt on February 23,2010 | 03:10 PM

It's obvious that old kingdom Egypt was much rainier, followed by the climate change described in the Ipuwer Papyrus and the book of Exodus, when the old kingdom egyptian port cities of Menouthis and Heraklion were consumed by the sea, actually when the Ice Age ended.

The carbon 14 dates from those times are exaggerated because of much unfactored volcanism then, the C12 in the CO2 which diluted, so to speak, the C14 in the atmosphere, and Manetheo, in his kings list, counted contemporaneous rulers sequentially, so the timeframe matches the biblical account, which really should be of no great surprise.

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 18,2010 | 09:25 AM

The sphinx and the sphinx temple are great works on their own as this article shows -- a mighty project for any Pharaoh to undertake. Yet not only these works, but the enormous pyramid, funerary temple, valley temple and causeway are all attributed to Khafre. And all are substantially complete, as are the pyramids of Menkaure and Khufu.

Might it not be possible, that like Stonehenge, this site was the product of many generations over hundreds, or thousands, of years? The earliest signs of construction at Stonehenge are 4000 BC or earlier, and the site was continually rebuilt and re-used for 2,500 years. Mayan pyramids often show evidence of having been enlarged and expanded repeatedly. Is the idea that each of the pyramids "belong" to a certain pharaoh distorting the interpretation of how and when they were built? Got no answers; just putting some questions out there.

Posted by Roger on February 16,2010 | 07:36 PM

Alan Kent, you think the Sphinx was built over 12,000 years ago, so when was the Great Pyramid built in your opinion?

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 13,2010 | 12:30 PM

they didnt mention the most OBVIOUS secret of the sphinx that it is aligned with the constellation leo at the 10,500 bc star date as is the giza pyramids aligned with orion to the same star date. this was when VEGA was the pole star not polaris.

Posted by alankent on February 12,2010 | 01:13 AM

To Pam, the star Alpha Draconis, the North Star circa 2200 B.C., aligned with the northern star shaft from the King's chamber at that time, when the structure was built.

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 11,2010 | 07:26 PM

To M. L. Delany, well yes sir, if you inspect the "Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings," studied by Charles Hapgood, you can see that the ice age mariners had a very good grasp of the configurations of the landmasses, even Antarctica, that precise navigation achieved interestingly by the earth's wobble rate, 72 years/degree, the method explained in article #2 at http://IceAgeCivilizations.com.

And to billyd, how do you think all that moisture entered the atmosphere for the Ice Age precipitation? Well?

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 11,2010 | 07:11 PM

Hey billyd, what do you think caused the Ice Age? Cat got your tongue?

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 11,2010 | 11:12 AM

I may be a little confused, but just because the "equinox" has changed dates (September 20 to September 22 for example) does not mean there wasn't an equinox sometime twice a year 4000 years ago. Whenever that equinox happens the statues, pyramids, stones, etc. would line up. Doesn't matter when it happens.

Posted by Pam on February 10,2010 | 02:35 PM

In exploring who the Sphinx represents, this project should have used high tech tools like the computer graphics Frank Domingo, a forensics expert, employed in 1992. Domingo replicated, in exact proportions, the progathism and other facial features of the Sphinx and compared that model to existing pharonic icons including Khafre and Khufu. Domingo's conclusion? The Sphinx doesn't match either pharoah, though it's head is of a negroid human type. It seems, then, that in this current project, there was a conclusion: the sphinx is of Khafre or Khufu. And, the "evidence" was made to fit the conclusion. Not scientific!

Posted by sandram on February 8,2010 | 03:15 PM

I did a quick check with my sky simulation program with 2010 BC as the date for the sphinx (close enough) and 2010 AD. The position of the sun shifted about 6 degrees when it crossed the 10 degree elevation over the intervening centuries. Since where the observer stands makes a big difference, I suspect you can create whatever "alignment" you want, even if the sun is so rude as to be in the wrong place.

Posted by eidolon on February 7,2010 | 05:16 PM

Hey James? .....Take the crazy elsewhere, pal. I'm sure there are better talk groups where you can say without any evidence the world's oceans were geothermically heated causing the last ice age and be believed. Global warming denier sites maybe?

Posted by billyd on February 7,2010 | 04:17 PM

Corroborative of the catastrophic climate change described in the egyptian Ipuwer Papyrus and the hebrew book of Exodus was that drought which also ruined the environment for the canaanite city of Arad, now in the Negev desert, but during the bronze age, the city-state had farms when the wadis were streams, then after Israel defeated Arad, it fell into ruins for a few centuries, then David and Solomon rebuilt it as a fortress on a major trade route, but by then, the climate was far different than when Joshua led the Jews, when Canaan was a "land of milk and honey."

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 6,2010 | 04:48 PM

Since it has been theorized that the sphinx does not represent khufu and one of the supporting pieces of evidence given is that the sphinx's profile does not match the statue of khufu, has anyone ever suggested that the statue was sculpted much later than the khufu's actual reign? The statue is granite, which is very hard, and the sphinx was carved from limestone (which is soft). The egyptians of this time had only stone and copper tools, and according to this article when the prof and students experimented using copper tools to make carvings in limestone the tools became dull after a few strikes. So, does it not seem highly unlikely that the egyptians of khufu's time carved such a detailed granite statue?

Posted by Seb Ang on February 4,2010 | 04:37 PM

Smithsonian for February 2010, “Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx” by Evan Hadingham, page 32

In the first full paragraph at the top of page 38 it is stated that, “... one laborer might carve a cubic foot of stone in a week. At that rate, they say, it would take 100 people three years to complete the Sphinx.”

In the paragraph starting at the bottom of the left hand column on page 34 it states the Sphinx is approximately 66 feet tall and 240 long. I recall from being there and seeing photos that it sits in a pit excavated out of the rock with walls at least 30 feet or so from the sides and back of the Sphinx, plus who knows what had to be excavated at the front.

I calculate that 100 people carving a cubic foot of stone in a week would carve about 5,214 cubic feet a year, or 15,642 cubic feet in the three years mentioned as necessary to complete the Sphinx.

A standing stone wall one foot thick as tall and as long as the Sphinx would contain 15,840 cubic feet of stone, or 198 cubic feet more than the cited 100 laborers could carve in three years for just that one slice, and there must have been the equivalent of at least a hundred such slices to complete the Sphinx.

So if my calculations are anywhere near correct either the required number of laborers, the production per laborer per week, or the length of time to complete must be off by perhaps a factor of 100 or more.
I remember a theory some years ago based on stone erosion tests that the Sphinx must in fact be 4,000 or 5,000 years older than the Pyramids, built by unknown people, and the face was re-carved by Khafre when he built his pyramid.

I would appreciate a response from Smithsonian or Mr. Hadingham, Mr. Lehner or Mr. Brown or the other commenters to date to coordinate and evaluate the evidence on the age of the Sphinx, as well as the minor number of workers and working time issue.

Posted by Bill Barker on February 4,2010 | 03:46 PM

Is very beautiful

Posted by lucyalmond47@hotmail.com on February 4,2010 | 10:59 AM

To Rebecca Pearson (regarding global warming), when the Ice Age ended, it wasn't for global warming but for the dissipation of global cloudcover, therefore, any global warming today (by increased solar output) causes more cloudcover, which in turn cools the lower atmosphere back down, it's hydrology 101, but many haven't yet thought it through, to see that the Ice Age was caused by the ocean which had been geothermally, not atmosphericly, heated.

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 3,2010 | 11:29 AM

Funny very! These comments are:) One these so called pyramids are not for a so called Pharaoh of some so called Egypt. The complex was built for the people not for one person. Second the face is of a women not a man!

Posted by Ervin Miner on February 3,2010 | 08:39 AM

The discussion on the Sphinx brings to light the impact of climate change on the structures in Giza and opens up a new field in explaining why these tombs and megalithic formations were built at all. To us here in the Philippines, we have yet to find archaeological sites as good as those in Egypt. The article is really informative and must be read by all aspiring archaeologists and anthropologists, particularly those from the University of the Philippines.

Posted by marvyn n. benaning on February 3,2010 | 08:29 AM

Hey Colin Reader, what is the evidence for the age of the Sphinx and Great Pyramid, and when do you think the much greater rainfall in ancient Egypt assuaged?

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 2,2010 | 10:20 PM

Further confirming that old kingdom Egypt received vastly greater rainfall than today, google Aswan Rock Quarry Steven Stanek, to see that the Nile flowed much deeper and wider at that time, so a canal was dug to the quarry at Aswan, to float the megaliths downstream, when the Nile flowed very near the Giza complex, and when the now-extinct canopic branch of the Nile flowed passed now-submerged Heraklion and Menouthis, built of Aswan granite, submerged when the climate changed at the time of the Exodus.

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on February 2,2010 | 10:13 PM

Thank you for including a photograph of the Sphinx in its context, situated next to a highway looking toward Cairo a short distance away. It has always been an irritant to me that photos of the Sphinx attempt an artistic view, with the pyramids in the back ground,rather than an informational view.

Posted by Thomas West on February 2,2010 | 11:33 AM

Many years ago, visiting briefly the ARE/Edgar Cayce Found. in Va. Beach, I heard a speaker talk on the Pyramids, when he said that the Great Pyramid was erected on the very crosshairs of longitude and latitude that defined the most Landmass on the Earth. I was impressed, of course, mainly wondering how "they" knew this "fact". Do you? Has anyone ever discussed this in their research?

Posted by M. L. DeLany on February 2,2010 | 10:59 AM

Yah Kai....

I think this is a fabulous article!

In keeping with the National Black History Month a must read for all African-American, African peoples of the world to know that there are Great monoliths of this magnitude that give honor and renown to Black People globally! So much so, that "seemingly" there are mysteries still uncovered today, in this great technological world we live in. Phenomenal!

I am also very interested to know if there was another meaning of the "Sphinx" other than the one depicted by the Greek name/meaning. Who was this great monument to depict??? I agree, the Egyptians were great historians and would have left an indication of the meaning behind it.

Posted by hoshayah Yatsiliel on February 2,2010 | 03:13 AM

There are no "SECRETS OF THE SPHINX here! I feel very cheated and my time has been wasted as I am fascinated by Edgar Cayce and the real mysteries of ancient Egypt, the Sphinx, Atlantis etc. Do not lead me or anybody else on to think that some great secret of Atlantis, some great Hall of Knowledge or Wisdom has been discovered and then fritter the whole article down to, "Yeah, the sphinx was underwater for thousands of years, that's why it looks funny today." You have wasted my time. Goddess bless.

Posted by Steve on February 1,2010 | 08:30 PM

IN ALBANIAN LANGUAGE YOU CAN FIND MENY EXPLANATIONS FOR MENY NAMES , TOPONIMS AND MUCH MORE

Posted by shqetesimi on February 1,2010 | 07:13 PM

You mean there was climate change before Al Gore? How about that. People, pay attention.

Posted by Rebecca Pearson on February 1,2010 | 05:16 PM

With reference to comments posted by Harte on January 27,2010 01:42PM

I have done some work on this. I discuss Schoch's geophysical work in the article at http://www.hallofmaat.com/modules.php?name=Articles&file=article&sid=93

More of my papers on the age of the Sphinx which pre-date by a number of years the climate issues discussed in this article in the Smithsonian are at http://www.davidpbillington.net/sphinx2.html

Posted by Colin Reader on January 31,2010 | 12:23 AM

question for mr. hadingham--

last year wife and i visited the sphinx and i noticed it was covered with pigeons...the guide-an official egyptologist-said this was due to the rising water table causing increased levels of calcium carbonate from the limestone which pigeons love to eat. this he said was causing recent damage.there have never been pigeons bothering the sphinx for thousands of years until the past two or three. my pigeonologist friend here at the university said this theory rubish. his theory is that pigeons can only stand a certain density per square hector and when that quantity reached they simply instinctively move on out to a less pigeon populated area on the periphery of urban ares. in your article you said water table being controled...any less pigeons? thanks--jim starling p.s. this egyptologist lecturer apparently fairly well known: bassam r. el shammaa--lehner may know.

Posted by james r. starling on January 30,2010 | 11:11 AM

Harte, the research by Schoch (pronounced Shock) is irrelevant because we've learned that old kingdom Egypt received rainfall sufficient to have swelled the Nile up to the Sphinx, and all across north Africa, much more rainfall too, when old kingdom Egypt obtained tropical timber and ivory from the kingdom of Yam now dried up in the Sahara.

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on January 28,2010 | 01:51 PM

Regarding the precession of the equinoxes, it's because of the earth's wobble as it spins and rotates around the sun, the merry-go-round of constellations because of the wobble, like a gyroscope, wobbling at the rate of 72 years/degree (the number of conspirators against Osiris), this rate which enabled the Egyptians to measure the earth, align the Great Pyramid precisely to true north, and determine the length for the cubit, earth commensurate, by telling time for geometry (which means earth measure), performed by the rulers in ancient times, who also navigated the earth.

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on January 28,2010 | 01:15 PM

I find it more than difficult to think that Kafre or Khufu, had ANYTHING to do with either the Great Pyramid or the Sphinx. No Heiroglyphics other than grafitti above the so called King's Chamber for Khufu, in an inaccesible place, and when the comparisons was made of the surviving statue of Kafre was made with the Sphinx's profile- They did not match.
Yet for some unknown reason, not well represented by either Hawass or Lehner, as pointed out by J. A. Larson, the Smithsonian has simply "gone along" with this totally unscientific representation of "facts".

Posted by E.J. Q. on January 27,2010 | 08:52 PM

The problem with Schoch's date is that his estimated date itself does not in any way depend on rainfall or water erosion.

If you read the man's paper, you'll find that his date is based completely on extrapolations of subsurface weathering differences between the front and rear of the sphinx enclosure.

The subsurface weathering he claims his method measures is in no way altered by water erosion - it is completely due to exposure to air (and duration of said exposure.)

It wouldn't be influenced at all by a pond of water in the enclosure, nor would sand in the enclosure influence it.

So, finding rain in the first kingdom doesn't dismiss his argument. Somebody must explain his analysis of the enclosure floor. Any takers?

Posted by Harte on January 27,2010 | 04:42 PM

I agree with Doug...Wouldn't the eqinox have precessed??

Posted by Valerie on January 27,2010 | 03:43 PM

In the same 1991 program mentioned that featured Dr. Schoch, they also featured the information that they had done sonic testings on the Sphinx and had indeed found an empty chamber in the right front paw, as described by Cayce.

Mr. Hawass, Prof. Lehner and other Egyptologists now try to completely discredit this finding even though it is on record and this is not the only confirmation of the chamber.

Certainly Hawass wants to protect the monuments of Egypt. But why deny a finding that has multiple confirmations?

What was found in the paw of the Sphinx? Why are the officials denying its discovery and existence? They need to come clean about this, but I am not going to hold my breath.

Posted by Tom Huggins on January 27,2010 | 02:48 PM

Doug, it rained about ten times more during old kingdom times in Egypt than today, corroborated by the dessication portrayed in the Ipuwer Papyrus, and that north Africa was evidently at the end of the "aqualithic period" when Jason and the Argonauts lost their way into the Sea of Tritonis, where now is desert, drastic drying in that timeframe.

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on January 26,2010 | 01:26 AM

To Mr. Lukacs, when the now-extinct canopic branch of the Nile flowed strong past Menouthis and Heraklion into the Mediterranean, the Nile flowed much wider upstream at Giza, near the paws of the Sphinx, where building materials were shipped up to the Giza building site.

And before the catastrophic climate change described in the Ipuwer Papyrus reduced the Nile, the Sahara was green, from where the kingdom of Yam, 700 km to the west of Giza, supplied the pharoahs' tropical timber and elephant ivory, now one of the driest places on earth.

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on January 26,2010 | 12:53 AM

This research shows that Schoch may have been right about the rainfall but way out on the dating (because he was working on now outdated information perhaps). He should have taken the possibility of rainfall during this period into account, it's not as though it doesn't still rain in the area.

Posted by Doug Weller on January 25,2010 | 11:51 AM

What caused much more cloudcover for that "special time of more dependable rainfall?" It was during the Ice Age, which ended much later than we are being told (proven by the submerged ruins of Heraklion and Menouthis off the coast near Alexandria and the catastrophic climate change described in the Ipuwer Papyrus).

To know how the ancient Egyptians surveyed the Giza complex, particularly the dimensions for the Great Pyramid, checkout article #2 at http://IceAgeCivilizations.com, the obvious solution to the measuring mystery, the method by which the royal cubit length of measure was determined, so I hope the Smithsonian informs Mark Lehner of this.

Posted by James I. Nienhuis on January 24,2010 | 08:53 AM

I was just looking at the picture of the Spinx in the foreground and the pyramid in the back that really looks like where the top of the pyramid is not eroded that that top eroded level was the water level in a massive river for a long time. The surface of the pyramid was washed away. Are there any signs of aquatic animals near the top of the pyramid?

Posted by Christopher Lukacs on January 22,2010 | 10:37 PM

. . . this articla (and the related pablum-filled NOVA on PBS) stikes me as nothing more than another forum for the absolute views of supreme leader Hawass and company (Lehner included) . . . no mention of the theory that the Sphinx's head is not the original one (that Kafre erected the existing head on a limestone body that was already there)? How can that basic (and obvious) theory not be included?

Posted by J A Larsen on January 22,2010 | 01:46 PM

Wouldn't the equinox have precessed in the 4500 years since?

Posted by Denver on January 22,2010 | 11:12 AM

Interesting article, indeed. Although maybe some info has to be checked better, like the astronomic hypotheses that for me are extremely doubtful for many reasons. But I am most surprised to read that "Egyptians didn’t write history"; for what I know (for instance Herodotus) they had a lot of written history and about their most ancient time. It's real that, sadly, very little has survived to present time, but what remains well testify that.
Very welcome the geologic analysis and the correlation with ancient climate evolution, it's a long awaited work and I think that can bring new and real data about this nice monument.

Posted by marco cocchi on January 22,2010 | 05:02 AM

Evan, I think if you'd done just a bit more homework you would have discovered, and then perhaps mentioned, Mark Lehner's 'sudden realization' that the Sphinx was eroded by water had already been theorized by the geologist Dr. Robert M Schoch in 1991. Based on his research Dr. Schoch placed the sphinx origin to 7000–5000 BCE. And, may I add, he was widely criticized by many ... Including a vehement denial by Dr.Zahi Hawass who stated there is no way the Sphinx predated Pharaoh Khafre's era of 2600 BCE. Of course any estimation of age based on erosion would depend on the current climatological theory as to when the region transformed from a wet climate to the desert it is today.

Posted by Mark on January 21,2010 | 04:03 PM

Splendid article by Hadingham! The related PBS show last night, with Hawass narrating as her roams around the Sphinx and climbs onto its back was also superb.
I hope we'll see more first-rate articles like this in Smithsonan Magazine!

Posted by Winslow Shea on January 20,2010 | 11:48 PM

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Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx

After decades of research, American archaeologist Mark Lehner has some answers about the mysteries of the Egyptian colossus

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