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_The Great Sphinx_

_"There is scarcely a person in the civilised world who is unfamiliar
with the form and features of the great man-headed lion that guards
the eastern approach to the Giza pyramids."_

AHMED FAKHRY,  _The Pyramids,_ 1961
Higher than a six-storey building, longer than a city block, and
carved entirely from the natural bedrock, the Great Sphinx at Giza
is one of the most enigmatic and ancient monuments in all of
Egypt. It is also a complete mystery. As for the matter of its
age, and who built it, this is one of the most hotly debated
issues in science today. Below I have attempted to summarise the
known facts, and put forward a few opinions.
_Dimensions and Construction_
From the tips of its paws to the base of its tail, the Great
Sphinx measures 240 feet (73m) in length, and the top of the head
reaches 66 feet (20m) from ground level. It is carved directly
from the living limestone bedrock right on the edge of the Giza
plateau, and is oriented _precisely Due East, _so that its gaze
points _directly_ at sunrise on the Spring and Autumn equinoxes.
As mentioned in an earlier section, its construction began with
the excavation of a large trench around the outcrop of rock, and
the collosal stones removed in this process were used to construct
the Valley and Sphinx temples nearby - this has been proved by
rock strata analysis. The shape and features of the monument were
then carved from the exposed rock. The monument is also
_completely anonymous - _it bears no inscriptions of any kind from
which to establish who built it, and when. And because it is
carved from natural rock, modern  techniques like Carbon 14 dating
are useless in establishing its antiquity. It is also worth noting
that there is at least one tunnel _inside_ the body of the Sphinx,
possibly leading to a chamber, but I found very difficult to get
hold of detailed information on this subject, and needless to say,
this area is not open to the public.
_Who built the Sphinx?_
There are two schools of thought when it comes down to who was
responsible for the construction of the Sphinx. Firstly I shall
explain the "orthodox" view, and the reasons behind it; this view
amounts to an _accepted consensus _amoung orthodox Egyptologists.
The orthodox view, and the view that you will find described as
fact in numerous textbooks, is that the Sphinx was carved by the
pharaoh Khafre of the 4th Dynasty, sometime between 2520 and 2494
BC. The "proof" that Egyptologists cite for this is summarised as
follows;
- Between the front paws of the Sphinx sits a carved limestone
plaque called the _Dream Stele._ It was placed there by the
pharaoh Thutmose IV in around 1400 BC, to commemorate his clearing
all the sand from the Sphinx enclosure, and repair works. This
stele mentions the name of Khafre, although in what context has
never been established - the line in which Khafre's name appears
was worn and flaking when it was re-excavated earlier this
century, and has now completely flaked away. However, the orthodox
camp take this to mean Khafre _carved the Sphinx himself_, whereas
it could equally mean Khafre _excavated and restored the Sphinx_,
just as Thutmose did.
- As mentioned elsewhere, a black diorite statue of Khafre was
found _buried upside-down in a pit_ in the Valley Temple, next to
the Sphinx. As these two structures are contemporary, this has
been taken to imply the Khafre was the builder of the Valley
Temple, and therefore the Sphinx. This logic is tenuous to say the
least; at the very most it suggests an _association_ of Khafre
with these structures, not an _attributiuon._
- The final argument of Egyptology is that the face of the Sphinx
supposedly looks like that of Khafre. Well this is obviously down
to opinion, and its interesting to note that a New York forensic
artist was brought in to do a comparison of the Sphinx's face and
the face on the statue of Khafre, which emphatically concluded
that they are not the same person.
_Click on thumbnails for full-size images_
[1]Sphinx2 [2]sphinxpyr 
[3]Sphinx11 
_How old is the Sphinx?_
As we have seen, the orthodox view as to the construction of the
Sphinx puts its age at around 4,500 years, (around 2500 BC).
However, there is scientific and contextual evidence to suggest
that it is much, much older.
This essentially is the "crunch" question of archaeology because,
if the Sphinx _is _much older than Egyptologists maintain, then it
would necessitate to _a complete re-writing of the history of  our
civilisation._
The most compelling evidence for a much earlier dating of the
Sphinx is geological. In a 1979 book _Serpent in the Sky, _the
author John Anthony West, picking up on a passing comment by
French scholar Rene Schwaller de Lubicz, mentions the astounding
fact that the Sphinx, and the rock walls of its enclosure, appear
to have been weathered and eroded by _water._ Following up from
this, West persuaded a geologist from Boston University, Dr Robert
Schoch, to come to Egypt and examine the weathering first hand.
Schoch's conclusions were astounding. The weathering, he noticed,
forms a rolling and undulating profile, with deep _vertical_
fissures, not characteristic of weathering by wind and sand, but
by _heavy and prolonged precipitation. _
Climatologists confirm that, not only was the Egyptian climate as
arid and bone-dry in 2500 BC, but the last time Egypt experienced
a rainy period capable of producing such weathering effects was
the _Neolithic Subpluvial_, between 5000 and 7000 BC. It is also
worth noting that, since the Sphinx sits in the hollow of its
enclosure, it has spent most of the time between 2500 BC and the
present day _buried up to its neck in sand, _blown in from the
adjacent Sahara desert, a fact which effectively eliminates the
likelihood of any significant erosion.
The body of the Sphinx nowadays looks in considerably better shape
than it did a century ago, and a lot of the erosional evidence has
been covered up by modern repair blocks but, as the photos below
show clearly, this erosion can be quite clearly seen on the
enclosure walls by all who visit the site.
_Click on thumbnails for full-size images_
[4]Burihynx 
[5]Sphinxenclsre 
The contextual evidence regarding the Sphinx ties in with Robert
Bauval's Star correlation theory, mentioned earlier. The fact that
the Sphinx is _exactly oriented due East _means that it faces the
rising sun on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and this presents
us with a rather interseting ground/sky duality. We have already
seen that the 3 Giza pyramids mirror the 3 stars of Orion's belt
as they would have looked around 10,500 BC. Due to the effects of
_precession_, this means that at that time, the constellation
facing the Sphinx just before sunrise would not have been
Aquarius, as it is now, but the constellation of _Leo, the lion.
_Coincidence again?
I will leave my conclusions regarding the Sphinx to a later
section, suffice it to say we are presented here with a historical
anomily which simply can be neither explained, nor ignored.
[6]backbanpastel 

References

1. http://www.ancient-mysteries.com/GreatShpnx/sphx1/sphx1.html
2. http://www.ancient-mysteries.com/GreatShpnx/sphx2/sphx2.html
3. http://www.ancient-mysteries.com/GreatShpnx/sphx3/sphx3.html
4. http://www.ancient-mysteries.com/GreatShpnx/sphx5/sphx5.html
5. http://www.ancient-mysteries.com/GreatShpnx/sphx4/sphx4.html
6. http://www.ancient-mysteries.com/index.html