Hi guys, today I want to discuss the water erosion marks at the surrounding walls of
the Great Sphinx.
The Sphinx water erosion hypothesis has evolved over a few decades.
It was first proposed by John Anthony West and geologist Robert Schoch.
Dr. Schoch pointed out that the heavy vertical water erosions on the Sphinx enclosure walls
could only have been caused by rainfall and water runoff over a long period of time, rather
than sand and wind.
The problem is, Giza plateau, where the Sphinx and the great pyramid stand is as dry now
as it was in 2600-2500 BC when they were supposedly built according to the mainstream academia.
This desert area receives an average rainfall of 1” or 25mm per year.
Such minimal amount of rainfall can’t cause the severe erosion marks we see around the
Sphinx.
Dr. Schoch came to the conclusion that the oldest portions of the Sphinx must date back
to 12,000 years ago, a time when the climate was humid with more rain.
This belief, however, contradicts the mainstream claims that the Sphinx was carved about 4,500
years ago.
On another note, the walls by the Khafre pyramid are not as badly eroded as the ones at the
Sphinx.
Does that mean the Sphinx was constructed before the pyramids?
Several geologists agree that these vertical erosions on the Sphinx walls were caused by
rainfall and runoff and might indicate an earlier dating of the Sphinx enclosure.
Geologist Colin Reader is one of them but he proposed a more conservative dating of
a few centuries earlier rather than thousands of years earlier than the conventional date.
Geologist Jørn Christiansen thinks that the rock walls surrounding the Sphinx have clear
signs of rainwater erosion, which happened long before the carving of the Sphinx.
He states that the Sphinx enclosure walls are carved at right angles to each other at
a height of up to 10m which to me implies that the enclosure walls were man-made.
So, whether the Sphinx was carved with the walls or not, these big walls were excavated
by someone a very long time ago.
Now these geologists’ dating of the Sphinx is tightly correlated with the paleo-precipitation
rate.
We know the great Cairo area has been a desert for the last 5,000 years; and before that
was the last Green Sahara period, which occurred 11,000-5,000 years ago.
Most might think this would be when the Giza Plateau received significant rainfall, which
would have generated these water erosion marks.
But is the really the case?
In my last video, I talked about that North African climate cycles have a unique history
that can be traced back millions of years and are related to the Earth’s wobble motion.
The cyclic climate pattern of the Sahara is characterized by significant shifts in the
strength of the North African Monsoon.
When the monsoon is at its strongest, annual precipitation and consequently vegetation
in the Sahara region increase, resulting in conditions commonly referred to as the "green
Sahara".
For a relatively weak North African Monsoon, there would be decreased annual precipitation
and less vegetation resulting in the "desert Sahara".
Today's Sahara desert was a land covered with lush vegetation and lakes 11,000-5,000 years
ago.
How about the land where the Egyptian pyramids stand?
A 2019 research paper provided evidence on the northern extend of the monsoon region
during the last African Humid Period.
There are other studies, which also confirm a similar conclusion; that in North Africa
the areas below the latitude 22°N received a lot more rainfall whereby the Green Sahara
formed.
The pyramids, however, are located further north above 29°N and not in the wet region.
Therefore, even during the African humid period, the pyramid sites likely didn’t receive
much rain.
So, whether the Egyptian pyramids and Sphinx were built during the wet or dry period seems
to not matter that much because this region has received small amounts of rainfall in
both situations.
Even though the rainfall increase was negligible in the great Cairo area; this region was still
wetter during the humid period; the wet condition was achieved by recharged upstream rivers
from the southern monsoon region flowing down north to Lower Egypt.
Now that we know that the rainfall increase was insignificant in the Giza area during
the last Green Sahara time, then what about the earlier green Sahara periods?
Here is a chart showing the Green and Desert Sahara periods in northern Africa during the
last 230,000 years.
Based on this data, it’s very likely that for the last 78,000 years or even longer,
the Giza Plateau received very limited amounts of rainfall; and any rainfall might be delivered
by infrequent-but-intense storms like we observe in modern times.
I believe this is an important piece of information to keep in mind while we analyze the erosion
marks and possible age of the Sphinx and its enclosure.
The conventional timeline of the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx suggests that the Sphinx was
created along with the Khafre pyramid about 4,500 years ago.
But there is no written record on the construction of the Great Sphinx, neither in Giza nor anywhere
else in Egypt.
The Great Sphinx of Giza is very well known today.
Thus one might assume it was equally famous in antiquity, but that is not the case.
There is little mention of the great Sphinx in Egyptian inscriptions.
Here are some old illustrations of the Giza plateau.
This illustration from 16th century shows that the Sphinx was buried up to its chest.
The later illustrations and photos in the earlier 19th century present a similar situation
with the Sphinx’s lower body and the enclosure walls all covered by sand.
From these photos we can see the Sphinx enclosure walls already show serious erosion marks after
they were excavated from sand in the early 1900’s.
This signifies the erosion was pre-existing and not caused by recent storms.
We can also see that the lower body of the Sphinx already had restoration before the
modern excavation.
Restoration means there was previous damage; however, when the Sphinx and walls were under
sand, they would not really be affected by weathering or erosion.
So when and how long did the Sphinx enclosure become exposed to the open elements?
Around 4,100 years ago, the Giza complex was abandoned and drifting sand buried the Sphinx
up to its shoulders.
About 700 years after, Sphinx became associated with the sun god Hor-em-akhet or "Horus-at-the-Horizon”.
Pharaoh Amenhotep II built a mud-brick temple to the northeast of the Sphinx and dedicated
it to the sun god.
Since this temple overlaps the northwest corner of the Sphinx Temple and is on a higher altitude,
it appears that the people back then didn’t know about the existence of the Sphinx temple;
therefore the Sphinx temple and the Sphinx lower body were likely buried by sand.
Not long after, Amenhotep II’s son Thutmose IV who was also a pharaoh made the first documented
attempt at an excavation and restoration of the Sphinx.
About 3,400 years ago, Thutmose IV went on a hunting trip near the Sphinx.
He stopped to rest under the head of the Sphinx, which was buried up to its neck in sand.
He dreamt that the Sphinx wanted him to clear the sand surrounding its body.
So Thutmose had his men did so, placed the Dream Stele which we can see today in-between
the Sphinx’s front paws, and built mudbrick walls around the Sphinx.
After this short rescue period, there was no mention of the Sphinx for another millennium.
This suggests the statue was abandoned and reburied again.
During this period, ancient Greek scholar Herodotus wrote about the Giza plateau and
the pyramids but he didn’t mention the Sphinx.
Then the Romans conquered Egypt in 332 BC.
In Graeco-Roman times, Giza became a tourist destination.
During this time Greek scholars Diodorus Siculus and Strabo separately visited the Giza plateau.
They wrote about the great pyramids but were silent on the Sphinx, which is very strange.
So was the Sphinx completely covered by sand and thus invisible to the eye back then?
Why did these historians omit the Sphinx from their records?
After this long hiatus, we read about the Sphinx again in the 1st century AD from Pliny
the Elder in his work “Natural History”.
At that time the Sphinx was again cleared of sand and a monumental stairway was built
in front of the paws of the Sphinx.
Look at where this stairway was located.
It was built on top of the Sphinx temple.
This suggests the Romans didn’t know about the Sphinx temple or the valley temple either
like the New Kingdom Pharaohs.
Btw the Roman stair was dismantled in the 1930s.
The last Emperor connected with this monument is Septimius Severus, around 200 AD.
With the downfall of Roman power, the Sphinx was once more engulfed by the sands.
1,700 years later, in the early 1900’s the statue was once more fully excavated and visitors
could now see the entire body of the sphinx and its enclosure.
So, there are three documented excavations of cleaning the Sphinx of sand: the first
time was 3,400 years ago by Pharaoh Thutmose IV briefly, next was in the 1st century AD
by the Romans, whom might have maintained the Sphinx sand free for over 100 years and
last but not least our modern excavation.
This means for the majority of the last 4,000 years, only the head and upper portion of
the Sphinx peeked out from the desert sands while the rest of the body and enclosure walls
were under the sand thus protected from both wind and water erosion.
The mainstream claims that the Sphinx was built around 4,500 years ago.
If this were true, then at most the sphinx was exposed for 500 years.
Please don’t forget that all ¬¬¬these years the plateau has been very arid with
an average of 1” or 25mm of annual rainfall.
I highly doubt that would be enough to form the deep erosion marks we see on the Sphinx
body and surrounding walls.
All of these factors and considerations indicate that the badly eroded Sphinx body and the
enclosure walls must have been weathered and damaged long before the conventional timeline.
Also, per Egyptologists if the old kingdom pharaohs Khufu and Khafre created the massive
stone pyramids and the Great Sphinx 4,500 years ago, then why a millennium later the
new pharaohs only managed to built small mudbrick structures there?
Isn’t that questionable?
The construction technology didn't advance in 1,000 years but instead degenerated by
a lot.
Why is that?
Could it be that the sphinx and the pyramids predate the old kingdom and were not constructed
by dynastic Egyptians?
What might be related to or be the cause of the water erosion at the Sphinx walls?
In comparison, the walls around the Khafre pyramid are not as badly eroded as the ones
at the Sphinx.
Could the Sphinx have been constructed before the pyramids?
I think there are at least two aspects we need to contemplate.
The 1st is the topography of the Giza Plateau.
The vast plateau gives us an illusion that the plateau is rather flat but it is not.
The Sphinx lies near the base of the plateau.
The floor of the Sphinx enclosure is sloped and ranges from 20 to 22 meters above sea
level.
In contrast, the bases of the Great pyramids are all over 62 m above sea level which means
they stand over 40 meters or 13 stories higher than the Sphinx floor.
From photos we can see that the plateau slopes east towards the Nile and the north and west
sides are higher than the Sphinx.
When it rains the water and runoff would naturally flow down.
The location, the topography and the elevation drop of the Sphinx enclosure makes it almost
like a stormwater drainage basin to catch runoffs for large areas of the plateau.
So, the Sphinx enclosure walls endured a concentrated quantity of rainfall and runoff drained into
the enclosure.
However, the walls around the Khafre are located almost to the top of the plateau thus they
didn’t suffer through the same level of water erosion.
The 2nd aspect is related to the stone materials.
The western and southern walls around the Sphinx show the most visible water erosion.
These walls consist of mostly soft limestone, which is the same material we see on the deeply
eroded Sphinx body usually referred as Member II rock.
This layer of stone is lighter in color and softer and thereby more susceptible to erosion.
At the base of the southern wall, there is another type of limestone which is darker
and stronger.
This layer is called Member I, or the lower building stone.
From photos we can see this rock layer is also severely eroded and shows obvious chemical
erosion signs.
I think this could be caused by the wetting and drying of the runoff drained into the
enclosure.
The Sphinx head is mainly sculpted from Member III, which is another layer of darker and
stronger limestone.
Compared to the badly eroded body, the head of the Sphinx is amazingly well preserved
despite being exposed significantly more than the rest of the statue.
Therefore, the stone quality plays a big role in the statue’s levels of preservation.
On the other hand, the walls around the Khafre pyramid are excavated from the darker harder
limestone which is more resistant to weathering and erosion.
It appears that since the walls around the Khafre pyramid and the Sphinx have not been
exposed to the same environmental conditions and are not of the same stone types, it might
not be proper to conclude that the heavier erosion of the Sphinx enclosure walls means
they were excavated earlier than the Pyramid walls.
Ok, the Sphinx was mostly buried in sand except for its head and upper portion for at least
4,000 years.
There wouldn’t be much vertical water erosion when the statue and the surrounding walls
were buried.
However, the walls were still damaged, as well as the lower body of Sphinx because we
see ancient restoration when it was excavated in modern time.
This means, clearly the sphinx and its enclosure were exposed at least long enough for the
heavy erosion by runoff to occur.
Then when was this crucial period of exposure?
Please bear in mind that today’s Sphinx is kept sand free by the tourist park.
Without regular maintenance, the statue and its enclosure would be inundated by sand in
a few decades, as happened in ancient times.
So, there must have been an operation in place that kept the Sphinx enclosure open for a
long time; not only that, since the Sphinx western enclosure walls present sheetwash
runoff marks, that part of the upper plateau needed to be pretty much exposed as well.
I think it’s also possible that this ancient operation intended to direct rainfall to the
Sphinx enclosure because they basically dug a sunken catch basin for the runoffs at the
lower plateau, a bit similar to today’s stormwater management.
This can potentially suggest that the ancient workforce covered areas of the Sphinx and
the pyramids.
What kind of operation would need to keep open areas and create a drainage basin?
Where did the funding come from?
Today’s Giza pyramid park provides jobs for locals who conserve the site for tourists,
who pay for tickets.
Why would the ancient operation use labor to maintain areas of the massive plateau open
for extended periods whereby heavy water erosion resulted?
This operation would have to make financial sense or have some important practical reason
behind it or it couldn’t have been sustained that long, right?
In my prior videos, I presented my hypothesis that the Giza complex was a prehistoric mine
and permanent mine waste storage site.
A mining and mine waste storage operation could be large scale like the Giza plateau
as well as long-lasting and profitable.
Mines also need to tackle drainage pollution issues.
So maybe the Sphinx enclosure served part of an ancient mining operation.
What are your thoughts on this?
If you have any insights, please leave me a comment.
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This is Curious Being, I’m Tina.
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