Who Built the Great Sphinx?
The Great Sphinx is an iconic piece of history that’s just as remarkable as it is mysterious. From its enormous size to its intricate detail, it’s nothing short of an astounding architectural feat.
Who built the Great Sphinx and why? How, exactly, was such a large-scale and magnificent structure constructed? What is the significance of the Sphinx — a mythical creature with a lion’s body and a human face?
While there are plenty of questions, one thing is certain: The Great Sphinx offers no shortage of details to explore.
Mystery of the Sphinx
The Great Sphinx in Giza, a city in Egypt that features other prominent monuments such as the Great Pyramids, measures 66 feet high and 240 feet long. It is, by far, the largest sculpture of the ancient world. It is made of various blocks of limestone that weighed up to 200 tons each.
Scholars have long held the belief the Sphinx was constructed for the Pharaoh Khafre, who reigned from approximately 2,520 to 2,494 BC. This could explain why the Sphinx seems to align geographically with the Pyramid of Khafre, where the pharaoh himself is buried, and a temple, which is located due east from the statue.
In contrast, some Egyptologists theorize the Sphinx was actually built by Khafre’s father, [King Khufu]http://www.guardians.net/egypt/sphinx/), or Khafre’s brother, Djedefre.
However, the age of the Sphinx is still up for debate, and a growing body of evidence suggests it may be even older than once thought — so old, in fact, the Sphinx may not have been constructed by the Egyptians.
Weathering
Researchers such as John Anthony West and R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz observed signs of weathering due to rainfall on the Sphinx, dating the construction of this marvel to the end of the last Ice Age, about 10,000 to 5,000 BC. While some weathering due to wind erosion is to be expected over the course of such a long time period, this particular type of weathering suggests the Sphinx was constructed at a time in which Egypt was not such a dry, barren environment.
Geologists confirmed that long, long ago Egypt was subjected to a period of flooding. During this period, the Sphinx was most likely covered in sand, which would have preserved its construction and protected it from wind erosion for many years. This is further supported by Napoleon’s rediscovery of the ancient structure in 1798, in which the Sphinx was buried up to its neck in sand.
Lion Symbolism
The Sphinx is depicted as a lion with a human head, which some speculate is a tribute to the constellation of Leo. However, it’s also curious to note the Sphinx and its alignment with the Giza pyramids and the Nile River closely mirror the orientation of Leo, Orion, and the Milky Way.
Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, the researchers who made this observation, state this pattern represents the orientation of the aforementioned celestial bodies during the astrological Age of Leo, which occurred between the dates 10,970 and 8810 BC.
Who Really Built the Sphinx?
Longstanding theory suggests slaves built the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids using some sort of pulley system.
However, all of the aforementioned factors and more lead some to believe the Great Sphinx may have actually not been constructed by the Egyptians at all.
Zecharia Sitchin, a prominent ancient astronaut theorist, hypothesized the Annunaki constructed the Sphinx. These intelligent beings allegedly built the structure in a precise geographical location close to where they purportedly had spaceports on Earth. The alignment of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids also mirrors that of pyramid-like structures found on Mars, possibly suggesting Giza served as a landing strip for spacecraft.
During a quest to discover the actual age of the Sphinx, John Anthony West and his team uncovered more than they had initially anticipated. Several underground cavities and tunnels were discovered beneath the structure, including a large chamber some 25 feet beneath the statue’s front paws. This is another piece of evidence that correlates to the Annunaki, who allegedly built sprawling underground structures and dwellings.
So who really built the Sphinx? No one can be completely sure, but there is certainly no shortage of fascinating details to explore and examine.
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New Study of Cave Paintings Say Ancient Man Understood Astronomy
A reinterpretation of one of the world’s most famous primitive cave paintings seems to show our ancient ancestors had a much stronger grasp on astronomy than we’ve given them credit. According to a recent study, cave paintings in France depict animals that represent the constellations, showing the artists who drew them were aware of the precession of the equinoxes — a discovery not thought to have been made before Hipparchus of Ancient Greece.
Of the paintings in question, researchers Martin Sweatman, Ph.D., and Alistar Coombs studied an image titled, “The Shaft,” which portrays a collapsing bird-headed man, a bison eviscerated by a spear, a horse, and a rhinoceros in the Lascaux caves of southern France’s Dordogne region.
In the past, this scene was interpreted as a shamanic ceremony or the scene of a hunt, however the exact meaning has been widely disputed as depictions of men were incredibly uncommon in this era. But according to Sweatman and Coombs’ latest study, the paintings show not only a more primordial understanding of astronomy, but also religion, science, and mathematics.
By comparing radiocarbon dating of paint samples to the position of constellations in the sky when the art was created, the researchers were able to match specific animals with correlating constellations of the solstice and equinox. They used this same method at similar archeological sites, including the ruins of Göbekli Tepe and Catalhöyük, as well as the famous cave art of Chauvet and Altamira.
The two also said they believe the Lascaux paintings commemorate a comet striking Earth, correlating with what they believe to be the cataclysmic impact event that marked the beginning of the Younger Dryas period – evidence of which was recently found in the form of a 19-mile wide crater beneath a Greenland ice sheet.
In addition to these sites, the researchers incorporated the Lion-man figurine from the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany, which dates back 38 thousand BCE and is considered to be the world’s oldest sculpture – they believe it too, may be evidence of zodiacal awareness. Their study was published in the Athens Journal of History.
Like any bold claim made of early humans which challenges long-held archeological timelines, this latest theory has unsurprisingly sparked controversy with some of Sweatman and Coombs’ colleagues who have labeled their method flawed.
According to their model, prehistoric men from the Stone Age discovered the precession of the equinoxes some 36 thousand years before Hipparchus – a bold claim to say the least!
But findings such as this seem to continually piece together disparate pieces of a puzzle that modern archeology has glossed over or ignored entirely. And as Graham Hancock likes to say upon the discovery of new paradigms like this may be, “things just keep getting older.”
For more on the anomalous archeological finds cluing us into our forgotten past, check out this episode of Disclosure with Graham Hancock:
