Erosion sphinx

The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the most recognizable sculptures from ancient Egypt, and the mysteries of its construction some 4, years ago have long fascinated archaeologists. Yardangs are made from wind erosion, erosion sphinx.

Unlike the pyramids , the Great Sphinx of Giza has mostly avoided debates about its creation. Yardangs, seen here in Dunhuang, China, are formed in environments where water is scarce and the prevailing winds are strong. In a recently completed paper, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Fluids, Ristroph and his colleagues propose that the Great Sphinx could have started as a yardang, a specific type of rock formation. As Smithsonian Magazine points out, the name may sound a bit like maritime jargon, but the concept has nothing to do with the sea. Yardangs form in desert areas when consistent wind slowly erodes what typically starts as a flat surface.

Erosion sphinx

Many people know me best for my work on the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt. In I first traveled to Egypt with John Anthony West for background information see Forgotten Civilization and Origins of the Sphinx , with the sole purpose of examining the Great Sphinx from a geological perspective. I assumed that the Egyptologists were correct in their dating, but soon I discovered that the geological evidence was not compatible with what the Egyptologists were saying. The thing is, the Sphinx sits on the edge of the Sahara Desert and the region has been quite arid for the last years. Furthermore, various structures securely dated to the Old Kingdom show only erosion that was caused by wind and sand very distinct from the water erosion. To make a long story short, I came to the conclusion that the oldest portions of the Great Sphinx, what I refer to as the core-body, must date back to an earlier period at least BCE, and my latest research now points to the end of the last ice age, circa 10, BCE , a time when the climate was very different and included more rain. Many people have said to me that the Great Sphinx cannot be so old, in part because the head is evidently a dynastic Egyptian head and the dynastic period did not start until about BCE. In fact, if you look at the current Great Sphinx you may notice that the head is actually too small for the body. It is clear to me that the current head is not the original head. The original head would have become severely weathered and eroded. It was later re-carved, during dynastic times, and in the re-carving it naturally became smaller. Thus, the head of the Great Sphinx is not the original head. In fact, the Sphinx may not have originally been a sphinx at all.

If the enclosure had been sealed in such a manner, this would not be compatible with the dredging theory for the vertical fissures suggested by Temple, erosion sphinx.

The Sphinx water erosion hypothesis is a fringe claim , contending that the Great Sphinx of Giza and its enclosing walls eroded primarily due to ancient floods or rainfalls, attributing their creation to Plato 's lost civilization of Atlantis over 11, years ago. Egyptologists, geologists and others have rejected the water erosion hypothesis and the idea of an older Sphinx, pointing to archaeological, climatological and geological evidence to the contrary. In the s, French mystic [9] [10] and alternative Egyptologist Schwaller de Lubicz speculated the body of the Sphinx to be eroded by deluges and that therefore the Sphinx must predate them, further claiming that ancient Egyptian knowledge originated from colonists or refugees of Plato's sunken continent of Atlantis. In , author and alternative Egyptologist John Anthony West , inspired by Schwaller's ideas, attributed the erosion to Nile floods between 15, and 10, BC. By denying the existence of any evidence for the development of Egyptian civilization prior to the first dynasty, West created room to inject the idea of a lost, advanced civilization of Atlanteans who created the Sphinx and passed on their knowledge to the dynastic Egyptians. Ten years later, West sought the opinion of geologist Robert Schoch to validate his claims. In they traveled together to Egypt, visiting the Sphinx.

Historians and archaeologists have, over centuries, explored the mysteries behind the Great Sphinx of Giza: What did it originally look like? What was it designed to represent? What was its original name? But less attention has been paid to a foundational, and controversial, question: What was the terrain the Ancient Egyptians came across when they began to build this instantly recognizable structure—and did these natural surroundings have a hand in its formation? To address these questions, which have been raised on occasion by others, a team of New York University scientists replicated conditions that existed 4, years ago—when the Sphinx was built—to show how wind moved against rock formations in possibly first shaping one of the most recognizable statues in the world. The work centered on replicating yardangs—unusual rock formations found in deserts resulting from wind-blown dust and sand—and exploring how the Great Sphinx could have originated as a yardang that was subsequently detailed by humans into the form of the widely recognized statue. They then washed these formations with a fast-flowing stream of water—to replicate wind—that carved and reshaped them, eventually reaching a Sphinx-like formation. Skip to main content. Updated 1 November, - ancient origins.

Erosion sphinx

When Mark Lehner was a teenager in the late s, his parents introduced him to the writings of the famed clairvoyant Edgar Cayce. During one of his trances, Cayce, who died in , 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. 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. Lehner married an Egyptian woman and spent the ensuing years plying his drafting skills to win work mapping archaeological sites all over Egypt. In , 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. 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. Little was known for certain about who erected it or when, what it represented and precisely how it related to the pharaonic monuments nearby. The research earned him a doctorate in Egyptology at Yale.

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Nova Online. The researchers monitored how the clay changed using a 3D optical scanner. Author needs some intellectual curiosity about more likely possibilities. In an Oct. Tools Tools. We think this is a key factor in making a base that resembles a lying lion. Rivegauche said:. Due to the Sphinx lying closely above the Nile aquifer, capillary action moves water to the surface of the stone. Unlike the pyramids , the Great Sphinx of Giza has mostly avoided debates about its creation. Colin Reader vs. This is due to ancient rains and the paleohydrology of the area. Reader replied to this, stating that these structures "were built on an area of high ground and do not lie within any natural catchment. Lal; Sinai, John J. These tombs will not, therefore, have been exposed to any significant run-off.

The ancient Egyptians may have crafted the Sphinx, a 4,year-old monument at Giza that stands in front of the pyramid of Khafre not completely from scratch but rather on a natural feature that already looked surprisingly sphinx-like, a new study suggests. In an Oct. However, even if the ancient Egyptians did create the Sphinx from an eerily shaped hunk of rock, they still would have had to delicately fashion the Sphinx's iconic features, which survive to this day, the researchers said.

Many people have said to me that the Great Sphinx cannot be so old, in part because the head is evidently a dynastic Egyptian head and the dynastic period did not start until about BCE. Ancient Egypt topics. I have now developed a theory, backed up by scientific evidence, to explain why. More about ancient egyptians. In other words, only a culture with a pattern of social stratification and the capability to enlist the labor of a large pool of workers would have been capable of building the Great Sphinx, and for the period predating bce, there is no evidence at all of such a culture—no complex settlements with substantial populations, no social hierarchy reflected in inequality in housing or burials. This is due to ancient rains and the paleohydrology of the area. AD Pro. Feder wrote:. Timeline of the Ancient Near East. Save this story Save. Photo: Getty Images. ISSN It was created by carving it out of the bedrock, cutting blocks from around its body which were used to construct the Sphinx Temple immediately east of the Sphinx and north of the Valley Temple, aligned to it. Parasitic worms found in man's brain after he likely ate undercooked bacon.