The Mystery of the Sphinx
Posted by Sane Spirit on Friday, March 2, 2012
This is the Documentary shook up Egyptian Archaeology when it was broadcast. Introduces the discovery by John Anthony West and Robert Schoch that the Great Sphinx of Giza might be thousands of years older than its assumed date of 2500 BC.
Overall not a bad documentary altho it does take a bit of a left turn when trying to link the Sphinx to stuff on Mars. Also one premise presented, that the head may have been re-carved is tantalizing. Some other questions they try to answer: How were the huge 200 ton blocks used to build it put in place? Is there more to the Sphinx than can be seen? and Is the face of the Sphinx really who it is thought?
Other fringe hypotheses that are out there, altho not specifically touched in the video [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza]:
"The Orion correlation theory, as expounded by popular authors Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, is based on the proposed exact correlation of the three pyramids at Giza with the three stars forming Orion's Belt, in the relative positions occupied by these stars in 10500 BC. The authors argue that the geographic relationship of the Sphinx, the Giza pyramids and the Nile directly corresponds with Leo, Orion and the Milky Way respectively.
"Author Robert K. G. Temple proposes that the Sphinx was originally a statue of the Jackal-Dog Anubis, the God of the Necropolis, and that its face was recarved in the likeness of a Middle Kingdom pharaoh, Amenemhet II. Temple bases his identification on the style of the eye make-up and the style of the pleats on the head-dress.
"Over the years several authors have commented on what they perceive as "Negroid" or Ethiopian characteristics in the face of the Sphinx. This issue has become part of the Ancient Egyptian race controversy, with respect to the ancient population as a whole. The face of the Sphinx has been damaged over the millennia, making conclusive racial identification of its characteristics difficult or impossible, much less assuming that a part-lion mythical creature was carved to accurate human standards."
Overall not a bad documentary altho it does take a bit of a left turn when trying to link the Sphinx to stuff on Mars. Also one premise presented, that the head may have been re-carved is tantalizing. Some other questions they try to answer: How were the huge 200 ton blocks used to build it put in place? Is there more to the Sphinx than can be seen? and Is the face of the Sphinx really who it is thought?
Other fringe hypotheses that are out there, altho not specifically touched in the video [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza]:
"The Orion correlation theory, as expounded by popular authors Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, is based on the proposed exact correlation of the three pyramids at Giza with the three stars forming Orion's Belt, in the relative positions occupied by these stars in 10500 BC. The authors argue that the geographic relationship of the Sphinx, the Giza pyramids and the Nile directly corresponds with Leo, Orion and the Milky Way respectively.
"Author Robert K. G. Temple proposes that the Sphinx was originally a statue of the Jackal-Dog Anubis, the God of the Necropolis, and that its face was recarved in the likeness of a Middle Kingdom pharaoh, Amenemhet II. Temple bases his identification on the style of the eye make-up and the style of the pleats on the head-dress.
"Over the years several authors have commented on what they perceive as "Negroid" or Ethiopian characteristics in the face of the Sphinx. This issue has become part of the Ancient Egyptian race controversy, with respect to the ancient population as a whole. The face of the Sphinx has been damaged over the millennia, making conclusive racial identification of its characteristics difficult or impossible, much less assuming that a part-lion mythical creature was carved to accurate human standards."