The many riddles of the Sphinx at Giza

One of the most iconic sites in the World, and the largest free standing carved statue in the World until very recently, the Sphinx at the Pyramid complex at Giza in Cairo, Egypt is also one of the most intimately studied, yet there is still a tremendous amount of controversy amongst egyptologists, archaeologists and historians on many of the details of this World wonder. The first question is based on the relative size of the head of the Sphinx, which appears to be considerably, and strangely out of proportion with the rest of the monument. The head is thought to represent the Pharaoh Kafreh one of the pyramid builders, and this may well be the case, given the similarity with the only known statue of Kafreh, but this doesn't explain the discrepancy over size. One of the arguments put forward is that size the Sphinx is carved from a natural limestone outcrop, the size and shape was limited by the rock itself, yet this is the case with any carved statue, the material is finite and the statue must be carved within those limits. We already know that the head does not appear as carved since it was carved with a beard in the Egyptian Pharonic style, the remains of which are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but it appears that the original head, in proportion with the body, was considerably larger, and recarved several times. This begs the question why.

Another question is over the relative positions of the Sphinx to the Pyramids. The official story is that the Sphinx marks the entrance way to the necropolis complex, yet the causeways from the Nile to the Pyramids are ot straight as one would expect, but are angled to respect the Sphinx suggesting a compromise position, the Pyramids respecting the already existing Sphinx. It seems more likely that the Sphinx was originally carved to mark the entrance to an earlier complex, one which was removed to make way for the Pyramids, the Sphinx being the only original feature left. Again this begs the question why? Further evidence for the Sphinx being rather older than the rest of the site, bearing in mind the antiquity of the Pyramids is the suggestion of water erosion and weathering around the sides and base of the statue. Research has shown that the climate of Egypt was significantly different 10000 years ago with far higher rainfall, and a likelihood that the Sphinx would have been subject to inundation and flooding which would explain the weathering.

What also has to be considered is that at other sites in Egypt, particularly the Temple complex at Karnak, the Sphinx is indeed used as a guardian for the entrance way, but in these other sites the way is guarded by pairs of Sphinx, at Karnak by an entire 1.5Km trackway lined with paired statues. It is interesting to note that if the Sphinx were one of a pair, the partner statue would now be buried under a later temple structure which is off limits to archaeologists. When this is taken into account, and married up to the restrictions to archaeologists around the entire complex we come to the issue of the possibility of further structures under the Sphinx monument. Originally proposed by the psychic medium Edgar Cayce, it is thought that the Sphinx conceals underground repositories containing ancient documentary evidence of far earlier civilisations. Again it is interesting to note that both stylistically and in terms of construction technique the Giza Sphinx appears to be an earlier archetype to the other Sphinx statues founs around Egypt, and research in the 1960's and '70's found evidence of hidden voids under the Sphinx just as Cayce predicted, but once again further investigation was blocked by the notorious Egyptian ministry of antiquaries.

There can be little doubt that there is more to the story of the Sphinx than has currently come to light, but without more detailed investigation finding conclusive proof will be difficult, not to say impossible, so theories will be rife.