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The Egyptian Sphinx
The Sphinx is a statue with the body of a lion and head of human.
The great sphinx of Egypt was carved from a limestone on the Pyramids
plateau in Giza. It was not carved in the usual sense of the word,
rather giant blocks of soft limestone were quarried around
the Great Sphinx to give its basic shape.
It looms 241 feet long and 65 feet high.
The traditional and majority view is that the Great Sphinx was built at the
same time as the nearby Pyramid of Khafre (Chephren) in about 2540 B.C.E.
The face of the Great Sphinx has been thought to be Khafre's, though recent
evidence casts doubt on this notion. There has been lively debate in recent
years arguing that it may be anywhere from two to four times that old.
Weathering patterns on the Sphinx that were consistent with water erosion
rather than erosion produced by wind and sand. These patterns were not found
on other structures on the plateau. Egypt is arid today, but about 10,000
years ago the land was wet and rainy. West and Schock conclude the Sphinx
must be on the order of 7,000 to 10,000 years old in order to have the marks
of water erosion they found.A theory was developed that the Sphinx, when
considered with the neighboring pyramids and ancient writings, is part of,
and possibly the first element of, a kind of astronomical map related to the
constellation Orion. They have concluded that the "best fit" for this map is
found for the position of the stars as they were in 10,500 B.C.E.
