Posted on 06/07/2009 6:58:42 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
According to Robert Temple, a moat theory explains the water weathering of the Sphinx without hypothesizing that it dates back to an earlier period of more rainfall than the present. I will not address his other hypotheses, which I do not find persuasive, that the Sphinx was the jackal [wild dog] Anubis and the face seen on the Sphinx is that of the Middle Kingdom pharaoh Amenemhet II, though I note the original Sphinx has been reworked and the head re-carved... Assuming the argument that the Sphinx sat in a pool, either the water level around the Sphinx was the same as that of the surrounding water table, or the walls and floor of the pool were sealed up and watertight (and any artificial walls, such as on the eastern end, were strong enough to withstand the water pressure). (Note that the current western end of the Sphinx Enclosure is at a much higher elevation than the eastern end [see the figure on page 534 of The Sphinx Mystery by Robert Temple with Olivia Temple, Inner Traditions, 2009], yet clear water erosion is shown at the higher elevations at the western end. Since water seeks its own level, if the water in a supposed moat reached to the height of the western end of the Sphinx Enclosure, then the eastern end as well as the walls along the northern and southern sides must have been built up to a comparable height as the western end. This is independent of whether or not the eastern wall of the enclosure [= western wall of the Sphinx Temple] has a base of natural bedrock or was entirely composed of cut and placed stone.) We know that the ancient water table was well below the level of the floor of the Sphinx Enclosure...
(Excerpt) Read more at robertschoch.com ...
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Read later. BTW, nice illustration! :)
:’) thanks!
Its: 'Was the Great Sphinx Surrounded By a Moat?':-)
Not: 'Did the Great Sphinx have a head of an Old Goat'.
anyway, IMHO hypothesizing about the Sphinx is like arguing about how many Angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Sounds very plausible.
Is that a pic of what the oldest sculpture looked like?
It’s older IMO.
(No one thought it was remoatly possible, but hey...)
I don’t buy it. What did they have a fountain that washed over the Sphinx? I’m in the 10,000 year old group.
crotchety, set in their ways, livin' in the past...
Just kidding :-)
Thnx for the laughs
I am a Book of Enoch student. The days before the flood were more than history reports.
Well, I can believe the Sphinx is very old, was much larger and obviously had a different carving for the head.
The head as we see it now is too small, and also is not weathered the same as the rest.
The weathering on the other parts of the Sphinx isn’t compatable with the moat theory, though. It is compatable with the rain theory, but can they be so certain the rain over the past 4000 years hasn’t produced such erosion?
If there was a moat there would be a moat ring around the Sphinx. No mention of that at all. Just an obvious conclusion.
If the Sphinx was 7000 years old then the real question is how could a people so long ago, which I’m pretty sure we believe were very backwards, have produced such a large statue. Even larger than the one we see today, which we are amazed at.
No mention of the fact that we’d have to rework our theories of the abilities of this sort of civilizational era.
The apocryphal Ethiopic Book Of Enoch, otherwise known as 1 Enoch, is quite the wild read, isn’t it?
Taking 1 Enoch to it’s logical conclusion, those creatures in Egyptian hieroglyphics and scuplture were not mythical, being the result of dabbling by fallen angels and their half human offspring, and the flood sent to kill them all is what eroded the Sphinx.
Are there any other large sculptures known in ancient Egypt, to have been surrounded by a moat? I see no practical reason for a moat per se, so if there was such a thing, I’d be more apt to term it a reflecting pool.
Reflecting pool makes more sense.
In any event, when the area dried up the Sphinx was de-moated...
In a typical scholarly manner a lesser man attempts to gain his 15 minutes by glomming on a better interpretation of the facts
Aren’t there a couple of versions of that?
I’ve always thought there was a high civilization back more than 10000 years ago that got wiped out by a major earth wide catastrophe and the Sphinx is a remnant, as are the trilithon at Baalbek and other megalithic sites.
Aren’t there a couple of versions of that?
I’ve always thought there was a high civilization back more than 10000 years ago that got wiped out by a major earth wide catastrophe and the Sphinx is a remnant, as are the trilithon at Baalbek and other megalithic sites.
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