Posted on 12/13/2004 5:36:33 PM PST by blam
I have solved riddle of the Sphinx, says Frenchman
By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 14/12/2004)
Archaeologists, who are able to tell us who built the pyramids of Ancient Egypt, have puzzled over the riddle of the Sphinx for generations.
The identity of the ruler who ordered the building of the 65ft high, 260ft long limestone half-human statue that has guarded the Giza Plateau for 4,500 years has been lost in the sands of time.
Workers on the Sphinx in a television reconstruction
Now, following a 20-year re-examination of historical records and uncovering new evidence, Vassil Dobrev, a French Egyptologist, claims to have proved that the largest single stone statue on Earth is the work of a forgotten pharaoh.
The most popular theory of the origins of the Sphinx is that it was conceived by Khafre, a king of the Fourth Dynasty whose pyramid sits behind the statue.
However, in Secrets of the Sphinx, a documentary to be broadcast tonight on Channel Five, Dr Dobrev says it was created by Djedefre, Khafre's half brother and a son of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid.
Dr Dobrev, of the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo, said: "It is incredible. The most important image in Egypt, the Sphinx, and we can't say who it was with certainty.
"This is the first time it has been proposed that the Sphinx has been built after the death of Khufu by his son Djedefre who succeeded him."
Khafre, the builder of the nearby second pyramid at Giza who ruled from 2558 to 2532 BC, has traditionally been credited with creating the Sphinx.
He is referred to in the Dream Stella, a stone tablet that tells of a young prince who dreamed that the Sphinx promised to make him king if he cleared the sand from its paws. He built both the pyramid behind the Sphinx and two temples in front of it.
However Dr Dobrev noticed that the causeway connecting Khafre's pyramid to the temples was built around the Sphinx - meaning it was already in existence.
All known statues of Khafre show him with a beard - but the Sphinx has none. Dr Dobrev says fragments of a giant beard found beneath the sphinx that survive in Cairo Museum were a later addition.
Several years ago Rainer Stadelmann, the former director of the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo, suggested an alternative theory, that Khafre's father Khufu - the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza - created the Sphinx.
A small statuette of Khufu, the only commonly acknowledged image of the pharaoh, shows him to have a very square chin, like the Sphinx.
Dr Dobrev says he has uncovered other images of Khufu, none of which have beards, and that this proves the sphinx represents Khufu.
The nemes, the sphinx's headdress, has markings representing two small pleats and one large. Khufu is shown with a similar nemes in at least one other statue.
Dr Dobrev says the Sphinx was built by Djedefre in the image of his father Khufu, identifying him with the sun god Ra in order to restore respect for their dynasty.
George Reisner, a respected American archaeologist in the 1930s, portrayed Djedefre as a plotter whose tomb was built away from Giza because he tried to murder his brother Kawab. Dr Dobrev says Reisner's theory is unsubstantiated. He asks why a carved stone list of donations made to Kawab's daughter would have an emblem of Djedefre on it if he was her father's murderer. He says that Djedefre was a visionary builder who built a sun temple at Abu Roash, six miles from Giza, a structure so far believed by archaeologists to be a pyramid.
Dr Dobrev re-examined graffiti carved by workers at a site called Zawiyet el-Aryan and believes this shows he has uncovered Djedefre's pyramid tomb
Dr Nigel Strudwick, of the British Museum, said: "It is not implausible. But I would need more explanation, such as why he thinks the pyramid at Abu Roash is a sun temple, something I'm sceptical about. I have never heard anyone suggest that the name in the graffiti at Zawiyet el-Aryan mentions Djedefre.
"I remain more convinced by the traditional argument of it being Khafre or the more recent theory of it being Khufu."
Carbon 14 - bunk. And yes, they do rely on the ice rings. Where have you been?
.........The British Wax Museum would say its really Darwin?
.........Maybe,.....it's 'Job' himself.
Perhaps he should just borrow my very own "Theory of the Brontasaurus."
You can project it on the Mediterranean world as a kind of map. It was a handy reference for mariners in those days.
is that as in "solv-ed" by Inspector Clouseau?
(sorry, I couldn't help myself...)
Yet he still had time to build the Sphinx?? Doubtful.
The Great Sphinx of Giza -- A Creation of Khufu/Cheops (Rainer Stadelmann) -- The so-called Dream Stela of Tuthmosis IV does not mention that the Great Sphinx was created by Khafre (Chephren), but the older stela of Amenhotep II mentions both Khufu and Khafre. It is located within the quarries of Khufu. Since the causeway of Khafre runs slightly to the southeast, rather than straight to the east, and since his valley temple lies beyond the axis of his pyramid complex, also toward the southeast, it is suggested that it was to avoid something important that already stood there -- the Great Sphinx. The features also point to Khufu -- the square face and broad chin, the pleated nemes without a band, the wide open eyes and large ears, and the fact the statue was beardless in the Old Kingdom.This is interesting in that (unlike Zahi "Zowie" Hawass) Rainer Stadelmann is actually a scholar. My view is that the head (which has been exposed, unlike most of the body which has been buried in sand for most of the last 3000 years at least) should be dated using cosmic ray exposure dating. The head isn't that of Khafre. It is also out of scale with the body (this has been pointed out by many people for many years). The head was probably recarved during the Ethiopian dynasty (given the anatomical affinity with black Africa which has been pointed out at least three times in the past couple of centuries).
[ping, with a reprise clipped from one of my replies in another topic]
In "COUNTING THE STONES: How Many Blocks in Khufu's Great Pyramid?" by Anthony Sakovich, KMT A MODERN JOURNAL OF ANCIENT EGYPT, VOLUME 13, Number 3, FALL 2002, a number of approximately 4 million is given for the number of stones in the Khufu pyramid. The largest stones are some of the corbels, the rest vary a great deal in size. The most common size runs about 2 tons.
Contrast this to Zahi Hawass, who claimed a few years ago that 2.3 million (the commonly used figure for the number of stones) was far too HIGH, and that the average weight of the stones was around 1000 pounds, or even less.
See, I told you Yu-Gi-Oh was real.
Bush's Fault!
Bump
No way it was a mushroom. I'm no Coptic studies guy, but I don't buy this for a minute. Are you suggesting that all the headresses of this shape are modeled after A. muscaria?
I think the original riddle was . . What does a frenchman do standing on three legs, standing on 2 legs, or sitting down? The answer Surrender, of course!
None of these pharoahs built it anymore than Donald TRump built the Trump Towers.
They may have caused it to be built, but it was the Egyptian architects and slaves who built it.
Is that a real mushroom? And if so is that a "magic mushroom"?
used the French language edition for the cover here. :')
The Pyramids:
An Enigma Solved
by Joseph Davidovits
Margaret Morris
other edition
The shaft leading to the so called 'Campbell's Tomb'. Named after a 19th century traveller. It was originally a 4th Dynasty tomb. It is situated close to the Sphinx.
from one of the more solid edges of the fringe...
On the Sphinx
Alan F. Alford
http://www.eridu.co.uk/Author/Indexed_Quotations/Sphinx/sphinx.html
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