The REAL Mystery of the Sphinx
DriftingByTheStorm
Posts: 8,684
How old is the Great Sphinx of Giza?
and who built it?
Again, modern "science" and archeologists tell us that it was built by the Egyptians some 3000 years before Christ.
The "traditional" model usually holds that Pharaoh Khafra (or maybe his father, Khufu) of the Fourth Dynasty of Classical Egypt built the Sphinx at Giza.
BUT, and this is a BIG but, THIS CAN NOT BE, HAS NOT BEEN, AND IS NOT STILL VERIFIED BY ANY HIEROGLYPHS OF THAT ERA.
Ie. any assertion that the Sphinx of Giza was built in the 3rd Millenium BC by Pharaohs of the IVth Dynasty is PURELY SPECULATIVE, WITH ZERO BASIS IN HISTORICAL FACT.
Further,
if you CHECK WIKIPEDIA (a great "source", i know) and go to the section entitled Water Erosion Debate you will see that MODERN SCIENCE CAN NOT CREDIBLY REFUTE THE CLAIM THAT THE SPHINX PREDATES ALL DYNASTIC RULE IN EGYPT!!!
Let me run that by you one more time, because it is extremely important:
an "alternative" theory (ANY theory that "threatens" the esteem of "modern" "science") to the construction and dating of the Sphinx at Giza maintains that water erosion patterns on the Sphinx are indicative of a period in Egyptian history ONLY CONSISTENT WITH PRE-DYNASTIC TIMES! And "modern science" fails miserably at a credible refutation of this "alternative" theory.
Let me BREAK THAT DOWN FOR YOU:
IT IS NOW CREDIBLE TO CLAIM THAT THE SPHINX WAS BUILT BEFORE THE VERY FIRST VESTIGES OF KNOWN CIVILIZATION ON EARTH BEGAN!
It is strange enough that the Sphinx is believed to be built by a civilization 5000 years ago, with arguably no access to the wheel, no access to the pully or lever, no tools beyond copper (which is hard enough to cut only a PORTION of the stones known to have been carved at or before that time, and attributed to the Egyptians), and no understandable ability to quarry, move and stack stone blocks weighing over 200 TONS (which are observable and STACKED in front of the Sphinx!). As bizzare as the aforementioned may sound, IT IS TOTALLY STRANGE TO CONCLUDE THAT IT WAS BUILT BY NO CIVILIZATION AT ALL.
In other words, modern "alternative theory" (which remains insubstantially rebutted by modern science) holds that not only was the Sphinx built by a "primitive civilization", it was in fact, built BEFORE CIVILIZATION EVEN BEGAN.
And here is another little tidbit that Wikipedia tries to invalidate.
Scroll down to the portion on Orion Correlation Theory.
This is really odd to me (i mean, Wikipedia's attempted refutation of the theory, not the theory itself) because even modern archeology is acutely aware of the massive scale of Isis & Osiris worship in Dynastic Egypt. These were principle deities of the time, and were reflected in the heavens as Sirius and Orion respectively. Why then would modern science be so concerned with debunking the claim that Pyramids were sighted to track Orion? It would, in truth, seem to make sense if the Egyptians were so obsessed with this constellation and the star Sirius, in particular.
???
Why do i say the refutation of this claim is not substantial? Because certainly, if you read the paragraph, it seems to be so. The claim (by the "alternative theorists") is that the pyramids VERY accurately aligned with the constellation of Orion as of circa the date of around 10,500 BC (remembering the OTHER alternative theory about the DATE of the Sphinx's construction needing to be SUBSTANTIALLY earlier to account for rainfall patterns -- it would need to go back to nearly the last ice age).
The wiki article makes it clear in no uncertain terms that several independent scientists have concluded that the alignment of the Sphinx with Orion around 10,500BC falls OFF THE MARK by a WHOPPING 10-13 WHOLE DEGREES. This is CERTAINLY not the level of expert alignment we would expect from the makers of the Great Pyramid (in all its structural glory) and DEFINITELY NOT what is claimed by the theorists.
BUT HERE IS WHY WIKI IS SIMPLY WRONG:
Wiki, and the independent scientists it is referring to, while they are taking in to account the precession of the equinoxes (the reason they had to ascertain where Orion WOULD have been 12,000 some years ago) THEY DID NOT TAKE IN TO ACCOUNT ANY POLE SHIFT!
While we can not for certain say if a pole shift occurred between then and know it is CERTAINLY A POSSIBILITY and ONE THAT IS NOT EVEN GIVEN PLAUSIBILITY in relationship to this "alternative" theory.
And that is about where i plan to stop for the night.
I am just curious what others may know, may want to know, or want to discuss in relationship to this subject which i find entirely fascinating!
Also, in near synchronicity with my desire to discuss this topic, i came across the following newspaper article in a coffee shop:
Flutes Imply Rich Cultural Life for Ancient Europe
Some 35,000 years ago, people played music in caves
Do such finds not FORCE us to RADICALLY RECONSIDER OUR NOTIONS OF THE HISTORY OF OUR SPECIES?
How is the evidence of a 35,000 year old musical instrument -- one that implies at least a cursory knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of air, the relationship of tones\vibrations, and a huge indication of the cultural level of the species -- reconcilable with our modern assumptions about cave men?
We are talking about people that understood the value of music, clearly implying some modicum of culture, and were gifted enough in brains to create honest to god flutes out of bone pieces and play them!
And this is THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO!
What do such discoveries necessarily imply with respect to our long misguided notions about the timeline of development for our species?
Such questions and topics blow my mind, continually.
and who built it?
Again, modern "science" and archeologists tell us that it was built by the Egyptians some 3000 years before Christ.
The "traditional" model usually holds that Pharaoh Khafra (or maybe his father, Khufu) of the Fourth Dynasty of Classical Egypt built the Sphinx at Giza.
BUT, and this is a BIG but, THIS CAN NOT BE, HAS NOT BEEN, AND IS NOT STILL VERIFIED BY ANY HIEROGLYPHS OF THAT ERA.
Ie. any assertion that the Sphinx of Giza was built in the 3rd Millenium BC by Pharaohs of the IVth Dynasty is PURELY SPECULATIVE, WITH ZERO BASIS IN HISTORICAL FACT.
Further,
if you CHECK WIKIPEDIA (a great "source", i know) and go to the section entitled Water Erosion Debate you will see that MODERN SCIENCE CAN NOT CREDIBLY REFUTE THE CLAIM THAT THE SPHINX PREDATES ALL DYNASTIC RULE IN EGYPT!!!
Let me run that by you one more time, because it is extremely important:
an "alternative" theory (ANY theory that "threatens" the esteem of "modern" "science") to the construction and dating of the Sphinx at Giza maintains that water erosion patterns on the Sphinx are indicative of a period in Egyptian history ONLY CONSISTENT WITH PRE-DYNASTIC TIMES! And "modern science" fails miserably at a credible refutation of this "alternative" theory.
Let me BREAK THAT DOWN FOR YOU:
IT IS NOW CREDIBLE TO CLAIM THAT THE SPHINX WAS BUILT BEFORE THE VERY FIRST VESTIGES OF KNOWN CIVILIZATION ON EARTH BEGAN!
It is strange enough that the Sphinx is believed to be built by a civilization 5000 years ago, with arguably no access to the wheel, no access to the pully or lever, no tools beyond copper (which is hard enough to cut only a PORTION of the stones known to have been carved at or before that time, and attributed to the Egyptians), and no understandable ability to quarry, move and stack stone blocks weighing over 200 TONS (which are observable and STACKED in front of the Sphinx!). As bizzare as the aforementioned may sound, IT IS TOTALLY STRANGE TO CONCLUDE THAT IT WAS BUILT BY NO CIVILIZATION AT ALL.
In other words, modern "alternative theory" (which remains insubstantially rebutted by modern science) holds that not only was the Sphinx built by a "primitive civilization", it was in fact, built BEFORE CIVILIZATION EVEN BEGAN.
And here is another little tidbit that Wikipedia tries to invalidate.
Scroll down to the portion on Orion Correlation Theory.
This is really odd to me (i mean, Wikipedia's attempted refutation of the theory, not the theory itself) because even modern archeology is acutely aware of the massive scale of Isis & Osiris worship in Dynastic Egypt. These were principle deities of the time, and were reflected in the heavens as Sirius and Orion respectively. Why then would modern science be so concerned with debunking the claim that Pyramids were sighted to track Orion? It would, in truth, seem to make sense if the Egyptians were so obsessed with this constellation and the star Sirius, in particular.
???
Why do i say the refutation of this claim is not substantial? Because certainly, if you read the paragraph, it seems to be so. The claim (by the "alternative theorists") is that the pyramids VERY accurately aligned with the constellation of Orion as of circa the date of around 10,500 BC (remembering the OTHER alternative theory about the DATE of the Sphinx's construction needing to be SUBSTANTIALLY earlier to account for rainfall patterns -- it would need to go back to nearly the last ice age).
The wiki article makes it clear in no uncertain terms that several independent scientists have concluded that the alignment of the Sphinx with Orion around 10,500BC falls OFF THE MARK by a WHOPPING 10-13 WHOLE DEGREES. This is CERTAINLY not the level of expert alignment we would expect from the makers of the Great Pyramid (in all its structural glory) and DEFINITELY NOT what is claimed by the theorists.
BUT HERE IS WHY WIKI IS SIMPLY WRONG:
Wiki, and the independent scientists it is referring to, while they are taking in to account the precession of the equinoxes (the reason they had to ascertain where Orion WOULD have been 12,000 some years ago) THEY DID NOT TAKE IN TO ACCOUNT ANY POLE SHIFT!
While we can not for certain say if a pole shift occurred between then and know it is CERTAINLY A POSSIBILITY and ONE THAT IS NOT EVEN GIVEN PLAUSIBILITY in relationship to this "alternative" theory.
And that is about where i plan to stop for the night.
I am just curious what others may know, may want to know, or want to discuss in relationship to this subject which i find entirely fascinating!
Also, in near synchronicity with my desire to discuss this topic, i came across the following newspaper article in a coffee shop:
Flutes Imply Rich Cultural Life for Ancient Europe
Some 35,000 years ago, people played music in caves
Do such finds not FORCE us to RADICALLY RECONSIDER OUR NOTIONS OF THE HISTORY OF OUR SPECIES?
How is the evidence of a 35,000 year old musical instrument -- one that implies at least a cursory knowledge and understanding of the dynamics of air, the relationship of tones\vibrations, and a huge indication of the cultural level of the species -- reconcilable with our modern assumptions about cave men?
We are talking about people that understood the value of music, clearly implying some modicum of culture, and were gifted enough in brains to create honest to god flutes out of bone pieces and play them!
And this is THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO!
What do such discoveries necessarily imply with respect to our long misguided notions about the timeline of development for our species?
Such questions and topics blow my mind, continually.
If I was to smile and I held out my hand
If I opened it now would you not understand?
If I opened it now would you not understand?
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
but seriously.. great post always good to read the stuff you post.. its like someone slapping my brain as it drifts back to accepting the norms
However, scientists usually go the prudent route when something is somewhat unclear. I find it sensible to be conservative in the outlook when there is a lot of uncertainty involved. Prehistoric (meaning with no known written sources) times even more so.
Maybe some new evidence will suggest that the sphinx is younger than claimed here, maybe Egypt was older than we thought, maybe some pharaohs happened in a different order. I just watched a tv-show the other night how they had now located the real site of the lost city of Pi-Ramesses. A grand capital that one of the big pharaohs built. It turned out, it had been moved, when the Nile changed it's course (which it is prone to do). So they found the stones from the city one place, and the fundaments in another using a new ground-scanning technique.
The Egyptians were laborous types
Peace
Dan
"Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
Right.
And thats "funny" because 6000 years ago would be, i believe, roughly the start of "known" civilization in Sumer.
Sumer is a funny little idiosyncrasy in and of itself, because it started at it's peak and declined from there.
I don't know how many have ever contemplated what it takes to reach a truly "high" culture, but it doesn't happen over night. Why then did the civilization of Sumer (and truly, it was a GREAT civilization) apparently spring forth out of nowhere and start off at its peak, with about 100 of the worlds firsts of anything (a brief description of some Sumerian "firsts").
How does man go from allegedly NO civilization at all, to having advanced mathematics, calendar knowledge, an evolved system of writing and language, construction, pottery, animal husbandry, a highly complex cosmology and religion, &c &c &c ???
It ALMOST makes you wonder, Flywallyfly, IF THE WORLD REALLY WAS "CREATED" 6000 YEARS AGO.
At least, was our kind given a "boost" of sorts from "someone" or "something". Was "the flood" an advanced terraforming event carried out by a highly intelligent being or beings?
Who knows.
Its fun to think about though.
If I opened it now would you not understand?
1. Sumer "springing out of nowhere" isn't exactly true, there have been found old settlements in the area going further back than anything else. Man's habit of settling and farming seems to have arisen in this area in the first place.
2. For us to find anything at all after 10 000 years, it had to be huge, and science etc had to be in writing that has survived to this day. Maybe what Sumer was about was happening gradually in several small places, and Sumer was just the first major one. (Sounds likely doesnt it? Fiddling with settlements, making experiences, making bigger ones...)
Point is, as in anthropology, everything seems to "burst out onto the scene", because our information about it is very patchy and often based on single finds.
Peace
Dan
"Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
Interesting that you mention Sumerian culture. I remember seeing a documentary awhile back that implied what you are getting at. There were giant "gods" from space in some carvings and myths from their culture that some thought could be "aliens' that came to earth and lived among them - shaping their culture and advances as you stated earlier. It was a really interesting theory. i cant for the life of me remember the name of it but I believe it was on the Discovery Channel or History International.
Isn't that scientology?
As an aside, the BBC has a DVD out called the Biography of Earth, it's totally separate from the collection they did on the Earth that focuses on animal species. The Biography focuses on geology and how the geological aspects of our planet like ice (the poles), atmosphere (clouds) etc. evolved and are tied together. It addresses the age of the planet - which is why I mention it - in terms of billions of years. I found it to be one of the more interesting theoretical documentaries I've ever seen. And you can rent it from Netflix. Worth watching.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
~I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulette I could have worn.~
Henry David Thoreau
Earth: A Biography
BBC 2008
From the BBC comes this momentous documentary that uses satellite images and compelling narration to chart our planet's intriguing history, exploring Earth's unique and diverse features while stressing the importance of protecting it for the future. Combining time-lapse photography and computer-generated imagery, the video shows how our world -- forged by volcanoes, the atmosphere, glaciers and oceans -- has teetered between disaster and renewal.
is this it?
looks/sounds interesting...just added it to my netflix queue. thanks for the tip/recommendation.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
Yes, that's the one. Make sure you have it so they send both DVDs at the same time - if you are shipped three at a time or whatever. You WON'T want to have to wait to get the second in the mail! The way they connect everything together is so intriguing.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
~I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulette I could have worn.~
Henry David Thoreau
cool.
i did put them back to back on my queue, but we'll see what happens. lately netflix has been very good, so hopefully they'lll both come together, or one shortly thereafter the other. it definitely looks intriguing from the description, just wanted to verify it was the film you were talking about.
thanks again for the heads up!
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
I hope you like them as much as I did. I'll probably end up buying the set from the BBC I enjoyed it so much. And I don't really buy a lot of DVDs - movies or otherwise.
Mohandas K. Gandhi
~I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulette I could have worn.~
Henry David Thoreau
and evidence of an advanced civilization exists here...http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_1.htm as well.
irrefutable proof that nobody has any idea of what really happened 10000 years ago.
i don't know if its the scientific method that is throwing everyone off or what.....it just seems to me that it makes more sense to find facts and THEN come up with a theory, as opposed to looking for facts to fit your preconceived theory. what do you do with the evidence that doesn't fit your theory? there are stories surrounding a barge that was loaded with artifacts from the smithsonean museum, that dumped its cargo in the atlantic ocean. makes you wonder what else are they keeping from us.
Do you have a link to that?? I can't believe that the people in power would do that. Yeah sure, silence it up if if doesn't fit into the 'status quo' as we know it. But to dump it? And have it lost forever?? That is truly a sad sad event.
ah yes.
the old Piri Reis map.
I've looked in to that one before.
While i find the idea of some sort of catastrophic event in late pre-history to be probable (like "the flood", for example), and i really like the theory of "earth crust displacement" put forward by Charles Hapgood ( and theory of "pole shift" which would in turn explain the earth crust displacement) i have to be honest in saying it doesn't look good for the claims about the Piri Reis map (also put forward by Hapgood).
Here is another page from the site you linked:
http://world-mysteries.com/steven_dutch1.htm
If you read through that,
it will become pretty clear (especially with all the pictures of maps) that the Piri Reis map is nothing more than a half-brilliant naval intelligence cartography job completed in the 1500s by people with poor knowledge and fanciful ideas about the geography of the earth -- particularly that portion midway to south of Latin America.
The claims of it showing Antarctica without it's ice caps seems to be 100% spurious and does not fit the actual pattern of what going on in that map. It appears that everything below South America was simply "fudged" because no one really knew what to depict down there.
I wish the theory WERE true, because it would be really interesting.
But best i can tell, that map is not going to bolster any claims of ancient civilizations with any authenticity.
And i would truly think that if the Sphinx predated the first Egyptian empires, but was an artifact of some other ancient culture, that we would find other archeological examples of this culture.
I just find it really odd and hard to comprehend why the Sphinx alone stands as evidence of truly ancient culture in north Africa & the Middle East.
If I opened it now would you not understand?
The south eastern edge of South America and the north western coast of Antarctica match up perfectly in the Piri Reis map, if you look at the images from your link. either the scale is wrong or something else like continental drift is going on. The coastlines match up perfectly. How they did they map it? even in 1530, as they site claims, how did they know this information in 1530? Even in 1900 this information couldn't have been known.
If we take the debunking at face value, either they are suggesting South America was accurately mapped in 40 years, and Antarctica, or they are suggesting Europeans like Columbus had this information going in, which has some pretty serious ramifications . And even so, the debunking fails to address Antarctica fairly.
6, July, 1960
Subject: Admiral Piri Reis Map
TO: Prof. Charles H. Hapgood
Keene College
Keene, New Hampshire
Dear Professor Hapgood,
Your request of evaluation of certain unusual features of the Piri Reis map of 1513 by this organization has been reviewed.
The claim that the lower part of the map portrays the Princess Martha Coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctic, and the Palmer Peninsular, is reasonable. We find that this is the most logical and in all probability the correct interpretation of the map.
The geographical detail shown in the lower part of the map agrees very remarkably with the results of the seismic profile made across the top of the ice-cap by the Swedish-British Antarctic Expedition of 1949.
This indicates the coastline had been mapped before it was covered by the ice-cap.
The ice-cap in this region is now about a mile thick.
We have no idea how the data on this map can be reconciled with the supposed state of geographical knowledge in 1513.
Harold Z. Ohlmeyer Lt. Colonel, USAF Commander
Military analysis suggests the map was an accurate representation of the Antarctic coast. Your debunking simply says, "no it isn't", despite analysis suggesting otherwise.
And if it is an accurate mapping of Antarctica, the latest possible year to map an ice-free coastline in Antarctica would have been around 6000 bc, 6000-4000 bc, which suggests an advanced civilization existed much earlier than we thought.
the sphinx case is easier.
The sphinx is older than we originally thought.
It obviously took a civilization to build it.
Civilization is older than we thought.
Remember that far into the 1800s, sailors were looking for the "counterweight continent" because of the idea that both hemispheres needed the same amount of land for the earth not to tilt over. And ancient maps also drew monsters everywhere, which does not indicate that there really were monsters at some point, that were correctly depicted.
Indeed, if the age proves to be older (which seems not totally uncontested), then civilization is older. So the egyptians had precursors in the area further back than we currently thought. Or the egyptians themselves just go back further, but had no (surviving) writing at that point. Would change some of what we know now, but it wouldn't be that revolutionary.
Peace
Dan
"Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965
follow-up:
finished the series last night, disc 2.....really, really interesting and informative! my husband and i both truly enjoyed watching it, again, thanks for pointing it out. we might not have otherwise caught it!
*the stuff about the mediterranean sea was particularly interesting, and the twin earth/space stuff.....really good.
Let's just breathe...
I am myself like you somehow
Message of the Sphinx (Keeper of Genesis in the United Kingdom) was a book written by Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval which argued that the creation of the Sphinx and Pyramids can be pushed back as far as 10,500 BC using astronomical data.
Working from the premise that the Giza complex encodes a message, they begin with recently discovered geological evidence indicating that the deep erosion patterns on the flanks of the Sphinx were caused by 1000 years of heavy rain. Such conditions last existed in Egypt at the end of the last ice age, about 10,000-9,000 B.C., meaning that the Sphinx may be more than 12,000 years old (not the generally accepted 4500 years). The authors go on to suggest, using computer simulations of the sky, that the pyramids, representing the three stars of Orion's Belt, along with associated causeways and alignments, constitute a record in stone of the celestial array at the vernal equinox in 10,500 B.C. This moment, they contend, represents Zep Tepi, the "First Time," often referred to in the hieroglyphic record. They show how the initiation rituals of the Egyptian pharaohs replicate on Earth the sun's journey through the stars in this remote era, and they suggest that the "Hall of Records" of a lost civilization may be located by treating the Giza Plateau as a template of these same ancient skies.
http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/hancock.htm
Tunnels and Chambers Under the Great Sphinx
I. In a series of expeditions between 1991 and 1993 led by John Anthony West, an independent Egyptologist, scientific investigators conducted geological and seismic surveys around the Great Sphinx of Egypt. The chief geologist was Dr. Robert Schoch, Professor of Geology at Boston University, and the chief seismologist was Thomas Dobecki, from the highly respected Houston consulting firm, McBride-Ratclif & Associates.
II.The team's conclusions were as follows:
A. Geology, The pattern of erosion on the Sphinx indicates that it was carved at the end of the last Ice Age, when heavy rains fell on the eastern Sahara -- perhaps more than 12,000 years ago. This contrasts starkly with the "orthodox" Egyptological dating for the Sphinx of around 4,500 years ago.
B. Seismography. The seismic survey indicated the existence of several unexplored tunnels and cavities in the bedrock beneath the Sphinx, including a large rectangular chamber at a depth of some 25 feet beneath the monuments front paws.
III. In 1993, John West and his team were physically expelled from the site by Dr. Zahi Hawass then (and now) the Egyptian government's Chief Inspector of Antiquities for the Pyramids and Sphinx. He appeared to be angered by the suggestion that the Sphinx might be far older than the civilization of Egypt itself -- and thus the work of a lost civilization -- and was particularly incensed by an NBC television film that was made about the team's work. This film linked the Sphinx to Atlantis and suggested that the chamber beneath the paws might contain the legendary "Hall of Records" of Atlantis. Hawass called these claims, "American hallucinations. There is no scientific basis for any of this. We have older monuments in the same area. They definitely weren't built by men from Atlantis. It's nonsense and we won't allow our monuments to be exploited for personal enrichment. The Sphinx is the soul of Egypt."
IV. An article in the Egyptian press responding to the NBC film quoted Dr. Hawass on his further reasons for expelling John West and his team from the Sphinx enclosure: "I have found that their work is carried out by installing endoscopes in the Sphinx body and shooting film for all phases of the work in a propagandistic but not scientific manner. I therefore suspended the work of this unscientific mission and made a report which was presented to the permanent commission who rejected the mission's work in the future."
V. The NBC film was produced by a certain Boris Said and partially financed by investments from the members of the Association for Research and Enlightenment. The ARE, headquartered in Virginia Beach in the US, is a multimillion dollar organization that exists to promulgate the teachings and prophecies of an American psychic, Edgar Cayce, who died in 1947. Prominent amongst Cayce's pronouncements were many statements to the effect that the Sphinx had been built in 10,500 BCE by the survivors of the lost civilization of Atlantis and that the survivors had concealed beneath it a "Hall of Records" containing all the wisdom of their lost civilization and the true history of the human race. Cayce prophesied that this Hall of Records would be rediscovered and opened between 1996 and 1998. He connected the opening to second coming of Christ.
VI. In 1995, John West and Professor Robert Schoch of Boston University put in an application to the Egyptian authorities to resume their research. Their application was ignored.
VII. In April 1996, the Egyptian authorities granted a one-year license to a new team to conduct surveys around the Sphinx. This team, which claims academic sponsorship from Florida State University , is largely financed through the Schor Foundation of New York -- by Dr. Joseph Schor, an American multimillionaire. Dr. Schor is a life member of the ARE and wrote on 24th May 1994 of his great personal interest in corroborating "the Cayce records which indicated that the culture which led to the building of the Pyramids dates to 10,400 BCE." He also stated his wish "to further delineate that civilization."
VIII. On April 11th, 1996 Dr. Schor stated of his current project at the Sphinx, "We do not work for the Edgar Cayce Group. The major purpose of the Schor Foundation and Florida State University is to aid in the preservation and restoration of the Pyramids and Sphinx. In addition, we are surveying the underground of the Giza Plateau to find faults and chasms that might collapse. This will increase the safety of the plateau."
IX. Also financed by Dr. Schor is a short video film shot at the end of 1995 by Boris Said and produced in early 1996. The film opens with Dr. Zahi Hawass scrambling into a tunnel leading under the Sphinx. When he reaches the bottom, he turns to face the camera and whispers to the viewer, "Even Indiana Jones would never dream to be here. Can you believe it? We are now inside the Sphinx in this tunnel. This tunnel has never been opened before. No one really knows what's inside this tunnel. But we are going to open it for the first time." In commentary, the film's narrator goes on to state, "Edgar Cayce, America's famous Sleeping Prophet, predicted that a chamber would be discovered beneath the Sphinx -- a chamber containing the recorded history of human civilization. For the first time, we'll show you what lies beneath this great statue -- a chamber which will be opened tonight, live, for our television cameras."
X. Dr. Schor has stated that this video is not a promotional venture aimed at hooking a major US network to televise a live opening of a chamber under the Sphinx. He insists, "It was made to test script and equipment and was made in November 1995, which was many months before we received approval for our expedition. We have abandoned its use."
XI. On April 14, 1996 Dr. Zahi Hawass announced in the Egyptian press that there were secret tunnels under the Sphinx and around the Pyramids and stated his belief that these tunnels would prove to "carry many secrets of the building of the Pyramids."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza
'...Robert Temple has suggested that the Sphinx was originally not a lion, but rather a dog or jackal, and was intended as a huge statue of the god Anubis, who in Old Kingdom times was the primary god of the dead. The Great Sphinx was thus believed to stand as guardian of the tombs on the Giza Plateau, facing out from the world of the dead towards the rising sun.[34]
Colin Reader has proposed that the Sphinx was probably the focus of solar worship in the Early Dynastic Egypt, before the Giza Plateau became a necropolis in the Old Kingdom (2686–2134 BC).[9] He ties this in with his conclusions that the Sphinx, the Sphinx temple, the Causeway and the Khafra Mortuary Temple are all part of a complex which predates the 4th Dynasty. The lion has long been a symbol associated with the sun in ancient Near Eastern civilizations. Images depicting the Egyptian king in the form of a lion smiting his enemies date as far back as the Early Dynastic.'
In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx became more specifically associated with the god Hor-em-akhet (Hellenized: Harmachis) or Horus at the Horizon, which represented the pharaoh in his role as the Shesep-ankh (Living Image) of Atum. Pharaoh Amenhotep II (1427-1401 or 1397 BC) built a temple to the north east of the Sphinx nearly 1000 years after its construction, and dedicated it to the cult of Hor-em-akhet.