Erosion sphinx

The Sphinx water erosion hypothesis is a fringe claimerosion sphinx, contending that the Great Sphinx of Giza and its enclosing walls eroded primarily due to ancient floods or rainfalls, attributing their creation to Plato 's lost civilization of Atlantis over 11, years ago. Egyptologists, geologists and others have rejected the water erosion hypothesis erosion sphinx the idea of an older Sphinx, pointing to archaeological, climatological and geological evidence to the contrary.

Many people know me best for my work on the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt. In I first traveled to Egypt with John Anthony West for background information see Forgotten Civilization and Origins of the Sphinx , with the sole purpose of examining the Great Sphinx from a geological perspective. I assumed that the Egyptologists were correct in their dating, but soon I discovered that the geological evidence was not compatible with what the Egyptologists were saying. The thing is, the Sphinx sits on the edge of the Sahara Desert and the region has been quite arid for the last years. Furthermore, various structures securely dated to the Old Kingdom show only erosion that was caused by wind and sand very distinct from the water erosion. To make a long story short, I came to the conclusion that the oldest portions of the Great Sphinx, what I refer to as the core-body, must date back to an earlier period at least BCE, and my latest research now points to the end of the last ice age, circa 10, BCE , a time when the climate was very different and included more rain. Many people have said to me that the Great Sphinx cannot be so old, in part because the head is evidently a dynastic Egyptian head and the dynastic period did not start until about BCE.

Erosion sphinx

The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the most recognizable sculptures from ancient Egypt, and the mysteries of its construction some 4, years ago have long fascinated archaeologists. Yardangs are made from wind erosion. As the desert blows sand onto rock formations, softer pieces erode while harder sediments remain. Some yardangs are tall like towers, while others are more squat—and some may even end up looking strangely sphinx-like. To recreate how the Sphinx could have formed from a yardang, Ristroph and his team took a shapeless mound of clay and embedded harder materials inside it to replicate the terrain in northeastern Egypt. They then ran a fast-flowing stream of water over it, a process that mimicked wind erosion. The researchers monitored how the clay changed using a 3D optical scanner. Eventually, a sphinx-like shape appeared. The question is how much was naturally existing and then further modified. Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

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Researchers turn to erosion in exploring the role natural elements had in building an architectural wonder. Historians and archaeologists have, over centuries, explored the mysteries behind the Great Sphinx of Giza: What did it originally look like? What was it designed to represent? What was its original name? But less attention has been paid to a foundational, and controversial, question: What was the terrain the Ancient Egyptians came across when they began to build this instantly recognizable structure—and did these natural surroundings have a hand in its formation? To address these questions, which have been raised on occasion by others, a team of New York University scientists replicated conditions that existed 4, years ago—when the Sphinx was built—to show how wind moved against rock formations in possibly first shaping one of the most recognizable statues in the world. Yardangs in Egypt's White Desert.

The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the most recognizable sculptures from ancient Egypt, and the mysteries of its construction some 4, years ago have long fascinated archaeologists. Yardangs are made from wind erosion. As the desert blows sand onto rock formations, softer pieces erode while harder sediments remain. Some yardangs are tall like towers, while others are more squat—and some may even end up looking strangely sphinx-like. To recreate how the Sphinx could have formed from a yardang, Ristroph and his team took a shapeless mound of clay and embedded harder materials inside it to replicate the terrain in northeastern Egypt.

Erosion sphinx

Unlike the pyramids , the Great Sphinx of Giza has mostly avoided debates about its creation. Yardangs, seen here in Dunhuang, China, are formed in environments where water is scarce and the prevailing winds are strong. In a recently completed paper, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Fluids, Ristroph and his colleagues propose that the Great Sphinx could have started as a yardang, a specific type of rock formation. As Smithsonian Magazine points out, the name may sound a bit like maritime jargon, but the concept has nothing to do with the sea.

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The work the Egyptians did to build the Sphinx across the two yardangs was extensive, the s research suggested. Article Talk. As Smithsonian Magazine points out, the name may sound a bit like maritime jargon, but the concept has nothing to do with the sea. The bedrock in the enclosure is characterized by a karst morphology that would leak like a sieve. In I first traveled to Egypt with John Anthony West for background information see Forgotten Civilization and Origins of the Sphinx , with the sole purpose of examining the Great Sphinx from a geological perspective. By Michelle Duncan. Lal; Sinai, John J. For what it is worth, some have suggested to me that this may be a "Hall of Records" at the time I was not aware of Edgar Cayce's predictions along these lines. Yardangs form in desert areas when consistent wind slowly erodes what typically starts as a flat surface. Trending Space photo of the week When did humans start wearing clothes? The causeway connecting Khafre's Pyramid and Valley Temple is not oriented to the cardinal directions but runs slanted.

In Greek tradition , the sphinx is a treacherous and merciless being with the head of a woman, the haunches of a lion, and the wings of a bird. According to Greek myth, she challenges those who encounter her to answer a riddle , and kills and eats them when they fail to solve the riddle. Both the Greek and Egyptian sphinxes were thought of as guardians, and statues of them often flank the entrances to temples.

Mark Lehner when asked about the possibility of an earlier civilization replied, "Well, it's not impossible, but it has a very, very low level of probability, that there was an older civilization there. Harrell of the University of Toledo , who advocates that the deep erosion crevices were caused by the haloclasty process being driven by moisture in the sand that covered the carved rock for much of the time since it was exposed by quarrying. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors. Owen Jarus. Join AD for print and digital access now. In an Oct. The study shows "a very real possibility of how a natural limestone formation came to have a kind of amorphous sphinx-like shape," said Kathryn Bard , a professor emeritus of archaeology and classical studies at Boston University who has conducted extensive work in Egypt. Archived from the original on 2 February These tombs will not, therefore, have been exposed to any significant run-off. One proponent of the haloclasty process is Dr James A. Egyptologists postulate an indeterminate and indeterminable period of 'development' prior to the First Dynasty. As Smithsonian Magazine points out, the name may sound a bit like maritime jargon, but the concept has nothing to do with the sea.