Thursday, October 15, 2009

Drilling Under the Sphinx

Originally published October 15, 2009 | Heritage Key | by Keith Payne

This entertaining article explores all corners of the fairly recent hydrological work being performed on the Great Sphinx to nip in the bud any possible future water damage to the ancient (and don't forget mysterious!) monument. A video accompanies the information, which also gives lip service to Hawass and Lehner's conclusion that there aren't any subterranean chambers hidden under the Sphinx. Argh! Thanks for ruining it for all the day dreamers :P

The following is an article at Zahi Hawass' Blog of his and Lehner's work at the Giza Necropolis.

3 comments:

  1. Hey! I didn't mean to ruin anybody's day dreams! Besides, the water tables are always shifting. How do we know something was build under the Sphinx at a time when flooding wasn't a problem..

    What about the three-leveled chamber now called the Osiris Shaft? At the bottom of that is a false tomb that has been compared by Hawass himself to the Osirion, and I seem to recall an awful lot of water having to be pumped out of there...

    I always try to balance critical thinking with an open mind. I have been wanting to beleive years before Fox Mulder!

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  2. By the way, the above should say "How do we know something WASN'T built under etc etc..

    Normally I don't make tpyos.

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  3. I put the blame on ruining it for daydreamers on Hawass rather than you Keith ;) Hawass seems to want to discourage inventive interpretations of certain things, namely the riddles of the Sphinx, halting them straight away in their tracks by debunking them without performing an intensely exploratory examination of them. He did a bit of poking and prodding during hydrological work, but it seemed halfhearted.

    I agree also when you ask: how do we know something wasn't built under the Sphinx? We don't truly know, of course, but you and I see the beauty in that ;)

    I hate using words that have the air of certainty, particularly when it comes to describing the ancient Egyptians. Most of the time, scholars use "perhaps," "maybe," "probably," and the like, words Hawass tends not to use. He's not very opened-minded like you or I (and that's forgetting the fact that he can smell royal mummies! lol)

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