Erosion sphinx

Unlike the pyramidsthe Great Sphinx of Giza has mostly avoided debates about its creation.

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.

Erosion sphinx

The Sphinx water erosion hypothesis is a fringe claim , 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 and the idea of an older Sphinx, pointing to archaeological, climatological and geological evidence to the contrary. In the s, French mystic [9] [10] and alternative Egyptologist Schwaller de Lubicz speculated the body of the Sphinx to be eroded by deluges and that therefore the Sphinx must predate them, further claiming that ancient Egyptian knowledge originated from colonists or refugees of Plato's sunken continent of Atlantis. In , author and alternative Egyptologist John Anthony West , inspired by Schwaller's ideas, attributed the erosion to Nile floods between 15, and 10, BC. By denying the existence of any evidence for the development of Egyptian civilization prior to the first dynasty, West created room to inject the idea of a lost, advanced civilization of Atlanteans who created the Sphinx and passed on their knowledge to the dynastic Egyptians. Ten years later, West sought the opinion of geologist Robert Schoch to validate his claims. In they traveled together to Egypt, visiting the Sphinx. The following year Schoch formulated and presented his version of the hypothesis, [12] purposely avoiding the use of the word "Atlantis". The Sphinx is positioned north of the lower end of the causeway of Khafre that connects his Pyramid- and Valley Temple. It was created by carving it out of the bedrock, cutting blocks from around its body which were used to construct the Sphinx Temple immediately east of the Sphinx and north of the Valley Temple, aligned to it. Evidence suggests that both the Sphinx and its temple were created only after Khafre's Valley Temple and causeway:. Peter Lacovara, an Egyptologist and curator at the Michael C. Carlos Museum , assigns "some of the erosional features" on the enclosure walls to quarrying activities rather than weathering. The causeway connecting Khafre's Pyramid and Valley Temple is not oriented to the cardinal directions but runs slanted. The southern wall of the Sphinx enclosure respects this orientation.

Recently, Schoch pushed back his minimum estimate years further back, to around the end of the last ice age. Ristroph cautioned that while it is possible that a natural feature like this existed at Giza, we do not erosion sphinx if it actually did.

The ancient Egyptians may have crafted the Sphinx, a 4,year-old monument at Giza that stands in front of the pyramid of Khafre not completely from scratch but rather on a natural feature that already looked surprisingly sphinx-like, a new study suggests. In an Oct. However, even if the ancient Egyptians did create the Sphinx from an eerily shaped hunk of rock, they still would have had to delicately fashion the Sphinx's iconic features, which survive to this day, the researchers said. To investigate the Sphinx's shape, the team took a mound of soft clay with harder material inside and placed it within a water tunnel that had a fast-flowing stream meant to simulate thousands of years of wind erosion, the team said in a statement. At the start of the experiment, the team molded the clay into a "half ellipsoid" or half of an oval shape.

By Elise Cutts. January 12, at am. The Great Sphinx of Giza might have been sculpted by desert winds long before humans carved into it. Mysterious natural desert structures called yardangs look a lot like seated lions. Some researchers now think the ancient Egyptians might have carved the Great Sphinx out of one. Built around 4, years ago, this massive statue sports the head of a woman and body of a lion. A new study shows that this general shape forms under fairly simple natural conditions — no people needed. Scientists were able to shape their own sphinxlike mini-yardangs from clay globs immersed in flowing water. Yardangs can evolve naturally in desert regions where winds wear exposed rock into long, streamlined ridges. Leif Ristroph was curious about how nature produces sphinxlike yardangs.

Erosion sphinx

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. During this period, images of the sphinx were initially similar to the ancient Egyptian version, but when later exported to other cultures, the sphinx was often conceived of quite differently, partly due to varied translations of descriptions of the originals, and partly through the evolution of the concept as it was integrated into other cultural traditions.

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Join AD for print and digital access now. Press Contact James Devitt. Photo: Getty Images. Toggle limited content width. Back to Top or Back to Research Highlights. Retrieved 26 February There is "no doubt that the facial features and detail work was done by humans," Ristroph said. Ten years later, West sought the opinion of geologist Robert Schoch to validate his claims. By Katherine McLaughlin. In , author and alternative Egyptologist John Anthony West , inspired by Schwaller's ideas, attributed the erosion to Nile floods between 15, and 10, BC. Ristroph and his colleagues are not the first to postulate a yardang as the genesis of the Great Sphinx. Researchers turn to erosion in exploring the role natural elements had in building an architectural wonder. On April 8, a number of states in the US as well as parts of Canada and Mexico will experience a few minutes of darkness in the middle of the day.

Unlike the pyramids , the Great Sphinx of Giza has mostly avoided debates about its creation.

Fringe theory on the age of the Great Sphinx of Giza. S2CID Archived from the original on 19 March Join AD for print and digital access now. Furthermore, chambers and tunnels under the Sphinx would have been flooded from above if the Sphinx had been sitting in a pool of water, unless the Sphinx Enclosure had been watertight. Nova Online. Glossary of artifacts Index Main topics. To investigate the Sphinx's shape, the team took a mound of soft clay with harder material inside and placed it within a water tunnel that had a fast-flowing stream meant to simulate thousands of years of wind erosion, the team said in a statement. Many people know me best for my work on the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt. Celebrity Style. Woolly mammoth de-extinction inches closer after elephant stem cell breakthrough. If the moat theory were true, then the lower strata on the eastern end of the Sphinx Enclosure would be most heavily eroded caused by water being brought in via canals from the Nile , but the opposite is the case. Most Popular. Owen Jarus.