Robert M. Schoch - Origins of the Sphinx: Celestial Guardian of Pre-Pharaonic Civilization

We dedicate this book to our friend and colleague, John Anthony Westa courageous soul.

ORIGINS OF THE SPHINX

For a quarter-century, Schochs analysis of weathering at Giza and Bauvals archaeoastronomic discoveries have challenged the consensus on prehistory, not merely of Egypt but of the world. This book expertly summarizes their case and its triumphant vindication in the 12,000-year-old sanctuary of Gbekli Tepe. The question is no longer whether they are right but where archaeology should go from here.

JOSCELYN GODWIN, AUTHOR OF ATLANTIS AND THE CYCLES OF TIME: PROPHECIES, TRADITIONS, AND OCCULT REVELATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As always, my thanks go first to my lovely wife Michele, whose loyalty, support, and love have remained unflinching during the four decades we have shared so far. I also would like to thank my two children, Candice and Jonathan, for enduring yet another book project by their pleonastic dad. Thank you, too, to David Rohl, Gary Osborn, and Jean-Paul Bauval for enlightening discussions on the fascinating topic of the Giza monuments. To many old and new friends, too many to name here, thank you for your support. Special thanks go to Roberta Comuni, Richard Fusniak, Andre De Smet, and Robert Dakota. To the great team at Inner Traditions: Jon Graham, John Hays, Mindy Branstetter, Patricia Rydle, Eliza Burns, and Manzanita Sanz, thank you for making this book an item to be proud of.

ROBERT BAUVAL, TORREMOLINOS, SPAIN

In addition to my acknowledgements expressed at the end of appendix 6, I would like to thank my wife, Catherine Ulissey, for all of her love, help, and support. I also extend my thanks to the individuals at Inner Traditions, enumerated by Robert Bauval, who helped to make this book a reality.

ROBERT M. SCHOCH,
BOSTON UNIVERSITY, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

PREFACE

Robert M. Schoch

The idea for this book originated in Bulgaria. It was late July 2014. Robert Bauval and I had been invited to study various ancient megalithic structures in the Rhodope Mountains, fieldwork that was subsequently highlighted in a documentary produced by Bulgarian National Television, which aired in February 2015. While having a meal on the outdoor terrace at the Momchilgrad Hizhata MG Hotel Complex, Bauval suggested to me that together we should write a book on the Great Sphinx. I immediately took to the idea.

The Great Sphinx, that magnificent and iconic monument, arguably the greatest and most recognizable statue on the face of the planet, has been central to each of our lives for decades. Independently of one another, although we have been friends for many years, we have studied the monument from different perspectives, yet we converge on the same conclusionthat there is something severely amiss with the standard Egyptological story of when and why the Sphinx was carved. It made good sense that we should bring our analyses together between the covers of a single volume.

This book is a true collaboration, but it is also the product of two different scholars with different backgrounds, training, and experiences. We decided that it would be best, truest to our personal integrities and points of view, to keep the authorship of each chapter and appendix separate and distinct. Thus, you will find two different voices, chapter to chapter, as you read. We believe that these voices harmonize and combine together in a complementary fashion. Likewise, in a few cases there is some slight overlap where similar themes and significant features are visited and discussed by each of us, again from our own perspectives and each confirming the work of the other. For the scientist and scholar, confirmatory analyses are relished and are the sine qua non of good research. To accompany our words you will find a number of photographs and other illustrations, including various antique images showing relevant details that are now obscured or totally lost to time.

We have also provided various appendices, which strengthen the text and delve into certain details that are too technical or too obscure to be included in the main body of the book. Each of these appendices can be read on its own as a stand-alone article (and indeed several were originally written as such); however, they also complement one another and the chapters of the main text. With the appendices the thoughtful reader has the material to delve deeply into, and evaluate, the evidence on which theories of the Sphinx are based. In essence, with this book we have provided you, the reader, not only our analyses and conclusions, but also much of the essential data and the conceptual tools to come to your own conclusions. As is the case with many things in life, the more energy you put into something, the more you are likely to get out of it. With this in mind, you can approach this book as a good read, focusing on the chapters, or as an intellectual challenge, digging deep into both the main text and the appendices. Either way, our desire is that you will come away from this book with new insights and revelations regarding the Sphinx.

Fig. P.1. The authors, Robert Schoch (left) and Robert Bauval (right),enjoying a healthy snack while in the field in Bulgaria, July 2014.
(Photo courtesy of R. Schoch.)

Chapter One

THE GREAT PARADOX

Robert Bauval

It has been the theme of poets, painters, musicians, theologians and historians, and yet in spite of all that it remained the silent mystery of the ages, the Great Paradox, being at once the best known and the least known of all the monuments in Egypt.

SELIM HASSAN, EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGIST, 1953

The exact period of construction, or better still creation of the Great Sphinx, is still one of the great enigmas of the Egyptian art history.

RAINER STADELMANN, DIRECTOR EMERITUS OF THE GERMAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE IN CAIRO, 2003

A MYSTERY IN STONE

Of all the ancient sites in the world none have so much awed, inspired, and mystified generations than the pyramids and Sphinx of Egypt. These monuments, which stand on the Giza Plateau, have survived for thousands of years and may indeed still be there when our own civilization has long gone. It is as if the image of the pyramids and the Great Sphinx is encrusted in humanitys collective memory, and everyone everywhere, from the very young to the very old, recognizes them at a glance even if they have never been to Egypt. The very words pyramids and Sphinx are enough to evoke a deep sense of mystery, of thoughts of life after death and eternity, and of a transcendent connection between earth and sky and between the secular and the spiritual. Yet despite their universal notoriety, no one knows for sure what this mystery in stone is all about. The Giza necropolis is, quite literally, historys greatest paradox. And this paradox is particularly true of the Great Sphinx.

Egyptologists say that the Sphinx is the effigy of a king, and nearly all believe that its face is the face of the Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khafre, builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza. The combined manlion, they say, is symbolic of the kings intellect and strength. To be fair, some Egyptologists do allow themselves a margin of speculation and see the Sphinx as a symbol of the sun god or the warden of the Giza necropolis, but that is generally as far as they will go. There is no real mystery here, they assert with confidence. We are tempted to say that the jury is still out, but truth is not democratic, no matter how many experts stick to these conclusions and the consensus. So despite such apparent confidence, the truth is that the questions of who built these magnificent structures and, more importantly, when and why are still largely unresolved.