The site we now know as Giza (or Gizah) was called Imentet (&#;the West&#;) or Kher Neter, (&#;the Necropolis&#;) in Ancient Egypt. The pyramids of Giza sit at the top of a limestone cliff which is part of the Middle Eocene Mokattam Formation. The site has not been fully excavated, and even now new tombs are recovered. The site consists of the three large pyramids (including the Great Pyramid), their temples, satellites and storerooms, the Great Sphinx, a worker&#;s village and a large number of mastabas constructed for wealthy nobles and private citizens.

1. ^ ^ab"The Great Sphinx of Giza". Ancient History Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 12 June Retrieved 7 December
2. ^Sims, Lesley (). "The Great Pyramids". A Visitor's Guide to Ancient Egypt. Saffron Hill, London: Usborne Publishing. p.&#; ISBN&#;.
3. ^"Saving the Sphinx – NOVA PBS". ingalex.de. Retrieved 7 Gods of Giza A Complete Overview
4. ^Rigano, Charles (). Pyramids of the Giza Plateau. p.&#; ISBN&#.
5. ^ ^ab"Sphinx Project «&#;Ancient Egypt Research Associates". Retrieved 12 November
6. ^Dunford, Jane; Fletcher, Joann; French, Carole (ed., ). Egypt: Eyewitness Travel GuideArchived at the Wayback Machine. London: Dorling Kindersley, ISBN&#;
7. ^Haze, Xaviant (). Aliens in Ancient Egypt: The Brotherhood of the Serpent and the Secrets of the Nile Civilization, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview. Simon and Schuster, ISBN&#;, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview. Retrieved 2 October
8. ^Hawkes, Jacquetta (). Atlas of Ancient Archaeology. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview. p.&#; ISBN&#.
9. ^Bryan, Betsy M. () The Reign of Thutmose IV. The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. –
10. ^"sphinx Dating the Sphinx

    Great Sphinx of Giza

    Limestone statue of a reclining sphinx

    "The Sphinx" redirects here. For other uses, see The Sphinx (disambiguation).

    The Great Sphinx of Giza, commonly referred to as the Sphinx of Giza, Great Sphinx or just the Sphinx, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human, and the body of a lion.^[1] Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the pharaohKhafre.^[2]

    Cut from the bedrock, the original shape of the Sphinx has been restored with layers of limestone blocks.^[3] It measures 73&#;m (&#;ft) long from paw to tail, 20&#;m (66&#;ft) high from the base to the top of the head and 19&#;m (62&#;ft) wide at its rear haunches.^[4] Its nose was broken off for unknown reasons between the 3rd and 10th centuries AD.

    The Sphinx is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and one of the most recognisable statues in the world. The archaeological evidence suggests that it was created by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of Khafre (c.&#;– BC).^[5][6]

    Names[edit]

    The original Turkey Shoot Online Slot Game the Old Kingdom creators gave the Sphinx is unknown, as the Sphinx temple, enclosure and possibly the Sphinx itself was not completed at the time, thus cultural material was limited.^[8] In the New Kingdom, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, the Sphinx was revered as the solar deityHor-em-akhet (English: "Horus of the Horizon"; Hellenized: Harmachis),^[9] and the pharaoh Thutmose&#;IV (– or –&#;BC)^[a] specifically referred to it as such in his Dream Stele.^[10]

    The commonly used name "Sphinx" was given to it in classical antiquity, about 2, years after the commonly accepted date of its construction by reference to a Greek mythological beast with the head of a woman, a falcon, a cat, or a sheep and the body of a lion with the wings of an eagle. (although, like most Egyptian sphinxes, the Great Sphinx has a man's head and no wings).^[11] The English word sphinx comes from the ancient Greek Σφίγξ (transliterated:sphinx) apparently from the verb σφίγγω (transliterated:sphingo / English: to squeeze), after the Greek sphinx who strangled anyone who failed to answer her riddle.^{[citation needed]}

    Medieval Arab writers, including al-Maqrīzī, call the Sphinx by an Arabized Coptic name Belhib (Arabic: بلهيب) and Belhawiyya (Arabic: بلهويه),^[12] which in turn comes from Ancient Egyptian: pꜣ-Ḥwr, a name of the Canaanite god Hauron with whom the Sphinx was identified. The modern Egyptian Arabic name is أبو الهول (ʼabu alhōl / ʼabu alhawlIPA:&#;[ʔabu alhoːl], "The Terrifying One"; literally "Father of Dread") which is a phono-semantic matching of the Coptic name.^[13]

    History[edit]

    Old Kingdom[edit]

    

    Natural rock formation at Farafra- Egypt

    The Sphinx is a monolith carved from the bedrock of the plateau, which also served as the quarry for the Gods of Giza A Complete Overview and other monuments in the area.^[14] Egyptian geologist Farouk El-Baz has suggested that the head of the Sphinx may have been carved first, out of a natural yardang, i.e. a ridge of bedrock that had been sculpted by the wind. These can sometimes achieve shapes which resemble animals. El-Baz suggests that the "moat" or "ditch" around the Sphinx may have been quarried out later to allow for the creation of the full body of the sculpture.^[15]

    The archaeological evidence suggests that the Great Sphinx was created around &#;BC for the pharaoh Khafre, the builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza.^[16] The stones cut from around the Sphinx' Gods of Giza A Complete Overview were used to construct a temple in front of it, however neither the enclosure nor the temple were ever completed, and the relative scarcity of Hell Raiser Gokkast Review Kingdom cultural material suggests that a Sphinx cult was not established at Kalevala Kasino No Deposit Bonus Codes time.^[17]

    Selim Hassan, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, writing in on recent excavations of the Sphinx enclosure, made note of this circumstance:

    Taking all things into consideration, it seems that we must give the credit of erecting this, the world's most wonderful statue, to Khafre, but always with this reservation: that there is not one single contemporary inscription which connects the Sphinx with Khafre, so sound as it may appear, we must treat the evidence as circumstantial, until such time as a lucky turn of the spade of the excavator will reveal to the world a definite reference to the erection of the Sphinx.

    In order to construct the temple, the northern perimeter-wall of the Khafre Valley Temple had to be deconstructed, hence it follows that the Khafre funerary complex preceded the creation of the Sphinx and its temple. Furthermore, the angle and location of the south wall of Gods of Giza A Complete Overview enclosure suggests the causeway connecting Khafre's Pyramid and Valley Temple already existed before the Sphinx was planned. The lower base level of the Sphinx temple also indicates that it doesn't pre-date the Valley Temple.^[5]

    New Kingdom[edit]

    

    The New Kingdom Dream Stelebetween the paws of the Sphinx.

    Some time around the First Intermediate Period, the Giza Necropolis was abandoned, and drifting sand eventually buried the Sphinx up to its shoulders. The first documented attempt at an excavation dates to c.&#; BC, when the young Thutmose&#;IV (– or –&#;BC) gathered a team and, after much effort, managed to dig out the front paws, between which he erected a shrine that housed the Dream Stele, an inscribed granite slab (possibly a repurposed door lintel from one of Khafre's temples). When the stele was discovered, its lines of text were already damaged and incomplete. An excerpt reads:

    the royal son, Thothmos, being arrived, while walking at midday and seating himself under the shadow of this mighty god, was overcome by slumber and slept at the very moment when Ra is at the summit [of heaven]. He found that the Majesty of this august god spoke to him with his own mouth, as a father speaks to his son, saying: Look upon me, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, contemplate me, O my son Thothmos; I am thy father, Harmakhis-Khopri-Ra-Tum; I bestow upon thee the sovereignty over my domain, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, the supremacy over the living&#; Behold my actual condition that thou mayest protect all my perfect limbs. The sand of the desert whereon I am laid has covered me. Save me, causing all that is in my heart to be executed.^[19]

    The Dream Stele associates the Sphinx with Khafre, however this part of the text is not entirely intact:

    which we bring for him: oxen&#; and all the young vegetables; and we shall give praise to Wenofer Khaf the statue made for Atum-Hor-em-Akhet.^[20]

    Egyptologist Thomas Young, finding the Khafhieroglyphs in a damaged cartouche used to surround a royal name, inserted the glyph ra to complete Khafre's name. When the Stele was re-excavated inthe lines of text referring to Khaf flaked off and were destroyed.^{[citation needed]}

    Later, Ramesses II the Great (–&#;BC) may have undertaken a second excavation.

    In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx became more specifically associated with the sun god Hor-em-akhet (Hellenized: Harmachis) or "Horus-at-the-Horizon". Pharaoh Amenhotep&#;II (– or &#;BC) built a temple to the northeast of the Sphinx nearly years after its construction and dedicated it to the cult of Hor-em-akhet.^[21]

    Graeco-Roman Period[edit]

    In Graeco-Roman times, Giza had become a tourist destination—the monuments were regarded as antiquities—and some Roman Emperors visited the Sphinx out of curiosity, and for political reasons.

    The Sphinx was cleared of sand again in the first century AD in honor of Emperor Nero and the Governor of Egypt Tiberius Claudius Balbilus. Gods of Giza A Complete Overview monumental stairway—more than 12 metres (39&#;ft) wide—was erected, leading to a pavement in front of the paws of the Sphinx. At the top of the stairs, a podium was positioned that allowed view into the Sphinx sanctuary. Further back, another podium neighbored several more steps. The stairway was dismantled during the –32 excavations by Émile Baraize.

    Pliny the Elder describes the face of the Sphinx being colored red and gives Gods of Giza A Complete Overview for the statue:^[26]

    In front of these pyramids is the Sphinx, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, a still more wondrous object of art, but one upon which silence has been observed, as it is looked upon as a divinity by the people of the neighbourhood. It is their belief that King Harmaïs was buried in it, and they will have it Gem Blast Slot Machine Review it was brought there from a distance. The truth is, however, that it was hewn from the solid rock; and, from a feeling of veneration, the face of the monster is coloured red. The circumference of the head, measured round the forehead, is one hundred and two feet, the length of the feet being one hundred and forty-three, and the height, from the belly to the summit of the asp on the head, sixty-two.

    A stela dated to AD commemorates the restoration of the retaining walls surrounding the Sphinx. The last Emperor connected with the monument is Septimius Severus, around AD. With the downfall of Roman power, the Sphinx was once more engulfed by the sands.

    • 

      Side view of the Sphinx with the Roman stairway on the right.

    • 

      Top of the Roman stairway before dismantling in

    Middle Ages[edit]

    Some ancient non-Egyptians saw it as a likeliness of the god Horon. The cult of the Sphinx continued into medieval times. Gods of Giza A Complete Overview Sabians of Harran saw it as the burial place of Hermes Trismegistus. Arab authors described the Sphinx as a talisman which guarded the area from the desert.^[30]Al-Maqrizi describes it as the "talisman of the Nile" of which the locals believed the flood cycle depended upon.^[31]Muhammad al-Idrisi stated that those wishing to obtain bureaucratic positions in the Egyptian government gave incense offering to the monument.^[32]

    European travellers[edit]

    In the last years, there has been a proliferation of travellers and reports from Lower Egypt, unlike Upper Egypt, which was seldom reported from prior to the midth century.^{[citation needed]}Alexandria, Rosetta, Damietta, Cairo and the Giza Pyramids are described repeatedly, but not necessarily comprehensively. Many accounts were published and widely read. These include those of George Sandys, André Thévet, Athanasius Kircher, Balthasar de Monconys, Jean de Thévenot, John Greaves, Johann Michael Vansleb, Benoît de Maillet, Cornelis de Bruijn, Paul Lucas, Richard Pococke, Frederic Louis Norden and others. But there is an even larger set of lesser known people who wrote obscure and little-read works, sometimes only unpublished manuscripts in libraries or private collections, including Henry Castela, Hans Ludwig von Lichtenstein, Michael Heberer von Bretten, Wilhelm von Boldensele, Pierre Belon du Mans, Vincent Stochove, Christophe Harant, Gilles Fermanel, Robert Fauvel, Jean Palerne Foresien, Willian Lithgow, Joos van Ghistele, etc.

    Over the centuries, writers and scholars have recorded their impressions and reactions upon seeing the Sphinx. The vast majority were concerned with a general description, often including a mixture of science, romance and mystique.^{[citation needed]} A typical^{[citation needed]} description of the Sphinx by tourists and leisure travelers throughout the 19th and 20th century was made by John Lawson Stoddard:

    It is the antiquity of the Sphinx which thrills us as we look upon it, for in itself it has no charms. The desert's waves have risen to its breast, as if to wrap the monster in a winding-sheet of gold. The face and head have been mutilated by Moslem fanatics. The mouth, the beauty of whose lips was Gods of Giza A Complete Overview admired, is now expressionless. Yet grand in its loneliness, – veiled in the mystery of unnamed ages, – the relic of Egyptian antiquity stands solemn and silent in the presence of the awful desert&#;– symbol of eternity. Here it disputes with Time the empire of the past; forever gazing on and on into a future which will still be distant when we, like all who have preceded us and looked upon its face, have lived our little lives and disappeared.^[33]

    From the 16th century far into the 19th century, observers repeatedly noted that the Sphinx has the face, neck and breast of a woman, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview. Examples included Johannes Helferich (), George Sandys (), Johann Michael Vansleb (), Benoît de Maillet () and Elliot Warburton ().

    Most early Western images were book illustrations in print form, elaborated by a professional engraver from either previous images Gods of Giza A Complete Overview or some original drawing or sketch supplied by an author, and usually now lost. Seven years after visiting Giza, André Thévet (Cosmographie de Levant, ) described the Sphinx as "the head of a colossus, caused to be made by Isis, daughter of Inachus, then so beloved of Jupiter". He, or his artist and engraver, pictured it as a curly-haired monster with a grassy dog collar, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview. Athanasius Kircher (who never visited Egypt) depicted the Sphinx as a Roman statue, reflecting his ability to conceptualize (Turris Babel, ). Johannes Helferich's () Sphinx is a pinched-face, round-breasted woman with a straight haired wig; the only edge over Thévet is that the hair suggests the flaring lappets of the headdress. George Sandys stated that the Sphinx was a harlot; Balthasar de Monconys interpreted the headdress as a King Tusk Review from the Savannah of hairnet, while François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz's Sphinx had a rounded hairdo with bulky collar.^{[citation needed]}

    Richard Pococke's Sphinx was an adoption of Cornelis de Bruijn's drawing offeaturing only minor changes, but is closer to the actual appearance of the Sphinx than anything previous. The print versions of Norden's careful drawings for his Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie, are the first to clearly show that the nose was missing. However, from the time of the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt onwards, a number of accurate images were widely available in Europe, and copied by others.^{[citation needed]}

    • 

      Hogenberg and Braun (map), Cairus, quae olim Babylon (), exists in various editions, from various authors, with the Sphinx looking different.

    • 

      Jan Sommer, (unpublished) Voyages en Egypte des annees& , Institut de France, (Voyageurs occidentaux en Égypte 3)

    • 

      Olfert Dapper, Description de l'Afrique (), note the two different displays of the Sphinx.

    • 

      Cornelis de Bruijn, Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn door de vermaardste Deelen van Klein Asia ()

    • 

      Johanne Baptista Homann (map), Aegyptus hodierna ()

    Modern excavations[edit]

    

    The Great Sphinx partially excavated, ca.

    Inthe first modern archaeological dig, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, supervised by the Italian Giovanni Battista Caviglia, uncovered the Sphinx's chest completely.

    In the beginning of the yearthe chest, the paws, the altar, and plateau were all made visible. Flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate measurements were taken of the great figures. The height from the lowest of the steps was found to be one hundred feet, and the space between the paws was found to be thirty-five feet long and ten feet wide. Here there was formerly an altar; and a stele of Thûtmosis IV was discovered, recording a dream in which he was ordered to clear away the casino leeds that even then was gathering round the site of the Sphinx.^[34]

    One of the people working on clearing the sands from around the Great Sphinx was Eugène Grébaut, a French Director Gods of Giza A Complete Overview the Antiquities Service.^[35]

    Opinions of early Egyptologists[edit]

    Prior to thorough excavations and evaluation of the evidence that was yet to be unearthed, Egyptologists and excavators were of divided opinion regarding the age of the Sphinx and the associated temples, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview.

    InAuguste Mariette, founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, unearthed the much later Inventory Stela (estimated to be from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, c.&#;–&#;BC), which tells how Khufu came upon the Sphinx, already buried in sand. Although certain tracts on the Stela are likely accurate,^[36] this passage is contradicted by archaeological evidence, thus considered to be Late Periodhistorical revisionism,^[37] a purposeful fake, created by the local priests as an attempt to imbue the contemporary Isis temple with an ancient history it never had. Such acts became common when religious institutions such as temples, shrines and priests' domains were fighting for political attention and for financial and economic donations.^[38][39]

    Flinders Petrie wrote in regarding the state of opinion of the age of the Khafre Valley Temple, and by extension the Sphinx: "The date of the Granite Temple has been so positively asserted to be earlier than the fourth dynasty, that it may seem rash to dispute the point. Recent discoveries, however, strongly show that it was really not built before the reign of Khafre, in the fourth dynasty."^[40]

    Gaston Maspero, the French Egyptologist and second director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, conducted a survey of the Sphinx in He concluded that because the Dream Stela showed the cartouche of Khafre in line 13, it was he who was responsible for the excavation and therefore the Sphinx must predate Khafre and his predecessors—possibly Fourth Dynasty, c.&#;– BC. Maspero believed the Sphinx to be "the most ancient monument in Egypt".

    Ludwig Borchardt attributed the Sphinx to the Middle Kingdom, arguing that the particular features seen on the Sphinx are unique to the 12th dynasty and that the Sphinx resembles Amenemhat III.

    James Henry Breasted reserved his opinion on the matter.

    E. A. Wallis Budge agreed that the Sphinx predated Khafre's reign, writing in The Gods of the Egyptians (): "This marvelous object [the Great Sphinx] was in existence in the days of Khafre, or Khephren,^[b] and it is probable that it is a very great deal older than his reign and that it dates from the end of the archaic period [c.&#; BC]."^[44]

    Selim Hassan reasoned that the Sphinx was erected after the completion of the Khafre pyramid complex.

    Recent restorations[edit]

    Inengineers of the Egyptian government repaired the head of the Neon Roulette Slots Machine. Part of its headdress had fallen off in due to erosion, which had also cut deeply into its neck.^[46] This questionable repair Gods of Giza A Complete Overview by the addition of a concrete collar between the headdress and the neck, creating an altered profile.^[47] Many renovations to the stone base and raw rock body were done in the s, and then redone in the s.^[48]

    

    Panoramic view of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza,

    Degradation and violation[edit]

    The nummuliticlimestone of the area consists of layers which offer differing resistance to erosion (mostly caused by wind and windblown sand), leading to the uneven degradation apparent in the Sphinx's body.^[14][49] The lowest part of the body, including the legs, is solid rock.^[1] The body of the animal up to its neck is fashioned from softer layers that have suffered considerable disintegration.^[50] The layer in which the head was sculpted is much harder.^[50][51] A number of "dead-end" shafts are known to exist within and below the body of the Great Sphinx, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, most likely dug by treasure hunters and tomb robbers.

    Missing nose[edit]

    

    The Sphinx in profile in

    Examination of the Sphinx's face shows that long rods or chisels were hammered into the nose area, one down from the bridge and another beneath the nostril, then used to pry the nose off towards the south, resulting in the one-metre wide nose still being lost to date.^[52]Mark Lehner, who performed an archaeological study, concluded that it was intentionally broken with instruments at an unknown time between the 3rd and 10th centuries AD.^[53]

    Drawings of the Sphinx by Frederic Louis Norden in show the nose missing.^[54] Many folk tales exist regarding the destruction of Gods of Giza A Complete Overview nose, aiming to provide an answer as to where it went or what happened to it. One tale erroneously attributes it to cannonballs fired by the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. Other tales ascribe it to being the work of Mamluks. Since the 10th century, some Arab authors have claimed it to be a result of iconoclastic attacks.^[53]

    The Arab historian al-Maqrīzī, writing in the 15th century, attributes the loss of the nose to Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, a Sufi Muslim from the khanqah of Sa'id al-Su'ada inwho found the local peasants making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope of increasing their harvest and therefore defaced the Sphinx in an act of iconoclasm. According to al-Maqrīzī, many people living in the area believed that the increased sand covering the Giza Plateau was retribution for al-Dahr's act of defacement.^[55][56] Ibn Qadi Shuhba mentions his name as Muhammad ibn Sadiq ibn al-Muhammad al-Tibrizi al-Masri, who died in He attributed the desecration of the sphinxes of Qanatir al-Siba built by the sultan Baybars to him, and also said he might have desecrated the Great Sphinx. Al-Minufi stated that the Alexandrian Crusade in was divine punishment for a Sufi sheikh of the khanqah of Sa'id breaking off the nose.^[32]

    Beard[edit]

    In addition to the lost nose, a ceremonial pharaonic beard is thought to have been attached, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, although this may have been added in later periods after the original construction. Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev has suggested that had the beard been an original part of the Sphinx, it would have damaged the chin of the statue upon falling.^[58] The lack of visible damage supports his theory that the beard was a later addition.^{[citation needed]}

    Residues of red pigment are visible on areas of the Sphinx's Gods of Giza A Complete Overview and traces of yellow and blue pigment have also been found elsewhere on the Sphinx, leading Mark Lehner to suggest that the monument "was once decked out in gaudy comic book colours".^[59] However, as with the case of many ancient monuments, the pigments and colours have since deteriorated, resulting in the yellow/beige appearance it has today.

    Holes and tunnels[edit]

    

    Man standing in the hole on top of the head of the Sphinx ().

    Hole in the Sphinx's head[edit]

    Johann Helffrich visited the Sphinx during his travels in He describes that a priest went into (sic) the head of the Sphinx, and when he spoke it was as if the Sphinx itself was speaking.^[60]

    Many New Kingdom stelae depict the Sphinx wearing a crown. If it in fact existed, the hole could have been the anchoring point for it.^[62]

    Émile Baraize closed the hole with a metal hatch in ^[63]

    Perring's Hole[edit]

    

    Perring's Holebehind neck of the Sphinx. Part of headdress on the right.

    Howard Vyse directed Perring in to drill a tunnel in the back of the Sphinx, just behind the head. The boring rods became stuck at a depth of 27 feet (&#;m), Purrfect Pets Slot>Online Purrfect Pets Slots for Real Money! in Usa to blast the rods free caused further damage. The hole was cleared in Among the rubble was a fragment of the Sphinx's nemes headdress.

    Major fissure[edit]

    

    Major fissure running through the waist of the Sphinx, before modern restorations in

    

    Trap-door access to major fissure, after restorations.

    A major natural fissure in the bedrock cuts through the waist of the Sphinx, first excavated by Auguste Mariette in

    At the top of the back it measures up to 2 metres (&#;ft) in width. Baraize, insealed the sides and roofed it with iron bars, limestone and cement, and installed an iron trap door at the top. The sides of the fissure might have been artificially squared, however the bottom is irregular bedrock, about 1 metre (&#;ft) above the outside floor. A very narrow crack continues deeper.

    Rump passage[edit]

    

    Profile of the rump passage with upper part (1+2) and lower part (3+4).

    

    Top-down plan of the rump passage. Lower part labeled "Sub-Floor Shaft", upper part "Core-Body Trench".

    In the Sphinx was cleared of sand Gods of Giza A Complete Overview direction of Baraize, which revealed an opening to a tunnel at floor-level at the north side of the rump. It was subsequently closed by masonry veneer and nearly forgotten.

    More than fifty years later, the existence of the passage was recalled by three elderly men who had worked during the clearing as basket carriers. This led to the rediscovery and excavation of the rump passage, in

    The passage consists of an upper and a lower section, which are angled roughly 90 degrees to each Capo Dei Capi Slot Machine Review

    • The upper part ascends to a height of 4 metres (13&#;ft) above the ground-floor at a northwest direction. It runs between masonry veneer and the core body of the Sphinx and ends in a niche 1 metre (&#;ft) wide and metres (&#;ft) high. The ceiling of the niche consists of modern cement, which likely spilled down from the filling of the gap between masonry and core bedrock, some 3 metres (&#;ft) above.
    • The lower part descends steeply into the bedrock toward northeast, for a distance of approximately 4 metres (13&#;ft) and a depth of 5 metres (16&#;ft). It terminated in a cul-de-sac Gods of Giza A Complete Overview at groundwater level. At the entrance it is metres (&#;ft) wide, narrowing to about metres (&#;ft) towards the end. Among the sand and stone fragments, a piece of tin foil and the base of a modern ceramic water jar was found. The clogged bottom contained modern fill. Among it, more tin foil, modern cement and a pair of shoes.

    It is possible that the entire passage was cut top down, beginning high up on the rump,and that the current access point at floor-level was made at a later date.

    Vyse noted in his diary (February 27 and 28, ) that he was "boring" near the tail, which indicates him as the creator of the passage, as no other tunnel has been identified at this location.^[67] Another interpretation is that the shaft is of ancient origin, perhaps an exploratory tunnel or an unfinished tomb Barcelona Guitar Slots Machine alt="" src="ingalex.de%2C_view_to_ingalex.de%2C_view_to_ingalex.de" width="82" height="">

    Rump of the Sphinx, with passage entrance at floor-level.

11. 

    Closeup of the entrance hole of the rump shaft.

12. 

    Inside the passage, looking up, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, seeing entrance stones and upper tunnel.

13. 

    Looking up the upper tunnel.

14. 
15. 

    Looking down the upper part from chamber 1.

16. 

    Lower part of rump passage, before excavation.

17. 

    Lower part after excavation.

Niche in northern flank[edit]

A photograph shows a man standing below floor level in a niche in the Sphinx's core body. It was closed during the restorations.

Gap under southern large masonry box[edit]

Another hole might have been at floor level in the large masonry box on the south side of the Sphinx.

Space behind Dream Stele[edit]

The space behind the Dream Stele, between the paws of the Sphinx, was covered by an iron Potion Factory Slots and cement roof, which was fitted with an iron trap door.^[71]

Keyhole Shaft[edit]

At the ledge of the Sphinx enclosure, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview square shaft is located opposite the northern hind paw. It was cleared during excavation in by Hawass and measures by metres ( by &#;ft) and about 2 metres (&#;ft) deep. Lehner interprets the shaft to be an unfinished tomb and named it "Keyhole Shaft", because a cuttings in the ledge above the shaft is shaped like the lower part of a keyhole, upside down.

Pseudohistory[edit]

Numerous ideas have been suggested to explain or reinterpret the origin and identity of the Sphinx, that lack sufficient evidential support and/or are contradicted by such, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, and are therefore considered part of pseudohistory and pseudoarchaeology. Paper Reels Slots Machine Astronauts/Atlantis[edit]

Main articles: Ancient astronauts and Atlantis §&#;Atlantis_pseudohistory

• The Sphinx is oriented from west to east, towards the rising sun, in accordance with the ancient Egyptian solar cult. The Orion correlation theory posits that it was instead aligned to face the constellation of Leo during the Gods of Giza A Complete Overview equinox around 10, BC, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview. The idea is considered pseudoarchaeology by academia, because no textual or archaeological evidence supports Golden Temple Slots Machine to be the reason for the orientation of the Sphinx.^{[73][74][75][76]}
  

  Weathering on the Sphinx's body
• The Sphinx water erosion hypothesis contends that the main type of weathering evident on the enclosure walls of the Great Sphinx could only have been caused by prolonged and extensive rainfall,^[77] and must therefore predate the time of the pharaoh Khafre. The hypothesis was championed by René Schwaller de Lubicz, John Anthony West, and geologistRobert M. Schoch, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview. The theory is considered pseudoarchaeology by mainstream scholarship due to archaeological, climatological and geological evidence to the contrary.^[78][79][80]
• There is a long history of speculation about hidden chambers beneath the Sphinx, by esoteric figures such as H. Spencer Lewis. Edgar Cayce specifically predicted in the s that a "Hall of Records", containing knowledge from Atlantis, would be discovered under the Sphinx in His prediction fueled much of the fringe speculation that surrounded the Sphinx in the s, which lost momentum when the hall Keno Neo Slots Machine not found when predicted.^[81]
• Author Robert K. G. Temple proposes that the Sphinx was originally a statue of the jackal god Anubis, the god of funerals, and that its face was recarved in the likeness of a Middle Kingdom pharaoh, Amenemhet II. Temple bases his identification on the style of the eye make-up and style of the pleats on the headdress.^[82]

Racial characteristics[edit]

Main article: Ancient Egyptian race controversy

Until the early 20th century, it was suggested that the face of the Sphinx had "Negroid" characteristics, as Hockey Hero Slot Machine Review of now outdated historical race concepts.^[83][84]

Gallery[edit]

• 

  The Great Sphinx partly under the sand, ca. s

• 

  Rear view of the Sphinx inshowing some of the restoration work up to that time.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^ab"The Great Sphinx of Giza". Ancient History Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 12 June Retrieved 7 December
2. ^Sims, Lesley (). "The Great Pyramids". A Visitor's Guide to Gods of Giza A Complete Overview Egypt. Saffron Hill, London: Usborne Publishing. p.&#; ISBN&#.
3. ^"Saving the Sphinx – NOVA

   The site we now know as Giza (or Gizah) was called Imentet (&#;the West&#;) or Kher Neter, (&#;the Necropolis&#;) in Ancient Egypt. The pyramids of Giza sit at the top of a limestone cliff which is part of the Middle Eocene Mokattam Formation. The site has not been fully excavated, and even now new tombs are recovered. The site consists of the three large pyramids (including the Great Pyramid), their temples, satellites and storerooms, the Great Sphinx, a worker&#;s village and a large number of mastabas constructed for wealthy nobles and private citizens.

   Gods of Giza A Complete Overview height="">

   Royal Tombs

   The pyramids of the third dynasty and the early fourth dynasty (Old Kingdom) were built on layers of marl and slate. Although this made digging out underground chambers easier, the marl layers could not support the immense weight of stone above them. This may be one of the reasons that Khufu built his pyramid at Giza rather than Saqqara or Dashur. However, Giza had been a Necropolis for some time before Khufu chose to build there. The First Dynasty (Early Dynastic Period) Pharaoh Djet has a tomb on the edge of the plateau, and seals mentioning the Second Dynasty Pharaoh Ninetjer were discovered in a tomb in the southern cemetery. In fact, Khufu had to clear away earlier tombs in order to construct his pyramid complex.

   Even after the ancient Egyptian pharaohs moved away from Giza as their burial site, nobles and Gods of Giza A Complete Overview continued to live and die there. However, during the First Intermediate Period, the pyramid town of Khufu and the cemetery of Giza were both abandoned and left to decay. During the Middle Kingdom, the pyramids and tombs were plundered, and the causeways and temples were used as quarries by the pharaohs of the 12th Dynasty.

   Fortunately, many of the New Kingdom pharaohs protected and revered the ancient monuments of Giza, in particular the Great Sphinx (who they called &#;Lord of Setpet, the Chosen Place&#;). A number of Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasty royals erected stelae between its paws and it was worshipped as a representation of the sun god Harmakhet (&#;Horus in his Western Horizon&#;). Amenhotep II built a small temple to the deity nearby in which he names the Sphinx Harmakhet -Hauron (Hauron was a Syrian-Palestinian god of the netherworld brought to Giza by settlers living near the Sphinx) and Ramesses II installed a sanctuary between Gods of Giza A Complete Overview forepaws of the Sphinx. Restoration was also conducted by the New Kingdom royals, in particular Khaemwaset (a son of Ramesses II) who took a special interest in preserving many of Egypt&#;s ancient monuments.

   By the Late Period, Osiris was the dominant god Gods of Giza A Complete Overview the area. He had absorbed Sokar (whose cult was centred at nearby Rostau) and the Sphinx was considered to be his representative. Apparently, huge pedestals were constructed on the Sphinx&#;s flanks, on which shrines to Osiris and Isis were placed, and Isis gained the epithet, &#;Lady of the Pyramids&#.

   Since the demise of the ancient Egyptian civilisation, the site has been quarried to aid the construction of Cairo. Most of the limestone cladding of the pyramids ended up adorning the walls of the city. Even so, Giza remains a massive archaeological site which has not yet been fully excavated and new tombs and buildings continue to be recovered.

   Non-Royal Tombs

   The skilled workers who live at the Gods of Giza A Complete Overview all year round Gods of Giza A Complete Overview their tombs near to the pyramids, which was quite an honour. While the tombs are generally made of mud-brick (rather than stone) some used leftover limestone and rubble from the construction of the royal tombs. They employed a number of architectural styles including beehives, small true pyramids and small step pyramids. The majority, however, are mastabas.

   

   Eastern Cemetery

   Workers Village

   The Egyptians did have slaves Gods of Giza A Complete Overview prisoners of war or debtors), but the discovery of the workers village at Giza suggests that the pyramids were built by skilled workers and bureaucrats (who lived there all year long) and farmers (who provided seasonal labour during the inundation when they could not work on their farms). The village is about metres south of the Great Sphinx. A 10 metre high wall named &#;The Wall of the Crow&#; separates the mortuary complex from the village, with access via a huge gateway with a limestone lintel.

   

   It is thought that as many as 20, people may have lived there. Archaeologists found thousands of potsherds dating from the time of the pyramids, along with the remains of buildings for the preparation of the food, supplies, building materials and medical services that the workers required. The settlement also boasts the earliest known paved street, complete with a drainage gully, and the earliest known hypostyle hall (a building with a flat ceiling supported by columns).

   Two intact bakeries were discovered, littered with pots, along with a cat-fish processing chamber and a number of copper-working areas. Fragments of wood and ash were found in each of these chambers, showing that even in this early period, the workers were able to obtain a good supply of precious and rare wood from a distant source. Egypt&#;s bureaucracy was already well developed and efficient.

   The worker&#;s life expectancy was between 30 and 35 years, and both men and women suffered from the effects of their heavy labour. However, the workers also had access to fairly high quality medical care. Surgeons apparently conducted brain surgery, as well as handling fractures and amputations.

   Recently, Lehner discovered a series of mud ramps approximately one meter wide, within a Secret of the Stones Slot of colonnaded porches which he has suggested acted as a barracks for temporary workers, sleeping up to 2, people at once. Chambers to the rear of Desert Nights Casino No Deposit Bonus Codes - Page 14 of 15 barracks were used for the preparation of food, with remains suggesting the workers ate prime beef, bread, and fish, Templari Slots Machine (of course) drank beer. Lehner also found evidence of a separate workers&#; town, to the east which he believes was the home of the skilled workers and officials, and what he hopes is the remains of a royal palace or administrative building. Inside the structure he found evidence of weaving and copper-working and a large court with numerous sunken grain stores.

   Bibliography

   • Bard, Kathryn () An introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt
   • Kemp, Barry J () Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilisation
   • Lehner, Mark () The Complete Pyramids
   • Malek, Jaromir () &#;The Old Kingdom&#;, in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt Ed I. Shaw
   • Van De Mieroop, Marc () A History of Ancient Egypt
   • Verner, Miroslav () The Pyramids
   • Wilkinson, Richard H. () The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt
   • Wilkinson, Toby () The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt

   Copyright J Hill

   Источник: [ingalex.de]

   Contents

   1. The Pharaoh in Egyptian Society
   2. The Early Pyramids
   3. The Great Pyramids of Giza
   4. Who Built The Pyramids?
   5. The End of the Pyramid Era
   6. The Pyramids Today Blitz Grouped Slot Slots Machine during a time when Egypt was one of the richest and most powerful civilizations in the world, the pyramids&#x;especially the Great Pyramids of Giza&#x;are some of the most magnificent man-made structures in history. Their massive scale reflects the unique role that the pharaoh, or king, played in ancient Egyptian society. Though pyramids were built from the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the close of the Ptolemaic period in the fourth century A.D., the peak of pyramid building began with the late third dynasty and continued until roughly the sixth (c. B.C.). More than 4, years later, the Egyptian pyramids still retain much of their majesty, providing a glimpse into the country&#x;s rich and glorious past.

      The Pharaoh in Egyptian Society

      During the third and fourth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, Egypt enjoyed tremendous economic prosperity and stability. Kings held a unique position in Egyptian society. Somewhere in between human and divine, they were believed to have been chosen by the gods themselves to serve as their mediators on earth. Because of this, it was in everyone&#x;s interest to keep the king&#x;s majesty intact even after his death, when he was believed to become Osiris, god of the dead. The new pharaoh, in turn, Wild Circus Slots Machine Horus, the falcon-god who served as protector of the sun god, Ra.

      Did you know? Gods of Giza A Complete Overview pyramid's smooth, angled sides symbolized the rays of the sun and were designed to help the king's soul ascend to heaven and join the gods, particularly the sun god Ra.

      Ancient Egyptians believed that when the king died, part of his spirit (known as ka ) remained with his body. To properly care for his spirit, the corpse was mummified, and everything the king would need in the afterlife was buried with him, including gold vessels, food, furniture and other offerings. The pyramids became the focus of a cult of the dead king that was supposed to continue well after his death. Their riches would provide not only for Lions Share Slots Machine, but also for the relatives, officials and priests who were buried near him.

      The Early Pyramids

      From the beginning of the Dynastic Era ( B.C.), royal tombs were carved into Gods of Giza A Complete Overview and covered with flat-roofed rectangular structures known as mastabas, which were precursors to the pyramids. The oldest known pyramid in Egypt was built around B.C. at Saqqara, for the third dynasty&#x;s King Djoser. Known as the Step Pyramid, it began as a traditional mastaba but grew into something much more ambitious, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview. As the story goes, the pyramid&#x;s architect was Imhotep, a priest and healer who some 1, years later would be deified as the patron saint of scribes and physicians. Over the course of Djoser&#x;s nearly year reign, pyramid builders assembled six stepped layers of stone (as opposed to mud-brick, like most earlier tombs) that eventually reached a height of feet (62 meters); it Lucky Bull Casino No Deposit Bonus Codes the tallest building of its time. The Step Pyramid was surrounded by a complex of courtyards, temples and shrines where Djoser could enjoy his afterlife.

      Scroll to Continue

      After Djoser, the stepped pyramid became the norm for royal burials, although none of those planned by his dynastic successors were completed (probably due to their relatively short reigns). The earliest tomb constructed as a true (smooth-sided, not stepped) pyramid was the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, one of three burial structures built for the first king of the fourth dynasty, Sneferu ( B.C.) It was named for the color of the limestone blocks used to construct the pyramid&#x;s core.

      The Great Pyramids of Giza

      No pyramids are more celebrated than the Great Pyramids of Giza, located on a plateau on the west bank of the Nile River, on the outskirts of modern-day Cairo. The oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza, known as the Great Pyramid, is the only surviving structure out of the famed Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was built for Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops, in Greek), Sneferu&#x;s successor and the second of the eight kings of the fourth dynasty. Though Khufu reigned for 23 years ( B.C.), relatively little is known of his reign beyond the grandeur of his pyramid. The sides of the pyramid&#x;s base average feet ( meters), Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, and its original height was feet ( meters), making it the largest pyramid in the world. Three small pyramids built for Khufu&#x;s queens are lined up next to the Great Pyramid, and a tomb was found Gods of Giza A Complete Overview containing the empty sarcophagus of his mother, Queen Hetepheres. Like other pyramids, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, Khufu&#x;s is surrounded by rows of mastabas, where relatives or officials of the king were buried to accompany and support him in the afterlife.

      The middle pyramid at Giza was built for Khufu&#x;s son Pharaoh Khafre ( B.C). The Pyramid of Khafre is the second tallest pyramid at Giza and contains Pharaoh Khafre&#x;s tomb. A unique feature built inside Khafre&#x;s pyramid complex was the Great Sphinx, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, a guardian statue carved in limestone with the head of a man and the body of a lion. It was the largest statue in the ancient world, measuring feet long and 66 feet high. In the 18th dynasty (c. B.C.) the Great Sphinx would come to be worshiped itself, as the image of a local form of the god Horus. The southernmost pyramid at Giza was built for Khafre&#x;s son Menkaure ( B.C.). It is the shortest of the three pyramids ( feet) and is a precursor of the smaller pyramids that would be constructed during the fifth and sixth dynasties.

      Who Built The Pyramids?

      Though some popular versions of history held that the pyramids were built by slaves or foreigners forced into labor, skeletons excavated from the area show that the workers were probably native Egyptian agricultural laborers who worked Gods of Giza A Complete Overview the pyramids during the time of year when the Nile River flooded much of the Gods of Giza A Complete Overview nearby, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview. Approximately million blocks of stone (averaging about tons each) had to be cut, transported and assembled to build Khufu&#x;s Great Pyramid. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus wrote that it took 20 years to build and required the labor ofmen, but later archaeological evidence suggests that the workforce might actually have been around 20,

      The End of the Pyramid Era

      Pyramids continued to be built throughout the fifth and sixth dynasties, but the general quality and scale of their construction declined over this period, along with the power and wealth of the kings themselves. In the later Old Kingdom pyramids, beginning with that of King Unas ( B.C), pyramid builders began to inscribe written accounts of events in the king&#x;s reign on the walls of the burial chamber and the rest of the pyramid&#x;s interior. Known as pyramid texts, these are the earliest significant religious compositions known from ancient Egypt.

      The last of the great pyramid builders was Pepy II ( B.C.), the second king of the sixth dynasty, who came to power as a young boy and Guardie e ladri slot libero gioco demo for 94 years. By the time of his rule, Old Kingdom prosperity was dwindling, and the pharaoh had lost some of his quasi-divine status as the power of non-royal administrative officials grew. Pepy II&#x;s pyramid, built at Saqqara and completed some 30 years into his reign, was much shorter ( feet) than others of the Old Kingdom. With Pepy&#x;s death, the kingdom and strong central government virtually collapsed, and Egypt entered a turbulent phase known as the First Intermediate Period. Later kings, of the 12th dynasty, would return to pyramid building during the so-called Middle Kingdom phase, but it was never on the same scale as the Great Pyramids.

      The Pyramids Today

      Tomb robbers and other vandals in both ancient and modern times removed most of the bodies and funeral goods from Egypt&#x;s pyramids and plundered their exteriors as well. Stripped of most of their smooth white limestone coverings, the Great Pyramids no longer reach their original heights; Khufu&#x;s, Gods of Giza A Complete Overview, for example, measures only feet high. Nonetheless, millions of people continue to visit the pyramids each year, drawn by their towering grandeur and the enduring allure of Egypt&#x;s rich and glorious past.

   Источник: [ingalex.de]
   

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