The Sphinx asks riddles. Riddles of the Egyptian Sphinx: the further they dig, the more there are (8 photos)

22.02.2019

The Great Sphinx of Egypt looks like a sculpture with a human (male) head and the body of a lion, 73 meters long. It reaches a height of 20 m. Along the perimeter, the Sphinx is surrounded by a moat, the width of which is more than 5 meters and the depth is 2.5 meters.

Is the Sphinx really that terrible?

Initially, this was the image of the Egyptian Sphinx. He devoured travelers and townspeople while near Thebes. This terrible image perhaps echoes, oddly enough, with symbolic meaning human sacrifices to pay for the protection of the Universal order. Perhaps the riddle of the Sphinx will not provide the answer itself.

According to one version, the Sphinx is animated. This is a demigod and guardian of order Higher power, which reacts to the destructive behavior of people by denying and going into the desert. By the way, his name is translated as “Living Image” or “Essence”.
According to another version, the Sphinx watches the sunrise and the process of planetary movement. But his job as guardian of the universe requires certain sacrifices, and here the second part is revealed, dark and terrifying, with legends that are still remembered in Egypt today. Victims concern human lives, and the mythical riddle of the Sphinx has its roots in deep Greek legends and the records of travelers, geographers and scientists.

According to the third, found in Greek mythology The Sphinx is a creepy winged monster with a woman's head named Sphingo (the roots of the word "to strangle" can be traced to this name). This lioness bird lived near Thebes, posed a riddle to travelers it met, and swallowed those who could not answer alive. The riddle was simple: “Who leans on four limbs in the morning, on two legs at the zenith of the sun, and on three at sunset?”

Oedipus vs. Sphinx - an epochal battle of the mind

The legend of the king of Thebes, sung for centuries, in particular Oedipus’ answer to the riddle of the Sphinx, is reflected in creativity and epic, in ancient painting and myths. The savior of Thebes, Oedipus, went to try his luck in solving the riddle of the Sphinx and intended to get the hand of the widowed queen. Along the way, he met his real father, who told him the answer. The riddle of the Sphinx to Oedipus and the answer to it are now known to many. Answering the Sphinx's question, Oedipus wisely decided that the monster was asking about a person in different periods his life: a baby crawls on all fours, mature man walks on two legs, and old age forces him to rely on a cane. The defeated Sphinx drowned in the sea, and King Oedipus was known throughout the centuries as a wise ruler. And of course, Oedipus’ answer to the riddle of the Sphinx teaches imagination and logic. It gives the opportunity to reflect and see beyond ordinary words true meaning.

Has the "Riddle of the Sphinx" been solved?

Today, the expression “riddle of the Sphinx” is used, of course, allegorically: it refers to a complex and insoluble problem. However, even in literally There are no less mysteries around sculpture today than in ancient world. The laboratory built by UNESCO is finding more and more of them. One of the scientists' assumptions is that the sculpture was built by a civilization that disappeared long before our era.

The construction of the Sphinx can be dated back to the 15th millennium BC. e., this is supported by the missing signs of civilization of the 5-7th millennium BC in archaeological research near the statue. The Sphinx is carved from natural stone in the rock, so it is impossible to find an accurate and objective method for dating its construction. This means that the Egyptian Sphinx still gives riddles today, and humanity is struggling to solve them with the help of high-tech means.

How the Ancient Greeks Missed the Egyptian Sphinx

Although the presence of temples and sanctuaries from this period suggests the existence of a civilization in the vicinity of the sculpture at the time of its creation, there is no record of them, perhaps because they lived in slightly different time periods - earlier than archaeological research has determined. More ancient settlements, as the previous version said (the creation of the Sphinx in the era of Cheops, Djoser and Khafre) and the records of the Greek scientists Herodotus, Hecataeus and Strabo, which did not mention the Sphinx, already used mythological references to the entities of the Sphinx in different forms.

According to the theory of astronomers, it is believed that the Sphinx served as an equatorial marker, indicating with accuracy the position of the Sun in the ecliptic. The previously existing theory of Egyptologists that the sculpture is about 2.5 thousand years old has little support: even in the texts of the Ancient Kingdoms nothing is said about the construction of such a large object. Perhaps because he was simply no longer seen then under the layers of sand.

Sphinx - witness of Atlantis

It is argued that the desert climate changed about 11 thousand years ago, and in place Mediterranean Sea there was a desert, so research is simply impossible to carry out on such a scale to say whether civilization has definitely moved to another area, or whether the layers of soil in which they could be found have not yet been excavated. Traces of water and wind erosion on the body of the Sphinx also support the version that the Sphinx is older. It is curious that the head of the Sphinx was not damaged by such influences of nature. French archaeologists have hypothesized that the date of creation of the Sphinx coincides with the existence of Atlantis, and the catastrophe that led to climate change and the transformation of a green hill into a lifeless desert corresponds to the estimated time of the Biblical Flood.

Riddle of the Sphinx

In myths Ancient Greece tells about a winged half-lion with a woman's head and chest. The monster allegedly lived on a rock near the Greek city of Thebes. It loved to ask travelers difficult questions. If the person answered correctly, the Sphinx had to let him through. And since there were no such people, the monster killed everyone. That was until it met the traveler Oedipus. The Sphinx asked:

Who walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs at noon, and 3 legs in the evening?

Human. - Oedipus answered. - In childhood, which can be called the morning of life, the baby crawls on all fours, then stands firmly on his feet, and at the end of his life he walks with difficulty, leaning on the “third leg” - a stick.

The monster, in despair, threw himself off the cliff and died. For getting rid of the Sphinx, the Thebans made Oedipus king.

In fact, this legend came here from Ancient Egypt. The Sphinx statue still stands there today. And he continues to ask riddles.

Riddle one: what does the name of this monster mean? “Sphinx” is a Greek word and it is derived from the Egyptian name “Shepes ankh” - “Living Image”. But then the Egyptians believed that stone monument… alive? This is what Russian researchers N. Glazova and V. Landa wrote about this, who observed the statue in different time days:

During the day, illuminated by the sun, it does not evoke the feeling of delight that is revealed when it is illuminated from below by spotlights at night. When illuminated from below, the meaningful and wise look of his huge eyes suddenly appeared clearly. Apparently, the face was conceived so that in the light of day the unreasonable and greedy earthlings of past eras would not recognize the wise alien creature in the Sphinx...

The Sphinx looks even more majestic during sunrise, which it meets with its head raised upward for several thousand years in a row. He reaches special beauty and wisdom at nine o’clock in the morning: it was not for nothing that in Ancient Egypt the number “9” meant wisdom. Then, when the sun rises higher and shadows fall on the stone face, the Sphinx “dies.” If we translate its ancient Egyptian name as “Symbol of Life,” then it becomes clear that the stone statue lives in the same cycles as nature, where flowering is followed by withering, then temporary death comes - winter (in the tropics this is a period of drought), followed by resurrection And so on from year to year. It’s the same with a person: the body dies, but the soul continues to exist.

Riddle two: how long has he been lying here? Scientists have found that the statue of the Sphinx and the pyramids behind it constitute one architectural complex, built on the same foundation, but the ancient temples collapsed over time, and others were built in their place much later. Only the Sphinx has survived from prehistoric times, when there was no Egypt. How do we know this? Firstly, over the millennia, this monument has been completely covered more than once with sand brought by the wind from the Sahara Desert. Ancient chronicles report that, by order of the Egyptian pharaohs, the statue of the Sphinx in the Giza Valley was dug up many times. The work was carried out in 1818, 1886, 1925, when only the head of the monument remained on the surface. This means that the Sphinx was created when the Sahara desert did not yet exist. The scientist M. Lenner concluded from this that “The Sphinx was created a long time ago, when Giza was still green.” And this was 15,000 - 11,000 years ago, when the desert resembled “the hilly plain of modern Kenya and Tanzania.”

Riddle three: why did he lie down here? First of all, the Sphinx is a monument to a vanished civilization. When scientists carefully examined the face of the statue, it turned out that it belongs to a race of people that does not exist today. Outwardly, they looked like Africans and Native Americans - Indians. Secondly, the monument is a precise instrument for astronomical calculations. With its paws it rests on the eastern side of the square, into which the rest of the buildings of the Giza Valley are inscribed. If you multiply their parameters, the product will be equal to the duration of one cosmic year - 26,000 years.

The fourth riddle, not yet solved. It turns out that under the statue itself there are underground rooms. They were discovered using the latest acoustic equipment. All that remains is to get to the secret repositories of knowledge.

True, there is a prediction: when the world is on the verge of destruction, the statue will come to life and speak. Then the Sphinx herself will tell about all her secrets. But then it will be too late. It would be better if we knew them now.

Defender of the Mystery of Time

In Ancient Egypt, the Sphinx had a nickname - “Protector”. From whom and what was he defending? Scholar Hancock writes: "He guards the 'Glorious Place of the Beginning of Time' and is revered as the center of the 'great magical power, extending across the entire region." Alas, the Defender did not save the state of Ancient Egypt, but he saved his main secret- the secret of Time.

Each person is born under his own “lucky star”, or zodiac sign. This constellation subsequently determines the character and destiny of a person. The same " lucky stars“All of humanity has it too. But they no longer determine fate individuals, but entire nations. The Egyptian Sphinx was most likely created during the Age of Leo, which lasted from 10970 to 8810 BC. e. Scientists give an even more precise date - 10450 BC. e. At this time, the Sun was rising in the constellation Leo. The ancient builders hoped that people in the future would also begin to tell time by the stars and would know when the Sphinx was built. And they were right.

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The Riddle of the Sphinx The myths of Ancient Greece tell of a winged half-lion with a woman's head and chest. The monster allegedly lived on a rock near the Greek city of Thebes. It loved to ask travelers difficult questions. If the person answered correctly, the Sphinx had to let him through. A

Riddle of the Sphinx– the expression itself is mysterious. Not everyone will immediately remember who he is (or what he is) sphinx. Secondly, why is there some kind of mystery associated with this very creature?

In Greek mythology sphinx- this is a monster with woman's face, a lion's body and large bird wings. According to legend sphinx was located near the gates of the Greek city of Thebes and asked everyone passing the same question riddle- “Who walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening?” The one who didn't guess riddle of the sphinx, a terrible death awaited in the clutches of a monster.

The son of the mayor of Thebes, Oedipus, guessed right riddle of the sphinx: « Small child crawls on all fours, an adult walks on two legs, and the old man also leans on a stick.”

Shocked that it riddle solved sphinx Out of frustration, he fell down the cliff and crashed to his death on the rocks.

By the way, the expression riddle of the sphinx has nothing to do with Egyptian to the sphinx, whose image is familiar to everyone from history textbooks and tourist brochures about Egypt. Although the Egyptian sphinx such a mysterious expression on his face and a gaze directed into eternity that one might think that he is hiding some kind of universal mystery from humanity.

In a word, the expression riddle of the sphinx we use it in cases where we are talking about a difficult problem that is not easy to solve.

Other interesting expressions from Russian speech:

Know by heart - this expression is familiar to everyone school days. Know on

The expression tit for tat is quite simple and understandable, like Newton’s third law. Means

One of the main versions of the origin of the expression If the mountain does not go to Mohammed,

Expression There is life in the old dog yet with a high degree of probability it went

One more, last legend, and my chronicle is finished...

The mysterious creature with a lion's body has no ascription to a specific culture and a specific gender. The most famous Egyptian sphinx guarding Giza is male.

IN Egyptian mythology The heads of the sphinxes were not only human. Sphinxes with the head of a falcon were dedicated to the god Horus, and sphinxes with the head of a ram were dedicated to the solar deity Amun. There are even sphinxes with the head of a crocodile, apparently glorifying Sebek, the god of the Nile. All Egyptian sphinxes are depicted on the walls of temples or guard tombs, sacred places for people. It can be concluded that the male Egyptian sphinx was a positive figure, a protector and guardian of the mysterious world of the gods. The hieroglyph used to designate the sphinx also meant “master”, “ruler”.

A contemporary of the Egyptian sphinx, it is a monster from Sumerian legend, which the supreme goddess Tiamat gives birth to in order to take revenge on her husband. Here the sphinx is the embodiment of malice, anger and horror.

The image of the Sphinx, which migrated from Egypt to Greece, underwent significant changes. Firstly, he changed gender and instead of the pharaoh's crown, he acquired a naked woman's crown. Secondly, he grew wings. It is this sphinx that has become widespread in world culture along with its owner from Egypt. Even the word “sphinx” itself comes from the Greek “sphincter” - to squeeze, “sphinga” - strangler. According to legend, the Greek sphinx was the daughter of the ancient monsters Typhon and Echidna, the product of the abyss and chaos.

A riddle for the future King Oedipus

The widespread image of the Sphinx as a creature who speaks in riddles also comes from Greece. Hera, the supreme goddess of Olympus, decided to punish the Theban king Laius for the crimes he had committed and sent the sphinx to the gates of Thebes. He, having settled down on a roadside stone, began to ask the travelers a riddle that the muses had suggested to him. The punishment for being unfaithful was death.

Gradually, the road to the city became deserted; no one wanted to risk their lives by guessing the ingenious riddle of the Sphinx. Only Oedipus, during his fateful trip to Thebes, was able to solve the riddle, which sounded like this: “What creature walks on four legs in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three?” Oedipus replied that this is - as a child he crawls on all fours, growing up, he walks on his feet, and in old age he leans on a cane. The defeated sphinx threw himself into the abyss from the Phycean Mountain.

The legends have not preserved any other riddles of the Sphinx. Some philosophers, studying ancient myths, suggested that the Sphinx asked each person a riddle intended only for him. The riddle about the man hinted at the sad fate of Oedipus, who, in ignorance, killed his father and married his own.

Sources:

  • Why does the Sphinx ask Harry a riddle?

Since ancient times, the Greek myth about the monstrous Sphinx, who amused himself by asking riddles to travelers, has been passed down from generation to generation. Those who could not answer correctly were killed by the Sphinx. And only one person managed to solve difficult riddle Sphinx. The fate of this man, King Oedipus, was truly tragic.

Oracle prediction

Legend has it that an oracle predicted to King Laius, who ruled in Thebes, that he would be killed by his own son. When the king's son was born, Lai decided to kill him in order to thus avoid a terrible fate. But the child, who was destined to be torn to pieces by wild animals, was adopted by the Corinthian king Polybus and his wife. They raised the boy as Oedipus and raised him as their own son.

As a young man, Oedipus went to Delphi to find out his fate. And he was predicted that he would take the life of his father and marry his own mother. The children from this marriage will be cursed by the gods.

Oedipus listened to the oracle with horror and decided not to return to Corinth so as not to meet his parents.

Oedipus went to seek his fortune in other countries. On the way to Thebes, the young man met a chariot in which there was some noble old man, accompanied by servants. The angry old man, to whom Oedipus did not want to give way, hit the young man with a scepter. Enraged, Oedipus killed the old man with a blow from his traveling staff, after which, driven by anger, he killed the servants accompanying the old man. It later turned out that in that road quarrel Oedipus took the life of his real father, King Laius.

Oedipus and the Sphinx

Approaching Thebes, Oedipus found its inhabitants sad and depressed. It turned out that a monster, the Sphinx, had settled near the city gates, constantly demanding victims. The Sphinx had the body of a lion, the head and wings of an eagle. The monster forced travelers passing by to solve the same riddle. But no one could guess it. And then the Sphinx tore the unfortunate losers apart with iron claws.

The riddle of the Sphinx sounded like this: “What living creature walks in the morning on four legs, in the afternoon on two, and in the evening on three?” Oedipus, to whom the Sphinx asked this question, replied that we're talking about about a human. At the dawn of life, a person crawls on all fours, mature age he walks on his feet, and with the onset of old age he leans on a staff.

Hearing this correct answer, the Sphinx in despair rushed into the abyss, where he died, falling to his death.

The tragedy of Oedipus

Oedipus, who defeated the Sphinx, was greeted in Thebes with honors and even gave him the queen who had become a widow, the wife of the deceased Laius, as his wife. For two decades Oedipus reigned happily in Thebes. But then an epidemic broke out in the city, claiming many lives. The oracle in Delphi, to which the townspeople turned, replied that their city was cursed. To lift the curse, you need to drive away the one who killed King Laius.

Oedipus heeded the oracle's advice and cursed the unknown former king, sentencing him in absentia to exile and vowing to find him at any cost. Great was the amazement of Oedipus when soon the wise blind old man called him the very murderer whom Oedipus was looking for.

The king was seized with horror. Everything that was previously predicted for him came true. He really killed his own father and mother. Having learned the truth, the Theban woman committed suicide in despair. Oedipus, completely mad with grief, gouged out his eyes with his own hands so as not to see anything. hometown, nor their children. Having become blind and decrepit, Oedipus went into exile.

Video on the topic

Mythical creature with the head of a man and the body of a lion was a popular figure of Egyptian and Greek myths. In both cultures, this creature, to one degree or another, served as a “guard”, blocking a person’s path to certain secrets and treasures, allowing only a select few to access them.

Greek Sphinx

In Greece, the sphinx was not only a creature female, but also by a proper name. The Sphinx is the daughter of Typhon and Echidna or the dog Orph, the brother of the many-headed Cerberus, and the Chimera. It not only had the head of a woman and the body of a lioness, but also the wings of an eagle and a snake for a tail. The Greek Sphinx was initially the deity of destruction and bad luck, later the guardian of the entrance to the hundred-domed Thebes. She asked each traveler a riddle and no one could answer it. Anyone who gave the wrong answer was strangled and then devoured by the Sphinx.

For a long time The famous “riddle of the Sphinx” was invented by everyone according to their own taste, but then two canonical versions appeared. The first one was that the Sphinx asked about who walks on four in the morning, on two in the afternoon, and on three in the evening, and the answer to this riddle is a person who crawls in infancy, moves independently on two legs in adulthood and leans on a stick in old age. The second, less common version is that the Sphinx asked a riddle about two sisters, each of whom gives birth to the other, referring to night and day. Riddle of the Sphinx future king city ​​- Oedipus, but the path that the monster opened for him did not lead him to happiness - it was on the road to Thebes that Oedipus killed, without knowing it, his father, and then, having come to, also unintentionally, married her, which brought him to Thebes terrible curse. When the reason for the anger of the gods was revealed and Oedipus found out what he had done, the unfortunate man blinded himself and went into exile.

After Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx, she threw herself from a high cliff and fell to her death.

Egyptian sphinx

Unlike the Greek, the Egyptian Sphinx does not have own history and gender. Moreover, compared to the Greek version, he can even be called benevolent, but not good-natured. The Egyptians placed images of a man with the body of a lion at the “service” entrances to temples and near the tomb; the sphinx was supposed to let clergy through and severely punish anyone who encroached on treasures or secret knowledge. Later, figures of sphinxes began to decorate the stairs and entrances to the palace chambers; in this case, the monster was assigned the functions of a “guard” for the royal person.
The most famous Egyptian sphinx is Great Sphinx– a giant sculpture made of soft limestone in Giza. Under the protection of this sphinx there are three pyramids - Cheops, Herfen and Mikerin.

Sphinx in European culture

Egyptian sphinx as guardian secret knowledge, became one of the symbols of the Freemasons. The riddle of the Greek Sphinx served as the plot of many literary works. Interest in sphinxes in the 16th century led to the emergence of the "French Sphinx" - naturalistic sculptures with the body of a lioness and the head beautiful woman. In this form, the sphinxes existed until the 19th century, when, in the wake of neoclassical trends, the Greek and Egyptian sphinxes “returned”.


The Egyptian Sphinx hides many secrets and mysteries; no one knows for sure when and for what purposes this giant sculpture was built.

Vanishing Sphinx



It is generally accepted that the Sphinx was erected during the construction of the Pyramid of Khafre. However, in the ancient papyri relating to the construction of the Great Pyramids there is no mention of it. Moreover, we know that the ancient Egyptians meticulously recorded all the expenses associated with the construction of religious buildings, but economic documents related to the construction of the Sphinx have never been found. In the 5th century BC. e. The pyramids of Giza were visited by Herodotus, who described in detail all the details of their construction.


He wrote down “everything he saw and heard in Egypt,” but did not say a word about the Sphinx. Before Herodotus, Hecataeus of Miletus visited Egypt, and after him, Strabo. Their records are detailed, but there is no mention of the Sphinx there either. Could the Greeks have missed a sculpture 20 meters high and 57 meters wide? The answer to this riddle can be found in the work of the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder “ Natural history", which mentions that in his time (1st century AD) the Sphinx in Once again cleared of sand deposited from the western part of the desert. Indeed, the Sphinx was regularly “freed” from sand deposits until the 20th century.


Older than the pyramids



Restoration work, which began to be carried out in connection with the emergency condition of the Sphinx, began to lead scientists to believe that the Sphinx may be older than previously thought. To check this, Japanese archaeologists, led by Professor Sakuji Yoshimura, first illuminated the Cheops pyramid using an echolocator, and then examined the sculpture in a similar way. Their conclusion was striking - the stones of the Sphinx are older than those of the pyramid. It was not about the age of the breed itself, but about the time of its processing.


Later, the Japanese were replaced by a team of hydrologists - their findings also became a sensation. On the sculpture they found traces of erosion caused by large flows of water. The first assumption that appeared in the press was that in ancient times the bed of the Nile passed in a different place and washed the rock from which the Sphinx was hewn.


The guesses of hydrologists are even bolder: “Erosion is rather a trace not of the Nile, but of a flood - a mighty flood of water.” Scientists came to the conclusion that the flow of water went from north to south, and the approximate date of the disaster was 8 thousand years BC. e. British scientists, repeating hydrological studies of the rock from which the Sphinx is made, pushed back the date of the flood to 12 thousand years BC. e. This is generally consistent with the dating Flood, which, according to most scientists, occurred around 8-10 thousand BC. e.

What is sick with the Sphinx?



Arab sages, amazed by the majesty of the Sphinx, said that the giant is timeless. But over the past millennia, the monument has suffered a fair amount, and, first of all, man is to blame for this. At first, the Mamluks practiced shooting accuracy at the Sphinx; their initiative was supported by Napoleonic soldiers.


One of the rulers of Egypt ordered the sculpture’s nose to be beaten off, and the British stole the giant’s stone beard and took it to British museum. In 1988, a huge block of stone broke off from the Sphinx and fell with a roar. They weighed her and were horrified - 350 kg. This fact has caused UNESCO the most serious concern.


It was decided to gather a council of representatives from a variety of specialties to find out the reasons for the destruction of the ancient structure. As a result of a comprehensive examination, scientists discovered hidden and extremely dangerous cracks in the head of the Sphinx; in addition, they found that external cracks sealed with low-quality cement are also dangerous - this creates a threat of rapid erosion. The Sphinx's paws were in no less deplorable condition.


According to experts, the Sphinx is primarily harmed by human activity: exhaust gases from automobile engines and the acrid smoke of Cairo factories penetrate into the pores of the statue, which gradually destroys it. Scientists say that the Sphinx is seriously ill. For restoration ancient monument hundreds of millions of dollars are needed. There is no such money. In the meantime, the Egyptian authorities are restoring the sculpture on their own.

Mysterious face



Among most Egyptologists there is firm belief that the face of the IV dynasty pharaoh Khafre is imprinted in the appearance of the Sphinx. This confidence cannot be shaken by anything - neither by the absence of any evidence of a connection between the sculpture and the pharaoh, nor by the fact that the head of the Sphinx was repeatedly altered.


The well-known expert on Giza monuments, Dr. I. Edwards, is convinced that Pharaoh Khafre himself is visible in the face of the Sphinx. “Although the face of the Sphinx is somewhat mutilated, it still gives us a portrait of Khafre himself,” the scientist concludes. Interestingly, the body of Khafre himself was never discovered, and therefore statues are used to compare the Sphinx and the pharaoh. First of all, we are talking about a sculpture carved from black diorite, which is stored in Cairo Museum- it is by this that the appearance of the Sphinx is verified.

To confirm or refute the identification of the Sphinx with Khafre, a group of independent researchers involved the famous New York police officer Frank Domingo, who created portraits to identify suspects. After several months of work, Domingo concluded: “These two works of art depict two different individuals. The frontal proportions - and especially the angles and facial projections when viewed from the side - convince me that the Sphinx is not Khafre."

Mother of Fear



Egyptian archaeologist Rudwan Al-Shamaa believes that the Sphinx has a female couple and she is hidden under a layer of sand. Great Sphinx often called the "Father of Fear". According to the archaeologist, if there is a “Father of Fear,” then there must also be a “Mother of Fear.” In his reasoning, Ash-Shamaa relies on the way of thinking of the ancient Egyptians, who firmly followed the principle of symmetry.

In his opinion, the lonely figure of the Sphinx looks very strange. The surface of the place where, according to the scientist, the second sculpture should be located, rises several meters above the Sphinx. “It is logical to assume that the statue is simply hidden from our eyes under a layer of sand,” Al-Shamaa is convinced. The archaeologist gives several arguments in support of his theory. Ash-Shamaa recalls that between the front paws of the Sphinx there is a granite stele on which two statues are depicted; There is also a limestone tablet that says that one of the statues was struck by lightning and destroyed.

Chamber of Secrets



In one of the ancient Egyptian treatises on behalf of the goddess Isis, it is reported that the god Thoth placed “sacred books” that contain “the secrets of Osiris” in a secret place, and then cast a spell on this place so that knowledge would remain “undiscovered until Heaven will not give birth to creatures who will be worthy of this gift.”

Some researchers are still confident in the existence of a “secret room”. They recall how Edgar Cayce predicted that one day in Egypt, under the right paw of the Sphinx, a room called the “Hall of Evidence” or “Hall of Chronicles” would be found. The information stored in the “secret room” will tell humanity about a highly developed civilization that existed millions of years ago. In 1989, a group of Japanese scientists using a radar method discovered a narrow tunnel under the left paw of the Sphinx, extending towards the Pyramid of Khafre, and a cavity of impressive size was found northwest of the Queen’s Chamber.


However, the Egyptian authorities did not allow the Japanese to conduct a more detailed study of the underground premises. Research by American geophysicist Thomas Dobecki showed that under the paws of the Sphinx there is a large rectangular chamber. But in 1993, its work was suddenly suspended by local authorities. Since that time, the Egyptian government has officially prohibited geological or seismological research around the Sphinx.

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