| An Undiscovered Sphinx of Giza, Part I
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| Many people think to know everything about the
Sphinx of the Giza plateau and can barely imagine
the three neighboring pyramids of Cheops,
Chephren and Mykherinos without the Sphinx which
is so indispensable to the visual harmony of the
plateau. This is not surprising since the Sphinx
is placed exactly where needed in a design based
on geometric principles of the golden section
(see Fig. 3). The golden ratio is related to a
series of numbers, the Fibonacci sequence
(0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89, ...) and the
Egyptian archaeologist and Professor Emeritus,
Alexander Badawy (1913-1986) proved in his study
of more than 50 temples along the Nile that the
ancient Egyptians had indeed used this series of
numbers on purpose, once again demonstrating
their great knowledge and sophistication in
architecture. Now I'll show you in this article
that the Sphinx holds many secrets still unknown
to most and that our current view of it is
distorted from its original appearance. |
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| The ignored inscription of the left paw of the Sphinx |
| In 1817, Gianbattista Caviglia** (1770-1845)
cleaned the front of the Sphinx, something that
had not been done since the fall of the Roman
Empire. He first found a fallen piece of the
Sphinx's beard (now at the British Museum!),
then, cleared of sand, he found an inscription on
a toe of the left paw of the Sphinx: 13 lines of
text in Greek, engraved conspicuously with
reference to how this is an official
documentation dating from 166 AD after the reign
of Marcus Aurelius to commemorate the restoration
of the walls surrounding the Sphinx by the
Romans. This text is exciting and yet one does
not have a chance to view it today on the sphinx,
as successive restorations - and especially the
last - were covered with incredibly thick layers
often disfiguring the contours of our Sphinx, as
stifling as the bandages of mummification. |
| Written in Greek, and in capital letters, I know
that there are now three existing translations in
English and one in Latin of this text: one from a
copy made by Henry Salt (1780-1827) British
Consul General in Cairo in 1815 and a great
collector of Egyptian antiquities that had paid
Caviglia in 1817 to explore the Sphinx, whose
transcription was published in the "Quarterly
Review " vol. 19) in 1818, translated by Dr. Yong
(who even strove to restore some permanently
erased words) in English and Latin ...and another
from the great Egyptian archaeologist Selim
Hassan* (1893-1961), the first Egyptian to occupy
a chair of Egyptology ...and finally, one from
the Reverend Coleridge of Eton, published in:
"Operations conducted at the Pyramid of Giza" by
Colonel Vyse in 1842. I will give here my own translation of the
inscription; I tried to be as faithful as
possible to the grammar of ancient Greek and not
to invent the missing words: |
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"This structure is the work of the immortal Gods.
Placed so as to dominate the soil of this Land of harvest,
Built in the center of a cavity from which they withdrew the sand,
Like an island of stone in the vicinity of the pyramids,
So that we can see it,
Not as the sphinx defeated by Oedipus,
But as a sacred servant of Leto,
Who guards with vigilance;
The Sacred Guide of the Land of Egypt." |
The reference to Leto*** here is understandable
because at the time of the Pharaohs, Ptolemies
who were of Greek origin, ruled over Egypt; and
Giza was in an administrative district called
"Letopolitain".
The text is signed "Arrianos" -
probably the historian and Roman philosopher of
Greek origin who wrote the life of Alexander the
Great ("Anabasis of Alexander").
Thus, in
addition to the reference to the immortal gods as
the creators of the sphinx, which is interesting
(and which we will return to), we can see by the
text itself that the Sphinx was considered an
island. This is certainly new to some of you. |
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| Leto |
| A lion that was a dog and the island of the sphinx |
However, the scholar Robert Temple and his wife
Olivia have just published a book of 565 pages in
English titled "The Sphinx Mystery, the forgotten
origins of the sanctuary of Anubis", well
documented with many elements excavated from
oblivion or multiple scattered collections
inaccessible to the public, in which he explains
"The moat of the sphinx in the Ancient Empire was
known in the Texts of the Pyramids as the lake of
the jackal, the channel of God, the channel of
Anubis, the Lake of Life ..."
Now there are many references to this throughout
ancient Egyptian literature: for example on the
altars in the tomb of Tutankhamen in reference to
Rostau (Giza) it is cited that its topography is
that of water and there is mention of "The house
of the lake" regarding the island of the Sphinx.
Even Auguste Mariette who dug around the Sphinx
in 1858 admits that the Sphinx enclosure had to
contain water of the Nile in ancient times (see
references). In the text of the Sarcophagi, we
hear about the lustral basin, Lake of the Jackal.
Why?
Quite simply, because of the academic Temple's
assertion that the Sphinx was originally made in
the image of Anubis ("Jackal" is a bad name
translation because there have never been jackals
in Lower Egypt, but rather wild dogs) the
guardian of the site par excellence, and he
proves it with forceful analysis, photos and
research.
The sphinx would have become leonine towards the
Fourth Dynasty when lions were very fashionable
in all representations; then the Middle Kingdom
Amenemhat II would have affixed this image to his
face (and not Cheops). But I will not go into too
much detail of the work of Temple here, only a
few points here and there. The fact that the
original Sphinx could be the representation of
Anubis is something I've been announcing for
years in front of the Sphinx itself to those who
accompany me in my tours: "in situ" the slope of
the back, the tail, signs of erosion from water
of the moat. It should be understood that since
antiquity the Sphinx has undergone many
restorations, the last of which which consisted
of additions of thick courses of ugly and useless
stones which only make the contours of the sphinx
appear clumsy and without finesse. This is very
visible today in the legs, which now look like
huge papier-mache bars. We have pictures from the
early 19th century and many later photos and
after careful analysis we see big differences in
the "modern" restorations and successive ones.
The "Coffin Texts" does not only speak of the
lake of the "jackal" (Anubis) but it also
mentions: "His name is 'dog faced', his size is
huge" (verses 1165-1185). Twice in the "Pyramid
Texts", Anubis is cited as being "the height of
the West" (the only pivotal height in Lower Egypt
is the Giza Plateau) and The Lake of the "Jackal"
is also cited in the book "The Caves". The
outstanding researcher Terence Du Quesne
enumerated many references to Anubis "Lord of
Rostau (Giza)" in inscriptions and on the walls;
he has listed ten sources of this particular
title to date. |
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| It is only after the fifth dynasty that the title
"Lord of Rostau" is given to Osiris. Let us
recall that Anubis in Egyptian is "Inpou", "that
which has the shape of dog"; he is also known as
"The Way Opener" and guide of the souls and is
represented under the name of "Upuaout, path
opener" at Abydos in the south. He is also "Lord
of the Land of Dawn" and as Rene Lachaud
excellently writes: "(...) He brings out the
anubienne light of initiation that corresponds to
the ambiguous moment 'between dog and wolf '
where day and night interpenetrate."
Also, in "The Book of Going Forth by Day" (which
is the real title of The Book "of the Dead"):
"Oh! Anubis who is with his secrets. Lord of the
secrets of the West. Lord of what is hidden."
That Anubis presides on the Giza plateau is
hardly surprising because in Giza/Rostau we are
at the crossroads of the greatest mysteries.
You'll quickly understand why. One never speaks
to you about the "Book of the Construction" which
is engraved in the enclosure of the Temple of
Horus the falcon, in Edfu in southern Egypt. Yet,
when you read up on it, it's inside references to
other lost texts like "The Sacred Books of the
Temples" that bring together a description of the
history of places of pilgrimage along the Nile.
And what says this text? It says that these
places were established by a group of "creative
entities" the "Shebtiw" associated with Thoth. It
is said that they, also called the "Elders", the
"Falcons", were installed in a first place on
Earth and that this first place isŠ Rostau! I.e.
Giza! Also, according to this text, books and
sacred objects of power were sealed in a secret
place underground by "Shebtiw" and they built
over it an immense enclosure and pillars to
protect it. This place is called Bw-HMR, the
place of the throne of the soul. In addition, in
this text it is always suggested to us that the
underground world of Giza is a microcosmic model
of the passage of time and the process of the
first creation in our physical universe ... you
understand the Sphinx better now than before;
this is not nothing!
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The ancient Egyptians also named Giza/Rostau in
their descriptions: "The Beautiful Place of the
First Time" and "The Secret Place" and it is true
that the whole Giza plateau that I've traveled
for 20 years, yard by yard, is packed with
thousands of subterranean entries, ventilation
shafts and bottomless wells. This all proves the
presence of an impressive underground network
about which I will on occasion speak more of in
other articles.
In any case it is only in the Middle Kingdom
(when, according to Temple, for a long time the
Sphinx had already lost its Anubis head) where
for the first time, in hieroglyphics appears the
name:: "Sphinx": "Sheshep" which translates
literally as "image "or" statue". The full name
of the Sphinx was then "Ankh-Sheshep": the
"living statue". The Sphinx is a living symbol
representing many things of the invisible
celestial and terrestrial. In the Coptic
language, the oldest language still spoken in
Egypt today, the Sphinx is called: "bel-hit",
"The Guardian". And just after the year one
thousand, they called the Sphinx "Twtw": "I am
image" that the Greeks retranscribed as Tithoes
and identified with Kronos, the god of time. And
what is also interesting is that, quoting
Manetho, Pliny states that Tithoes belonged to
the mythic kings of the very first dynasties, or
rather what we now call the famous dynasty of
zero (since we begin the first dynasty with Menes
[2920 -2770 B.C.] though several documents cite
previous pharaohs, but their qualifications of
gods or demigods is disruptive to the academic
conscensus), otherwise properly inscribed in the
Turin Papyrus (The Canon of Turin) and the Latin
author makes it clear that Tithoes succeeded the
god Amun and that he would be the first builder
of the labyrinth of Fayum (120 km south of Cairo
at Fayoum Lake), the oldest of all labyrinths
that people came to visit in the ancient world.
And which is in ruins today at the foot of the
pyramid of the Hawara site that I visit regularly
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| A sphinx much older than one thinks |
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In 1858, our notable Auguste Mariette was
commissioned by the Duke of Luynes to verify
Pliny the Elder's statements regarding that the
Sphinx was built and not monolithic. He opened a
site near the pyramid attributed to Cheops (who
reigned 2551-2528 BC, 4th Dynasty) and in a
nearby shrine of Isis, he found the stele called
"Inventory" where it says that the sphinx and the
large pyramid existed well before the reign of
the leaders of the 4th dynasty before 2575 B.C.
The text states that: "During the reign of Cheops
he ordered the construction of a monument along
the Sphinx." Logically this means that the Sphinx
was already there before ... But if it was there
at the time of Cheops, this means that contrary
to what the "mainstream" says, a fortiori, it
could not have been built on order of Chephren's
successor on the throne! Note that the theory
that the Sphinx was built by Chephren - just
because the road on its south side leads to the
foot of the pyramid of Chephren - was launched
without any evidence or knowledge by Caviglia who
was still a Master Mariner paid to clear the sand
from the Sphinx! No inscription confirms his
lightly founded theory. There are also other
documents proving that the temple adjoining the
Sphinx has exactly the same kinds of marks of
erosion that existed before the reign of Cheops.
In an inscription which was preserved in the
museum of Bulak, the royal scribe of the Pharaoh
Cheops notes a dedication he himself had found on
an earlier document. The dedication says that the
sun himself presided over the gigantic structure,
"whose origin is lost in the mists of time."
However, if we take this into consideration, all
the current chronological dating in Egyptology
courses should be re-examined! A little too much
for some ... This is why the majority of
Egyptologists today turn away from this stele
called the inventory, because it calls into
question too many of their achievements. Some
also prefer to say that this monument that lists
an inventory of the temple of Isis dates back
only to the 26th dynasty. Perhaps, but the
explorer Auguste Mariette, who spent over ten
years excavating the Giza plateau, has always
said that the stele was erected by Cheops himself.
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As for the supposed resemblance of the head of
the Sphinx with Chephren himself - this theory
has been invalidated for 30 years by the Director
of the Department of Forensic Medicine of the New
York Police, Dr. Frank Domingo, expert on facial
morphology. After photographing the Sphinx from
different angles and lighting and then the statue
of Chephren in the Cairo museum, he compared them
with his scientific method and concluded that no
doubt, they were indeed two different people...
Robert Temple proves this through the study of
the coiffe and certain features and also because
of the obsession of the Pharaoh for the sphinxes
of Amenemhat II (1929-1892 B.C.). In any case, if
the Sphinx originally had a good head of Anubis,
and much later it assumed this pharaoh's head,
one could also surmise that others before
Amenemhat II could have also affixed their face,
the head of the sphinx comprising many traces of
multiple repairs, the current head being
extremely disproportionate compared to the body.
There is also a text of the Pharaoh Amenhotep II
(1448/1420 B.C.) with a reference to the Sphinx
as "older than the Pyramids." Then we have the
famous stele of Tutmosis IV which has led to my
research on the second sphinx. |
| In search of the second sphinx |
It was generally accepted for long periods since
the ancient Egyptians that the Sphinx was covered
with sand, except for the head, until the Pharaoh
Tutmosis IV (18th dynasty: 1420-1411 B.C.)
cleared sand from it. And we have the wonderful
story of Tutmosis IV engraved for eternity on a
stele of pink granite and erected between the
paws of the Sphinx: it is known as the stele of
Tutmosis IV.
The Pharaoh who was not even yet a prince, not
even belonging to the main lineage of Pharaonic
succession, came to rest after a hunt in the
shadow of the head only recently installed then,
and fell asleep. There he dreamed that the Sphinx
spoke to him in his sleep, begging him to rid him
of his suffering because he could not endure
anymore standing with the burning desert sand
covering him. In exchange, he would give him the
power and wealth. Tutmosis awoke and decided to
hurry and in a short time became pharaoh and very
wealthy. What is particularly interesting in
relation to the stele of Tutmosis IV is the
representation which is made of the sphinx. Look,
there are two Sphinxes! Moreover, they are
reversed, and for the question of ancient rules
of perspective of one reality, two sphinxes are
actually reversed. Moreover, they are lying on
structures with portals indicating that the
sphinx gives access to an elsewhere, an
underground complex. But where did the Sphinx
drawn on the second pillar go? What is curious is
that very few people have begun to seek answers... |
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In the famous stele of the inventory preserved at
the museum of Cairo, it is made mention that a
flash of lightning would have struck down the cap
of the second sphinx involving its destruction
like that of a sycamore tree, sacred at the time,
which was also burned by the lightning. For the
archaeologist Michael Poe who refers to fragments
of papyrus of the Middle Kingdom, this second
sphinx would have been destroyed by a
particularly violent rising of the Nile about
1000 A.D. The villagers would then have taken the
stones to rebuild their village.
Then, I started searching in Egypt and thanks to my knowledge of Classical Arabic I quickly found texts confirming the existence of the two sphinxes. Thusly, two geographical encyclopaedias (Kitab Al Mamalik, Al-Mamsalik and Kitab Al Jujori, the great geographer, and Arab scholar Al-Idrisi [1099-1166]), mention well the presence of two sphinxes at Giza, one in very bad condition that is reached by the water of the Nile and has many stones missing. Other authors also mention the existence of two sphinxes: The celebrated historian Musabbihi wrote about a "sphinx smaller than the other" on the other side of the Nile, in very poor condition, consisting of bricks and stones (Annals of Rabi II, circa 1024).
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So I searched tirelessly for years for the
location of the second Sphinx. The task is very
difficult because all the opposite bank of the
Nile is covered with buildings of the megalopolis
of Cairo and of its gigantic suburbs. How to find
the location of a missing sphinx? And it is there
that one of my charts intervened, that of a
meticulous satellite analysis of which I am a
specialist, coupled with a field study of the
lesser details. After having traveled thousands
of streets, I identified two possible locations
(see satellite photo of the Nile). That's when
the great Egyptian geologist and archaeologist,
Dr. Barakat paid me the honor of contacting me
after reading my articles on this subject in
English, to tell me that he greatly enjoyed my
work and had arrived at the same conclusions,
which as you can imagine, reassures me in the
continuation of this research. I will devote
myself this summer and will meet with the
geologist during interviews which promise much
and of which I will share with you later.
Furthermore, following the example of the Arab
historians who saw it in their time, we advance
the assumption that one of the two sphinxes was
female. Al Idrisi said clearly that the second
Sphinx was female and located on the east bank of
the Nile facing the male sphinx that we all know.
Remember also that the verb form of the Greek
name "Sphinx" is "Sphingo" which means to
strangle. The two sphinxes facing each side of
the Nile, formed a bottleneck, like a watch on
ships coming from Upper Egypt or down south ...
The second location of the Sphinx could hold many
secrets even from prehistoric times, many things
in the basement. This will be in the future,
without doubt a huge archaeological project, as
Dr. Barakat said. I would also say, and I'm not
the only one, that both sphinxes are similar to
the two pillars of Hercules, one indicating the
material capacity expressing itself upwards
through spiritual power (the female sphinx) and
the other (the current one), the spiritual power
expressing itself in the underground material
world, but this is the subject of one of my books
in progress...
In any case, to temporarily close the loop, and
to add my contribution to the work of Temple even
if he does not speak at all about second sphinx,
I discovered recently that there was long ago,
two Upuaut (Anubis). On the stele JE 47381 three
registers are represented: an "Upuaut of Upper
Egypt, controller of the Two Lands" ("Wp-wAwt
smaw aba-Tawy") and in the middle register we see
him along with "Wepwawet of Lower Egypt"
("Wp-wAwt mttyt"). Thus, the two sphinxes could
well have originally represented two Anubis...
In a future article I will talk about the current
state of comparative findings regarding pits
discovered inside and under the Sphinx of Giza
... still many things that few know ....
Text and Photos by Antoine Gigal
Translation to English: Lisette Gagne |
Notes:
* Selim Hassan (1887-1961): He is for me, one of
the three greatest Egyptologists and
archaeologists of all time. He tirelessly
excavated at Giza and Sakkara from 1929 to 1937
and discovered many structures that are being
rediscovered today and just wrote a extraordinary
16 volume "Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt". He's
published a total of 170 books on archeology in
Egypt.
*** Gianbattista Caviglia (1770-1845): Italian
Master Mariner, he was hired by Richard Vyse, the
English Egyptologist who noticed in him a strong
capacity for resourcefulness, so he began
archaeological excavations with him on the small
pyramid of Mykhérinos. His attention, however,
was quickly captured by even more promising
structures such as the Sphinx, the Great Pyramid
and others.
**** Leto: The story of Leto as it is told in
Greek mythology may rouse in us a strong interest
in Egypt. Leto, daughter of Titans (powerful
Elder Gods who ruled during the golden age under
the direction of one of them: Cronos [Saturn]
after his father Uranus [Heaven] for the first 21
generations of Titans) : Coeus, ruling over a
celestial zone between the two terrestrial poles
and Phoebe linked to the full moon and to
luminous purification, and she became pregnant by
Zeus. The wife of Zeus: Hera was so extremely
jealous, she saw to it that "all land fled Leto"
so that she could find no land on which to give
birth. It is said that then Leto left Hyperborea
for Lycia in Anatolia (country of the wolves,
perhaps an old form of Anubis?) disguised as a
she-wolf, and then went on to the island of
Delos. There are several final destinations for
the birth of Leto and experts are struggling to
know which is correct. In any case she gave birth
on an island that was not connected to the earth
itself even under the sea, a floating island of
some sort or an island "manufactured". In Egypt,
similar stories are told of Isis taking refuge on
a floating island in the Nile Delta. The Giza
Sphinx with its island was indeed a place
suitable to be linked to Leto. She struggled
against many chthonic monsters and the Titans
living underground and was attacked by Python
before giving birth to the twins Artemis and
Apollo. The Greek grammarian Antoninus Liberalis,
a hundred years after Christ, tells us all this
in great detail. He is the author of
"Metamorphoses" a story about 41 metamorphic
changes inflicted by offended gods). Note that
Herodotus tells us that Leto was worshiped in
Egypt in the form of the cobra goddess Wadjet,
protectress of Lower Egypt. |
References:
- Auguste Mariette: "Letter to the Vicomte de Rougé
on excavations in the vicinity of the Great
Sphinx of Giza", Egyptological Library, vol. 18,
Paris, 1904.
-
Alexander Badawy: "Ancient Egyptian Architectural
Design: A Study of the Harmonic System", Berkeley
university, 1965.
and: "History of Egyptian Architecture", Berkeley University, 1968.
- Selim Hassan: "The Great Sphinx and Its Secrets:
Historical Studies in the Light of Recent
Excavations " vol. 8, Cairo Gov.
Press, 1953.
- Terence Duquesne: "Anubis and the Spirit of the
West", Darengo Publications, 1990.
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Surroundings Sphinx
Eine zweite Sphinx