This Massive Sculpture Hides Mystery Upon Mystery: What You Didn't Know

Mythical animal or extraterrestrial being? Who is the famous Sphinx of Giza modeled after? It has the body of a lion and the head of a human. This being appears in Egyptian, Asian and Greek mythology. But how old is it? Or how was it built? Does it have secret chambers? Does it have anything to do with prophecy? What is the mystery behind this legend? Leave a comment to let us know what you're most interested in. In this video, we'll look for the answers to all these questions. We'll also try to understand the truth behind the mystery of the Great Sphinx. Stay tuned until the end and prepare to get amazed. What's amazing is that the Great Sphinx, aptly called by Edgar Cayce, the mystery, is not just a modern, recent mystery, but a mystery that goes back thousands of years. A mystery submerged, literally, in the sands of time. For the Sphinx was indeed buried under desert sands for centuries. So how was it found? Our first mystery, in a dream. An ancient Egyptian priest, Thutmose IV, once had a dream about it. How do we know? He had a story chiseled in stone in hieroglyphs. You can see the slab between the Sphinx's front paws. According to the story, the prince was walking in the desert alone. When the sun hit its midday height, he went to rest near the place where the Sphinx was. In his dream, the Sphinx appeared and said that if he cleared away the sands surrounding the statue, he would be given the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. Thutmose IV did so and went on to become king, as was predicted. Today it is known as the Dream Stella, located between the front paws of the Sphinx. But let's step back a moment in time and let's travel to Egypt, where you can find the Great Sphinx on the Giza Plateau. It's 10 kilometers west of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile River, facing the rising sun. Egyptian pharaohs named it Hormakhet, Horus of the Horizon, because they worshipped it as a facet of the sun deity. The great pyramids of Kofu, Cheops, Khafre, Khefren, and Menkaure are also nearby. These are located in a part of the necropolis of ancient Memphis, the capital of the pharaohs, Mycerenus. The monument is 240 feet long and in some places over 60 feet high. It is the greatest surviving example of antique sculpture. Let's pause for a moment. Have you ever seen anything like this? Imagine yourself out in a forest or desert alone and stumbling upon a statue so big. And not just any statue, but a lion's body and a human face. It's truly fascinating. Where does this come from? These days there are many missing parts. For example, the ceremonial beard, the nose, and a part of the holy serpent that guarded against evil powers. The Brits took the ritual beard, which is now on display at the British Museum. The royal headcloth includes extensions on each side of the head. Thousands of years of weathering have damaged the Sphinx's head. But you can still see the remnants of the original paint. It's believed that the Sphinx's face got painted a dark crimson color. Historians found many stele with inscriptions within a tiny temple between its paws. Those are meant to honor the sun deity. What has contributed to the Sphinx's slow decline? For one, of course, there is time, then people, and pollution. But for better or for worse, the Sphinx has spent most of its life buried under the sands of the desert. It's this entombment that has kept it from getting destroyed altogether. Over the millennia, there have been several efforts to rebuild the Great Sphinx. It all started with the pharaoh Thutmose IV in about 1400 BCE. At the end of the year 2010 CE, Egyptian researchers found large mud brick wall fragments. It was once a component of a bigger wall that encircled the Great Sphinx and was 132 meters, 433 feet, in length. According to archaeologists, Thutmose IV built the wall to protect the Sphinx from the desert winds. Napoleon discovered the Sphinx without a nose when he landed in Egypt in 1798 CE. Drawings from the 18th century show that the nose got removed long before Napoleon arrived. One theory holds that it was a target during the Turkish era. There is a more plausible theory about this. It states that a Sufi, who viewed the Sphinx as a sacrilegious idol, removed it in the 8th century CE. Auguste Mariette cleaned portions of the sand around the sculpture in 1858 CE. She was the Egyptian Antiquities Services founder. A French engineer, Emile Bérez, excavated the Sphinx on behalf of the Antiquities Service between 1925 and 1936 CE. Since then, the Great Sphinx once again faces the elements for the first time since its antiquity. So, who is the subject of the Great Sphinx? Most Egyptologists believe that Khefren, a pharaoh of the 4th dynasty, had the stone carved into a line with his face about 2540 BCE. At the same time, the adjacent pyramid of Khefren was getting built. This is the explanation for the mysterious sculpture. The Sphinx is enormous in size and grandeur, but there are no inscriptions anywhere connecting Khefren to it. Additionally, there are no references to the Sphinx's construction. Even Egyptologists are uncertain of the Sphinx's construction, timing, or creator. In 1996 CE, a New York investigator and identification expert decided that Khefren's face was not on the Great Sphinx. He insisted that Jadephre, the older brother of Khefren, had a stronger likeness. The discussion is still going on. Many mystical explanations of the Sphinx's origin and function have been proposed. Ideas include American psychic and prophet Edgar Cayce and English occultist Paul Brunton in the 1940s CE. Edgar Cayce sometimes called the Sphinx the Mystery, in a seeming echo of how it's named in ancient Egypt. His followers did research and found many places in the Book of the Dead that used the term mystery. Further research identified the Sphinx as a monument built as a guard for protection. He also identified a star as the Sphinx, what we call Centaurus. The Greeks later imagined it to be a centaur, though perhaps it was, after all, first a Sphinx in the heavens. Back to the statue. The builders used massive blocks of limestone for the front paws. The Great Sphinx was also dug from soft, natural limestone. This was left over from the quarry where the pyramids are standing. The sculpture's head is disproportionate to its body. It's one of its principal anomalies. And there are signs that pharaohs had sculptors re-carve the head several times over time. Was the initial head a ram or hawk? And only later reshaped into a human's? We may never know, as it underwent several repairs over thousands of years. Any of these hypotheses might explain why the head is smaller than the body, especially if the Great Sphinx is older than thought. The date of the monument has been a topic of heated discussion recently. The Sphinx might be between 7,000 and 10,000 years old. It suggests a period of heavy rain in the middle of the Giza Plateau. Egyptologists believe the Sphinx dates back to about 10,500 BCE. But no archaeological artifacts from that period have ever been found. Robert Boval, a writer, has a different opinion about the Sphinx's age. The three Great Pyramids at Giza maintain a particular relationship to the Nile. It created a 3D hologram that looks like an earthen recreation of the Milky Way's three stars in Orion's Belt. Now, into the Sphinx, quite literally, are there hidden pathways? There are several stories of hidden tunnels connected to the Great Sphinx. Several abnormalities have got discovered in the vicinity of the monument. Florida State University, Waseda University in Japan, and Boston University led the research. In 1995, workers did find a network of tunnels and passages. The team was remodeling a nearby parking lot, a part of which goes to the Sphinx. According to Robert Boval, these tunnels predate the Sphinx itself. Between 1991 and 1993 CE, Anthony West's team was investigating erosion data at the monument with a seismograph. There, they discovered evidence of hollow, formed areas or chambers between the paws on each side of the Sphinx. What was inside these areas, and why were they built? No further investigation got permitted. Today's wind, humidity, and Cairo haze are causing the enormous monument to collapse. Since 1950 CE, the government planned an expensive restoration and preservation effort. However, in the early stages of this project, workers used cement for repair, but it was incompatible with the limestone and thus led to more structural damage. More than 2,000 limestone blocks got added to the building over six years. Special chemicals also got poured into it, but the treatment failed. By 1988 CE, the left shoulder of the Sphinx had deteriorated to the point that pieces were coming loose. The Supreme Council of Antiquities is now overseeing the restoration effort. It includes making repairs to the damaged shoulder and trying to drain away part of the subsoil. Today, the focus is on preserving the area rather than doing more research or digging. So it will be a while before the Great Sphinx tells us what she knows. What most intrigues you about the Great Sphinx? Drop your thoughts in the comment box below. If you found the video helpful and informative, give it a thumbs up. To receive notification every time we publish a new video, subscribe to the channel and press the notification bell. And stay tuned to revel in the wonder at more amazing art. Until then, make your life artful.