The Sphinx enclosure was quarried for core blocks used in the Sphinx Temple. Its bedrock displays karst weathering: clints and grikes formed as limestone dissolves along joints. The video contrasts these walls with pick-marked Old Kingdom quarries and argues that deeper weathering at the front shows a long exposure predating the conventional date. The conventional date is Khafre’s Fourth Dynasty in the Old Kingdom, around 2500 BCE, not the New Kingdom. Erosion morphology alone does not establish an earlier construction date.
Sphinx quarry walls show karst weathering; the video argues for an earlier date
EgyptTheory
Key facts
- The Sphinx enclosure was quarried for core blocks used in the Sphinx Temple.
- The enclosure bedrock shows karst morphology, including clints and grikes formed as limestone dissolves along joints.
- The Great Sphinx is conventionally dated to Khafre's Fourth Dynasty in the Old Kingdom, about 2500 BCE—not the New Kingdom.
- The video argues that deep weathering, an absence of visible pick marks and greater weathering at the front indicate an earlier, longer-exposed enclosure. The cited evidence does not independently date the enclosure.
Sources
randallcarlson.com
Linked in video description
Robert M. Schoch: Research Highlights The Great Sphinxrobertschoch.com
The bedrock in the enclosure is characterized by a karst morphology that would leak like a sieve. The enclosure would need to be fully sealed up (with mortar or ...
Who Built the Sphinx?|AERAaeraweb.org
Quarrymen cut the core blocks (the ones forming the core of the temple walls) so thick—some weigh up to a hundred tons—that many of them include three ...
Great Sphinx of Gizaen.wikipedia.org
At the ledge of the Sphinx enclosure, a square shaft is located opposite the northern hind paw. It was cleared during excavation in 1978 by Hawass and measures ...
Giza Sphinx & Temples - Page 1 - Spirit & Stonetheglobaleducationproject.org
More than 4000 years ago, it is believed, masons quarried huge blocks from the limestone bedrock around and in front of the Sphinx. These were used to build ...
sphinx-temple-limestone-blocks-giza - The Great Sphinx of Gizathegreatsphinxofgiza.com
These massive limestone blocks from the Sphinx Temple were quarried from the same local bedrock as the Great Sphinx itself. They illustrate the type of ...
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