Blocks were lifted from the Sphinx enclosure layer by layer, leaving horizontal ledges and vertical separation trenches roughly 1-2 feet wide — wide enough for a person to stand between them. Quarrymen followed natural bedding planes as free cleavage. Blocks from the ditch around the Sphinx body were reused in the Sphinx temple just east of it. Pick marks stay sharp at Ramesside and early New Kingdom quarries, but fade in 4,000-4,500-year-old Old Kingdom ones. 🧱
Stepwise block removal from Sphinx enclosure supplied the Sphinx temple
EgyptGeneral
Key facts
- Limestone blocks were removed from the enclosure in a stepwise fashion, leaving horizontal ledges where each layer was taken off and vertical separation trenches between blocks.
- The separation trenches were about one to two feet wide, wide enough for a person to stand between the blocks.
- Quarrymen exploited pre-existing bedding planes as natural cleavage planes to simplify block separation.
- In a New Kingdom quarry photograph the doorway is estimated at 20-25 feet high, with a person roughly the height of three or four of the stepwise blocks.
- Blocks quarried from the ditch around the Sphinx body were reused to build the Sphinx temple immediately east of the monument, which preserves large blocks of this stone.
- Overburden and unusable sand were removed down to pristine limestone bedrock before block extraction began.
- Pick marks remain sharp in a Ramesside quarry dated to about 1200 BC and in an early New Kingdom quarry of about 1500 BC, but are fainter and less precise in Old Kingdom quarries roughly 4,000-4,500 years old.
Sources
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 ...
The Long-Hidden ARCE Sphinx Mapping Project Is Unveiledarce.org
Hawass and Lehner uncovered trenches in a mound of ancient deposits that explorer Selim Hassan had left when he excavated in 1937 and discovered a mudbrick ...
Scientists unearth protective walls around Sphinxnbcnews.com
A routine excavation has uncovered ancient walls surrounding the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) ...
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 ...
Great Sphinx of Giza Tunnels and Chambersmadainproject.com
There are a number of known passages, holes, tunnels and chambers inside the Giza Spinx. Some are of known origin but others are not.
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