The Great Sphinx of Giza reborn as a lion in the desert



The Sphinx in Egypt might have originally had the face of a lion, it is claimed.



And it could be much older than previously thought, investigations led by a British geologist suggest.



Egyptologists have long argued the monument outside Cairo, which has the head of a pharaoh and the body of a lion, was built soon after the first pyramid - around 4,500 years ago.



Uncovering the secret face: This digital recreation shows the Sphinx with the face of a lion

The Great Sphinx's paws and head are out of proportion, suggesting there may have been an even larger, earlier statue which was adapted

But geologist Colin Reader found that rain erosion on the Sphinx's enclosure suggests it was built many years before.



A sunken palace on the Giza plateau provides further evidence that there was activity in the area before the building of the pyramids, Mr Reader said.

Its style implies that it is older than the other tombs at the site. Mr Reader said the tomb would have been adapted and embellished by later inhabitants of the area.

Visual effects experts used the research data to recreate the monument as it might have looked.



Their work can be seen in Channel Five documentary The Secrets of Egypt on Thursday at 8pm.

Dr Jonathan Foyle has joined forces with geologist Colin Reader to solve the mysteries of the Sphinx face

Researchers also discovered that the Sphinx’s body and head were disproportionate, suggesting it was not originally a pharaoh.



Historical architect Dr Jonathan Foyle, who worked with Mr Reader on the project, said the head and body were massively out of proportion.



He said the reason for this could be that the Sphinx originally had an entirely different head - that of a lion.



According to this theory, the statue was later re-carved to be modelled on Khufu.

To early Egyptians the lion was a much more potent symbol of power than the human face.



Given that the monument already has the body of a lion it makes sense to the experts that it also originally had the face of a lion.



During Egypt’s early history lions inhabited the wilds of Giza and surrounding areas.

The Great Sphinx is thought by most Egyptologists to represent the likeness of King Khafra.



Colin Reader has used 21st century scientific techniques in his Sphinx study

It is also belived by others that Djadefre, the elder brother of Khafra, built the Sphinx to honour his father Khufu.



This would place the time of construction somewhere between 2550 BC and 2450 BC.



However the limited evidence linking the Sphinx to Khafra is circumstantial and somewhat ambiguous.



Geologist Robert Schoch concluded that the Sphinx must be much older than currently believed after an investigation in the 1990s.



Schoch has argued that the particular weathering found on the body of the Sphinx and surrounding 'ditch' the monument was carved from, displays features that can only be caused from prolonged water erosion.

Egypt’s last time period where there was a significant amount of rainfall ended during the late 4th to early 3rd millennium BC.



Schoch claims the amount of water erosion the Sphinx has experienced indicates a construction date no later than the 6th millennium BC or 5th millennium BC, at least two thousand years before the widely accepted construction date and 1,500 years prior to the accepted date for the beginning of Egyptian civilisation.



Mr Reader concludes that the Sphinx is only several hundred years older than the traditionally accepted date believing the Sphinx to be a product of the Early Dynastic period.

Independently, geologist David Coxill has also come forward to confirm in principle Schoch’s findings, but like Reader has taken a more conservative approach to the dating of the Sphinx.

Both Schoch and Reader base their conclusions not only on the Sphinx and surrounding enclosure, but have also taken into account other weathering features found on the Giza plateau from monuments such as the Sphinx Temple which are known to be consistent with the time period the Sphinx was constructed.



Because these conclusions require a re-dating of the Sphinx to an earlier time before the construction of large monuments, this theory has not been accepted by mainstream Egyptologists.





