The Modern Riddle of the Sphinx

Looking through the eyes of the Sphinx

Into the rising, setting sun
Nine lives past, Into the sands
Are the gifts of gold, Untold
When unearthed and understood
Within the key is found
To see the truths
With crystal eyes
For all eternity.

Courtesy of Linda L. Brinker

Photograph ©1998 Guardian

"What is that which has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed
and three-footed?"
[Apollodorus 3.5.7]

"What goes on four legs at dawn, two at noon, and three at dusk?"
[Parabola: Summer 2000][

The winged [Greek] sphinx of Boeotian Thebes, the most famous in legend, was said to
have terrorized the people by demanding the answer to a riddle taught her by the Muses and
devouring a man each time the riddle was answered incorrectly. Eventually Oedipus gave
the proper answer: man, who crawls on all fours in infancy, walks on two feet when grown,
and leans on a staff in old age; the sphinx thereupon killed herself. From this tale apparently
grew the legend that the sphinx was omniscient, and even today the wisdom of the sphinx is
proverbial. [From: Britannica Online]

Ever since its relatively recent rediscovery, theories and controversies, much in
imitation of the desert sands, have swirled around the Sphinx. Perhaps this
situation is not new, and the same occurred after previous rediscoveries, which
were also followed by feverish attempts at repair and preservation, after which
the desert once again claimed all but its enigmatic Sphinx head.
The real riddle of the Sphinx at Giza relates to its very identity. Everything that
you may have learned in school or through mainstream educational programs
is most likely erroneous. The people who have contributed to the status quo of
the now stale and challenged "accepted theory" appear to be reluctant to
accept new research. In some cases, those charged with protecting this
precious leonine treasure actually deny access to researchers with whom they
have had disagreements over theory.

Finding fresh, reliable news on just what is going on is very difficult. When one
does come across new information, s/he must wade through rumor,
supposition, and, even more unfortunately, vitriolic back-biting.

The Great Sphinx casts spells of charming. S/he first enchanted me when I was
about 7 and captured me quite sublimely a few years ago while I was digging
for information on the original Oracle at Delphi. Whenever a standstill came
about in my Delphi research, I'd investigate the Sphinx. At the time, the most
interesting item I'd found concerning the Sphinx was what Edgar Cayce had
uttered while in trance: that there were hidden areas below the Sphinx and that
a Hall of Records would be discovered near the end of this century. All of the
other resources were dry, uninteresting, and relegated this great, ancient
structure to a minor existence -- constructed only as a memorial to one
egomaniacal pharaoh or another. To me, this theory lacked common sense.

Educational television programs seemed bent on taking an exciting topic and

making it as boring as possible. Spokespersons were typically old,
slow-speaking, uninspiring gents who gave the impression of never having left
their museums.

Along came a few "new" researchers who had also fallen under the Sphinx's
spell. We have John Anthony West to thank for his having contacted Robert
Schoch, a respected geologist, stratigrapher, and paleontologist. Professor
Schoch has presented evidence that the Sphinx has been eroded by
precipitation -- long periods of rains.

Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval took this information and combined it with
their own research and that of many others. The work that they've done,
together and individually, is much too detailed to cover on a few pages of a web
site. Their coauthored book, The Message of the Sphinx should be available in
libraries by now.

Almost a century ago, P.D. Ouspensky wrote about his visit to the Sphinx. You
may find that his down-to-earth yet mystical description explains a portion of
the Sphinx's magnetic attraction.

I hope you'll enjoy the reading selections and links provided below. Keep in
mind that this is not the main page of the site. To see a table of contents, go to
the main page of Morgana's Observatory. This section will be continually
updated as I come across new information. In the meantime, be sure to visit the
>Forum to read what others have to say and to post your own opinions and
questions.

The Sphinx

by P.D. Ouspensky

Yellowish-grey sand. Deep blue sky. In the distance the triangle of the Pyramid
of Khephren, and just before me this strange, great face with its gaze directed
into the distance.

I used often to go to Gizeh from Cairo, sit down on the sand before the Sphinx,
look at it and try to understand it, understand the idea of the artists who created
it. And on each and every occasion I experienced the same fear and terror of
annihilation. I was swallowed up in its glance, a glance that spoke of mysteries
beyond our power of comprehension.

The Sphinx lies on the Gizeh plateau, where the great pyramids stand, and
where there are many other monuments, already discovered and still to be
discovered, and a number of tombs of different epochs. The Sphinx lies in a
hollow, above the level of which only its head, neck and part of its back project.

By whom, when, and why the Sphinx was erected -- of this nothing is known.
Present-day archaeology takes the Sphinx to be prehistoric. [Note: Ouspensky
was writing between 1908-1914.]

This means that even for the most ancient of the ancient Egyptians, those of the
first dynasties six to seven thousand years before the birth of Christ, the Sphinx
was the same riddle as it is for us today.

From the stone tablet, inscribed with drawings and hieroglyphs, found between
the paws of the Sphinx, it was once surmised that the figure represented the
image of the Egyptian god Harmakuti, "The Sun on the Horizon." But it has long
been agreed that this is an altogether unsatisfactory interpretation and that the
inscription probably refers to the occasion of some partial restoration made
comparatively recently.

As a matter of fact, the Sphinx is older than historical Egypt, older than her
gods, older than the pyramids, which, in their turn, are much older than is
thought.

The Sphinx is indisputably one of the most remarkable, if not the most
remarkable, of the world’s works of art. I know nothing that it would be possible
to put side by side with it. It belongs indeed to quite another art than the art we
know. Beings such as ourselves could not create a Sphinx. Nor can our culture
create anything like it. The Sphinx appears unmistakably to be a relic of
another, a very ancient culture, which was possessed of knowledge far greater
than ours.

There is a tradition or theory that the Sphinx is a great, complex hieroglyph, or a

book in stone, which contains the whole totality of ancient knowledge, and
reveals itself to the person who can read this strange cipher which is embodied
in the forms, correlations and measurements of the different parts of the
Sphinx. This is the famous riddle of the Sphinx, which from the most ancient
times so many wise souls have attempted to solve.

Previously, when reading a book about the Sphinx, it had seemed to me that it
would be necessary to approach it with the full equipment of a knowledge
different from ours, with some new form of perception, some special kind of
mathematics, and that without these aids it would be impossible to discover
anything in it.

But when I saw the Sphinx for myself, I felt something in it that I had never read
and never heard of, something that at once place it for me among the most
enigmatic and at the same time fundamental problems of life and the world.

The face of the Sphinx strikes one with wonder at the first glance. To begin
with, it is quite a modern face. With the exception of the head ornament there is
nothing of "ancient history" about it. For some reason I had feared that there
would be. I had thought that the Sphinx would have a very "alien" face. But this
is not the case. Its face is simple and understandable. It is only the way that it
looks that is strange. The face is a good deal disfigured. But if you move away a
little and look for a long time at the Sphinx, it is as if a kind of veil falls from its
face, the triangles of the head ornament behind the ears become invisible, and
before you there emerges clearly a complete and undamaged face with eyes
which look over and beyond you into the unknown distance.

I remember sitting on the sand in front of the Sphinx -- on the spot from which
the second pyramid in the distance makes an exact triangle behind the Sphinx
-- and trying to understand, to read its glance. At first I saw only that the Sphinx
looked beyond me into the distance. But soon I began to have a kind of vague,
then a growing, uneasiness. Another moment, and I felt that the Sphinx was not
seeing me, and not only was it not seeing, it could not see me; and not because
I was too small in comparison with the profundity of wisdom it contained and
guarded. Not at all. That would have been natural and comprehensible. The
sense of annihilation and the terror of vanishing came from feeling myself in
some way too transient for the Sphinx to be able to notice me. I felt that not only
did these fleeting moments or hours which I could pass before it not exist for it,
but, that if I could stay under its gaze from birth to death, the whole of my life
would flash by so swiftly for it that it could not notice me. Its glance was fixed
on something else. It was the glance of a being who thinks in centuries and
millennia. I did not exist and could not exist for it. And I could not answer my
own question -- do I exist for myself? Do I , indeed, exist in any sort of sense, in
any sort of relation? And in this thought, in this feeling, under this strange
glance, there was an icy coldness. We are so accustomed to feel that we are,
that we exist. yet all at once, here, I felt that I did not exist, that there was no I,
 that I could not be so much as perceived.

And the Sphinx before me looked into the distance, beyond me, and its face
seemed to reflect something that it saw, something which I could neither see
nor understand.

Eternity! This word flashed into my consciousness and went through me with a
sort of cold shudder. All ideas about time, about things, about life, were
becoming confused. I felt that in these moments, in which I stood before the
Sphinx, it lived through all events and happenings of thousands of years -- and
that on the other hand centuries passed for it like moments. How this could be I
did not understand. But I felt that my consciousness grasped the shadow of the
exalted fantasy or clairvoyance of the artists who had created the Sphinx. I
touched the mystery but could neither define nor formulate it.

And only later, when all these impressions began to unite with those which I
had formerly known and felt, the fringe of the curtain seemed to move, and I felt
that I was beginning, slowly, slowly, to understand.

Was the Sphinx built over 10,000 years ago?

by Robert Bauval

The Language of Stone

The Great Sphinx of Giza is probably the world's best known relic from the
distant past. It is shrouded in mystery.

The Sphinx is not built with quarried blocks like the pyramids and temples it
guards, but carved out of the living bedrock. Its makers gave it a man's head
(some say it's a woman) and the body of a lion. It is 66' high and an impressive
240' long. It has the most extraordinary expression, like a hundred Mona Lisas
all rolled into one. And its eyes gaze forever at the distant horizon due east, at
the equinox point, at something not of this world but beyond it, in the sky.
Something, perhaps, that is reflected or "frozen" in the essence and age of the
Sphinx.

Nothing can prepare a first-time visitor for the awe-inspiring experience of

meeting the Great Sphinx face to face. No matter who you are, no matter what
your disposition and temperament, the Great Sphinx will not leave you
unmoved. John A. West knows this phenomenon well. He has stood in the
shadow of this great statue many a time since he started visiting Egypt some
thirty years ago. To him the Sphinx had always appeared as a monument apart,
and much, much older than anything else he had seen either at Giza or
elsewhere.

West's strong "gut feeling" had rarely let him down. One day, while reading a
book on Egypt by the French author and mathematician Schwaller de Lubicz
(Sacred Science, Paris 1961) an answer to his intuitive hunch came shooting
straight at him. Schwaller made a passing remark on what appeared to be water
erosion on the body of the Sphinx. Turning to a close-up photograph of the
Sphinx, West suddenly realized that the weathering patterns on the Sphinx
were not horizontal as seen on other monuments at Giza, but vertical. Now,
horizontal weathering is the result of prolonged exposure to strong winds and
sandstorms. There sure had been plenty of those in this arid region of the
Sahara. Could water have caused the vertical weathering on the Sphinx? Water
from where?

Something, clearly, was worth investigating. West knew that most

Egyptologists believed that the Sphinx was built in 2500 BCE in the time of the
pharaoh Chephren (of Khafre), who is identified with the Second Pyramid at
Giza. He also knew that this belief was now so entrenched that it would take an
intellectual bulldozer to tug it out. Yet his study had shown him that this believe
was more a dogma than anything else. He asked himself if a proof-positive
identification between Khafre and the Sphinx would stand in an "open court"
under public scrutiny.

The answer was no. There was no inscription either carved on a wall or a stela
or written on the throngs of papyri that identified Khafre or anyone else with the
construction of the Sphinx and its nearby temples. As for the proximity of
Khafre's pyramid to the Sphinx (it is 1700 feet away), this did not prove that both
monuments were built as one complex nor, more relevantly, at the same epoch.
By such standards, future generations of archaeologists may one day allocate
ownership of the Sphinx to the builder of the Sound & Light theater because of
its proximity to the Sphinx complex or -- as someone else has put it -- attribute
St. Paul's Cathedral to General Gordon of Khartoum just because his statue
was found in it. In short, Khafre may well be the quintessential "Kilroy was
here" of antiquity. So could the Sphinx be much older than the reign of Khafre,
as West had long suspected it was? Could this hypothesis explain, for example,
the strange vertical weathering on the statue?

In 1991, Dr. Robert Schoch, a prominent geologist and professor from Boston
University examined the unique weathering patterns on the Sphinx and its
enclosure. His conclusions, which came after several months of analysis, were
to convulse the world of archaeology. The vertical weathering patterns on the
Sphinx and its enclosure, Schoch argued, were not caused by wind effect, as
had previously been thought, but by water -- water from torrential rains pouring
down in sheets over these ancient structures. But how could this be? Was
Schoch saying that such heavy rains only fell on the Sphinx area but nowhere
else at Giza?

That was impossible, retorted the Egyptologists. Not impossible, said Schoch if
it is conceded that the Sphinx was built at an epoch when such rains were
common in this region and that the other monuments at Giza were built long
after these rains had stopped. Again impossible, replied the ruffled
Egyptologists. Schoch politely shrugged his shoulders.

The usual was to happen. John West was branded a charlatan and a
sensation-seeker, and Schoch was politely shunned for stepping on the
Egyptological turf. John West, however, was relentless. True, he did not have
the lofty credentials of his learned opponents, but this did not deter him.
Scientific logic was on his side, not credentials. He was now determined more
than ever to see that the Egyptologists either prove him wrong with equal or
better scientific arguments or concede that he, and not they, was right about
the age of the Sphinx. Anything less would be short change.

Astronomy Joins The Sphinx Debate

In 1989, I published a paper in the Oxford Journal, Discussions In Egyptology

(vol. 13), in which I demonstrated that the three Great Pyramids and their relative
position to the Nile created on the ground formed a sort of 3-D "hologram" of
the three stars of Orion's belt and their relative position to the Milky Way. To
support this contention, I brought into evidence the inclined shaft in the Great
Pyramid which was aimed at the south meridian toward this group of stars, as
well as written evidence from the Pyramid Texts that identified the afterlife
destiny of the pyramid-kings with Orion.

Later in my book The Orion Mystery, I also demonstrated that the best fit for the
Giza Pyramids/Nile pattern with the Orion's belt/Milky Way pattern occurred
when the sky was pushed back in time (i.e., precessed) to the epoch of 10,500
BCE. There were good reasons for doing so.

The ancient Egyptians, for example, constantly referred to a remote golden age
they called Zep Tepi, the "First Time" of Osiris, which they believed had long
predated the Pyramid Age. Osiris was Orion, and the Great Pyramid had a shaft
directed to Orion at the meridian. To me, this "silent" astro-architectural
language seemed to be spelling out, "Here is Osiris, in the sky when these
pyramids were built, yet know, too, that his origins are rooted in the First Time."
But the First Time of what? How could the stars of Orion have a First Time?

Well they can. And they do. Provided, of course, that you can read through the
allegorical "language" of the ancients via the symbolic architecture and the
related Pyramid Texts. Allegory, to put it in another way, is the "Q-Basics" of the
master astronomers who designed the Giza complex. When the stars of Orion
are observed at the meridian in the precise manner that the ancient Egyptian
astronomers did over many centuries, they could not help noting that these
stars crossed the south meridian at different altitudes at different epoch. This is,
of course, is due to the phenomenon of precession. In short, the stars of Orion
can be said to have a starting point or "beginning" at the nadir of their
precessional cycle. Simple calculations show that this occurred in 10,500 BCE.
Could the ancient astronomers of the Pyramid Age have used their very clever
"silent language" combined with precession to freeze the "First Time" of Osiris
-- somewhat as the gifted architects of gothic cathedrals froze in allegorical
stonework the "time of Christ?"

In 1993, Graham Hancock and I got together to investigate this issue. Graham
was quick to realize the important implications this approach could have on the
Sphinx problem. He had a hunch that the curious harking back to the epoch of
10,500 BCE by the pyramid builders was an invitation by them to consider the
actual age of the Sphinx. If this hypothesis was correct, then the Sphinx must
be an "original" time-marker of that remote epoch using a celestial tag valid for
10,500 BCE. But which tag? What could the Sphinx be representing that was in
the sky? Could this have something to do with the due east direction of its gaze
toward the horizon?

In his Fingerprints of the Gods, Hancock pointed out that the First Time date of
10,500 BCE also denoted the beginning or First Time of the Age of Leo. This was
when the Lion constellation would have risen heliacally (at dawn before the
sun) on the day of the vernal (spring) equinox. This event brought the celestial
lion to rest due east, thus in perfect alignment with the Sphinx. The Sphinx, in
other words, was made to look at his own image in the horizon -- and
consequently at his own "time." Hancock pointed out that 10,500 BCE was no
random date. It precisely denoted another beginning, that of Orion-Osiris
defined on the ground with the pattern and alignments of the nearby Pyramids.
Could it be possible that some blueprint was put into motion in 10,500 BCE with
the making of the Sphinx then to be completed much later by the builders of the
Pyramids?

A Lucky Turn Of The Spade

In October 1995, the Egyptian Antiquities Organization finally decided to

refurbish the old parking lot east of the Sphinx. While clearing the area in front
of the Sphinx and the Valley Temple, a "lucky turn of the spade" from one of the
laborers unearthed part of an ancient complex of underground galleries and
pathways. Hearing of this providential discovery, Graham Hancock and I
planned a short trip to Egypt to see for ourselves what was going on. John
Anthony West also was on his way there, and so we decided to meet directly at
Giza.

Laborers and masons were digging and clearing the area in front of the Sphinx
and its temples. By a stroke of good fortune, the Egyptian authorities had not
yet cordoned this area, so we asked one of the inspectors in charge if we could
take a closer look. It looked as if part of the area had already been excavated
some years ago but then, for reasons unknown, it was covered up again.

This was evident by the botches of modern mortar and iron bars that were left
embedded in the ceiling of the ancient pathways, probably in an attempt to
reinforce the relics. An inspector standing by seemed to think that these
modern-day additions were made either when Egyptologist Selim Hassan was
clearing the area for the Egyptian Antiquity Organization in the 1930s or later in
the 1950s when the Sons Et Lumieres open-air theater was constructed nearby.
But why the vestiges were covered up again, and why and how they came to be
forgotten remains a mystery.

These vestiges consisted of a major artery cut into the natural bedrock (some
10 feet wide and 200 feet long from north to south) which runs in front of the
Valley Temple and the Sphinx. This artery is itself intersected by two paved
pathways coming from the Valley Temple and going due east -- much as two
 small roads bridge over a straight motorway. These pathways dip very oddly at
their eastern end and then vanish into the ground. We also noticed a very
curious manhole set in the main artery at the point where it intersects the
southern pathway. Its lid, which is made from a single piece of limestone, is
broken at one corner, and through it we could see water flowing (mixed with the
sewage from the nearby village) and heading toward the Sphinx and the Valley
Temple.

The whole complex was obviously very ancient and almost certainly
contemporary with the Sphinx. But what could its function have been? And
what was the purpose of the underground waterway? According to a prominent
Ancient Egyptian myth, the legendary gates of the Afterworld were guarded by
two gigantic lions or sphinxes called Aker. In New Kingdom tomb drawings, the
aker-sphinx of the eastern gate sits with its hind parts in a hollow. Underneath it
can be seen a curious underground stream or duct. Behind the lion towers a
huge mound or pyramid, and under it is found a large, oval chamber which
appears to be hermetically sealed.

In this mysterious chamber is said to be some lofty secret, no doubt from the
"Gods" who ruled the land of Egypt during the remote epoch of Zep Tepi, the
First Time. This strange chamber was called the "House of Sokar" in Rostau.
The resemblance to the Sphinx complex at Giza is uncanny. Giza in ancient
times was also called Rostau, and Sokar (a hawk-headed deity) was identified
with Osiris. Odd coincidences? Perhaps. Or will astronomy make "a lucky turn
of the spade" that will convert this supposedly cosmic myth into an historical
reality?

Information on the Great Pyramid and Sphinx

by Graham Hancock

The "Door" in the Great Pyramid

In March 1993, a small "door" made of marble or limestone with two copper
handles fixed on it was discovered by a mechanized robot (Upuaut II, "Me
opener of the way" in ancient Egyptian) at the end of a long narrow shaft (8 x 8
inches and 200 feet long). Since then the discoverer, robotics engineer Rudolf
Gantenbrink from Munich, has been banned from resuming the exploration and
opening the door. The official reason given by the Egyptian Antiquities
Authorities (known as the Supreme Council of Antiquities -- SCA) was that
Gantenbrink leaked the news of the discovery to the British Press in April 1993
and thus, apparently, broke a "rule" of archaeology. The Director of the German
Archaeological Institute in Cairo, Dr. Rainer Stadelmann, sided with the
Egyptians and condemned Gantenbrink for his press action. Dr. Stadelmann
was adamant about the non-importance of the find. "This is not a door; there is
nothing behind it." The President of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, Dr.
Muhamad Bakr, went as far as claiming a "hoax." "The orifice of the shaft is too
small for the robot to go through," and he accused the "German scientist" of
not having the correct "approvals" from the SCA to carry out the exploration.
Dr. Bakr fired the Chief Inspector of the Giza Pyramid Plateau, Dr. Zahi Hawass,
although the official reason given was that a valuable ancient "statue" under
the custody of Hawass was stolen from Giza.

Three months later, in June 1993, Dr. Bakr himself was fired and replaced by Dr.
Nur El Din. Amid accusations of malpractice and fraud, Dr. Bakr spoke of a
"mafia" which had been involved with the Pyramids for "the last twenty years."
Refusing to give names, Dr. Bakr said, "I wanted the whole matter investigated
by the prosecution authorities, but my request was refused."

Meanwhile, Dr. Hawass, who went to the USA, claimed that the discovery of the
"door" was "THE discovery in Egypt," and speculated on important artifacts
behind it. In early 1994, Dr. Hawass was reinstalled at his post at the Giza
Pyramids. Meanwhile, Gantenbrink offered his robot to the Egyptians and also
offered to train an Egyptian technician to man the equipment and open the
door. The Egyptians rejected the offer. "We are very busy at the moment,"
replied Dr. Nur El Din. About the same time, Dr. Hawass was to declare that "I do
not think this is a door, and there is nothing behind it." In March 1996 however,
Dr. Hawass changed his mind once again and declared Gantenbrink's find as
being one of huge interest and that the door would be opened in September
1996 by a Canadian "mission," but not including Rudolf Gantenbrink or his
robot. The Canadian "mission" is owned by Amtex Corporation of Canada, a
multimedia CD-ROM company, which is reported to be raising the huge sum of
$10 million to promote a staged a "live opening" of the door on television
networks. "I'm working with a private guy who is a personal friend of Hawass,
and we are absolutely going to drum this thing to death. Whatever the event we
are going to stage, it will be televised live," reported Amtex Corporation's
president, Mr. Peter Zuuring.

Tunnels and Chambers Under the Great Sphinx

I. In a series of expeditions between 1991 and 1993 led by John Anthony West,
an independent Egyptologist, scientific investigators conducted geological and
seismic surveys around the Great Sphinx of Egypt. The chief geologist was Dr.
Robert Schoch, Professor of Geology at Boston University, and the chief
seismologist was Thomas Dobecki, from the highly respected Houston
consulting firm, McBride-Ratclif & Associates.

II.The team's conclusions were as follows:

A. Geology, The pattern of erosion on the Sphinx indicates that it was carved at
the end of the last Ice Age, when heavy rains fell on the eastern Sahara --
perhaps more than 12,000 years ago. This contrasts starkly with the "orthodox"
Egyptological dating for the Sphinx of around 4,500 years ago.

B. Seismography. The seismic survey indicated the existence of several

unexplored tunnels and cavities in the bedrock beneath the Sphinx, including a
large rectangular chamber at a depth of some 25 feet beneath the monuments
front paws.

III. In 1993, John West and his team were physically expelled from the site by Dr.
Zahi Hawass then (and now) the Egyptian government's Chief Inspector of
Antiquities for the Pyramids and Sphinx. He appeared to be angered by the
suggestion that the Sphinx might be far older than the civilization of Egypt itself
-- and thus the work of a lost civilization -- and was particularly incensed by an
NBC television film that was made about the team's work This film linked the
Sphinx to Atlantis and suggested that the chamber beneath the paws might
contain the legendary "Hall of Records" of Atlantis. Hawass called these claims,
"American hallucinations. There is no scientific basis for any of this. We have
older monuments in the same area. They definitely weren't built by men from
Atlantis. It's nonsense and we won't allow our monuments to be exploited for
personal enrichment. The Sphinx is the soul of Egypt."

IV. An article in the Egyptian press responding to the NBC film quoted Dr.
Hawass on his further reasons for expelling John West and his team from the
Sphinx enclosure: "I have found that their work is carried out by installing
endoscopes in the Sphinx body and shooting film for all phases of the work in a
propagandistic but not scientific manner. I therefore suspended the work of this
unscientific mission and made a report which was presented to the permanent
commission who rejected the mission's work in the future."

V. The NBC film was produced by a certain Boris Said and partially financed by
investments from the members of the Association for Research and
Enlightenment. The ARE, headquartered in Virginia Beach in the US, is a
multimillion dollar organization that exists to promulgate the teachings and
prophecies of an American psychic, Edgar Cayce, who died in 1947. Prominent
amongst Cayce's pronouncements were many statements to the effect that the
Sphinx had been built in 10,500 BCE by the survivors of the lost civilization of
Atlantis and that the survivors had concealed beneath it a "Hall of Records"
containing all the wisdom of their lost civilization and the true history of the
human race. Cayce prophesied that this Hall of Records would be rediscovered
and opened between 1996 and 1998. He connected the opening to second
coming of Christ.

VI. In 1995, John West and Professor Robert Schoch of Boston University put in
an application to the Egyptian authorities to resume their research. Their
application was ignored.

VII. In April 1996, the Egyptian authorities granted a one-year license to a new
team to conduct surveys around the Sphinx. This team, which claims academic
sponsorship from Florida State University , is largely financed through the
Schor Foundation of New York -- by Dr. Joseph Schor, an American
multimillionaire. Dr. Schor is a life member of the ARE and wrote on 24th May
1994 of his great personal interest in corroborating "the Cayce records which
indicated that the culture which led to the building of the Pyramids dates to
10,400 BCE." He also stated his wish "to further delineate that civilization."

VIII. On April 11th, 1996 Dr. Schor stated of his current project at the Sphinx,
"We do not work for the Edgar Cayce Group. The major purpose of the Schor
Foundation and Florida State University is to aid in the preservation and
restoration of the Pyramids and Sphinx. In addition, we are surveying the
 underground of the Giza Plateau to find faults and chasms that might collapse.
This will increase the safety of the plateau."

IX. Also financed by Dr. Schor is a short video film shot at the end of 1995 by
Boris Said and produced in early 1996. The film opens with Dr. Zahi Hawass
scrambling into a tunnel leading under the Sphinx. When he reaches the
bottom, he turns to face the camera and whispers to the viewer, "Even Indiana
Jones would never dream to be here. Can you believe it? We are now inside the
Sphinx in this tunnel. This tunnel has never been opened before. No one really
knows what's inside this tunnel. But we are going to open it for the first time." In
commentary, the film's narrator goes on to state, "Edgar Cayce, America's
famous Sleeping Prophet, predicted that a chamber would be discovered
beneath the Sphinx -- a chamber containing the recorded history of human
civilization. For the first time, we'll show you what lies beneath this great statue
-- a chamber which will be opened tonight, live, for our television cameras."

X. Dr. Schor has stated that this video is not a promotional venture aimed at
hooking a major US network to televise a live opening of a chamber under the
Sphinx. He insists, "It was made to test script and equipment and was made in
November 1995, which was many months before we received approval for our
expedition. We have abandoned its use."

XI. On April 14, 1996 Dr. Zahi Hawass announced in the Egyptian press that
there were secret tunnels under the Sphinx and around the Pyramids and
stated his belief that these tunnels would prove to "carry many secrets of the
building of the Pyramids."

On the Sphinx

"It would be well if this entity were to seek either of the three phases of the ways
and means in which those records of the activities of individuals were
preserved -- the one in the Atlantean land, that sank, which will rise and is rising
again; another in the place of the records that leadeth from the Sphinx to the
hall of records, in the Egyptian land; and another in the Aryan or Yucatan land,
where the temple there is overshadowing same. (2012-1; Sep 25, 1939)"

"...the entity joined with those who were active in putting the records in forms
that were partially of the old characters of the ancient or early Egyptian, and
part in the newer form of the Atlanteans. These may be found, especially when
the house or tomb of records is opened, in a few years from now. (2537-1; Jul
17, 1941) ...[the entity] was among the first to set the records that are yet to be
discovered or yet to be had of those activities in the Atlantean land, and for the
preservation of data that is yet to be found from the chambers of the way
between the Sphinx and the pyramid of records. (3575-2; Jan 20, 1944)"

"Q: Give in detail what the sealed room contains.

A: A record of Atlantis from the beginning of those periods when the Spirit took
form, or began the encasements in that land; and the developments of the
peoples throughout their sojourn; together with the record of the first
destruction, and the changes that took place in the land; with the record of the
 sojournings of the peoples and their varied activities in other lands, and a
record of the meetings of all the nations or lands, for the activities in the
destruction of Atlantis; and the building of the pyramid of initiation, together
with whom, what, and where the opening of the records would come, that are
as copies from the sunken Atlantis. For with the change, it [Atlantis] must rise
again. In position, this lies -- as the sun rises from the waters -- as the line of the
shadows (or light) falls between the paws of the Sphinx; that was set later as
the sentinel or guard and which may not be entered from the connecting
chambers from the Sphinx's right paw until the time has been fulfilled when the
changes must be active in this sphere of man's experience. Then [it lies]
between the Sphinx and the river. (378-16; Oct 29, 1933)"

In several of his readings, Cayce stated that the survivors of the lost continent
of Atlantis had brought with them records relating to their earliest history.
These, he said, were carefully buried in a secret chamber somewhere near to
the Great Sphinx, which stands guard like a sentinel over the Pyramids of Giza.
A second set of these records was taken, he said, by other survivors of the
disaster to be buried somewhere in the Yucatan area of Mexico. He also said
that a third set of records still resides in the heart of Atlantis itself.

[Source: Edgar Cayce on Atlantis by Edgar Evans Cayce]

Discovery of King Tut's Tomb

AT LAST HAVE MADE WONDERFUL DISCOVERY IN VALLEY; A MAGNIFICENT

TOMB WITH SEALS INTACT; RECOVERED SAME FOR YOUR ARRIVAL;
CONGRATULATIONS

This telegram, sent by Howard Carter to his sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, on

November 6, 1922, electrified the world. Searching amid rubble heaps left by
dozens of archaeologists over a span of a hundred years, Carter had finally
tried one last desperate dig. His area: a small triangle of rocky debris bounded
by the tombs of Ramses II, Merneptah, and Ramses VI. Almost by chance, his
native laborers cleared away three feet of earth beneath an innocuous
workman’s hut erected centuries before, and found the first of sixteen steps cut
steeply down into the bedrock. The hidden entry led to a blocked-up, sealed
door bearing the special mark that identified the tomb as a royal necropolis.
With admirable restraint, Carter went no further. Filling the stairway with rubble
again, to prevent looting, he posted a guard and awaited Carnarvon’s arrival
three weeks later.

On November 25, with Carnarvon present, Carter pulled down the sealed door.
Beyond it he found another rubble-filled passageway thirty feet long and a
second sealed door. Again the barricade was torn away -- to reveal a sight that
rendered him speechless. By the flickering light of his candle, he saw strangely
shaped animal figures and statues and a jumbled mass of objects -- all glinting
of gold. As his eyes became accustomed to the dim light, gilded couches,
gold-plated chariots, and hundreds of other spectacular treasures, strewn
haphazardly about the chamber, appeared. They had found the burial place of
the boy-king Tutankhamen.

The news went out immediately. For two months, Carter’s team photographed,
catalogued, and packed the items for shipment to Cairo. With great care, Carter
treated the 32-centuries-old objects to preserve them against further decay, as
the press reported his every move from tents hastily pitched at the site.

On February 17, with the antechamber now cleared, Carter and Carnarvon
broke through into the next sealed room, the burial chamber itself. The sight
was unbelievable. the entire room -- except for a fifteen-inch space at each side
-- was filled by a huge golden shrine ten feet nine inches wide, sixteen feet six
inches long, and nine feet high. Carter opened the folding (but not sealed)
doors at the shrine’s east end. A second set of doors confronted him, these
bolted and sealed. At last Carter’s search had reached the ultimate, a point
beyond which grave robbers had not been able to penetrate. An undefiled
mummy still lay concealed within the shrine.

Lord Carnarvon did not live to marvel at what was to come next; he died just
two months later, in 1923, from an insect bite. Despite a series of delays
imposed by the Egyptian government, Carter continued the discoveries
through the winter seasons of 1925-27. The tremendous shrine proved to be
actually four shrines, one inside the other, Chinese box-fashion. And inside the
innermost was the sarcophagus, a large, yellow quartzite block with a rose
granite lid that weighed well over a half ton.

The climax was yet to come. Before the sarcophagus lid could be raised, the
shrine had to be taken apart and removed from the room. Its transfer from the
burial chamber took 84 days of struggle -- almost a full day for each of its
component parts, all of them heavy, hard to handle, and very fragile. Ironically,
Carter discovered that while the artisan craftsmanship used to build the shrine
had been superb, the assembly laborers had left a good deal to be desired.
Ignoring the markings that indicated the proper assembly sequence, the
workers had put the shrine together backward, with the doors facing east
instead of west and the side panels reversed. And they had pounded reluctant
joinings into position with heavy hammer blows, leaving noticeable dents.

The opening of the sarcophagus gave the final surprise. An outer anthropoid
coffin concealed a second, and the second a third. The innermost coffin was
the most amazing find of all: a solid gold case six feet one and three-quarters
inches long and nearly one-quarter inch thick, worth a princely sum. Within the
final coffin lay the goal of the dig -- the mummy of King Tut. On Tut’s face was a
22-pound solid gold burial mask. Carter soon learned that the king’s embalmers
had erred in seeking to preserve the corpse for the ages. They had poured a
tarlike unguent between the gold coffin and the wooden (middle) coffin as well
as over the wrapped mummy. During the centuries a chemical reaction had
carbonized the bones and tissues beyond any hope of salvage.

The mummy’s bindings hid 143 pieces of jewelry, which joined the treasures
 already found. Eventually a total of 5,220 items were catalogued. Tut’s body
was returned to the tomb where it rests today. The valuable treasures, however,
are on display at the Cairo Museum. On rare occasions the Egyptian authorities
permit exhibitions of them outside the country.

King Tut himself was probably insignificant, dying around 1323 BCE at the age
of about nineteen. But the riches found in his tomb gave the world its first
glimpse of a complete funerary assemblage for an Egyptian pharaoh, objects
previously described in religious texts and contemporary writings.

Opening the tomb gave rise to a press-inspired "pharaoh’s curse." Carnarvon

had died almost immediately, and allegedly a score of other individuals were
struck down because of their involvement with dismantling the shrine. Of the
ten principal diggers at Tutankhamen’s tomb, two were alive forty years later,
and another five lived an average of twenty years beyond its opening.

However, the tomb itself was the victim of a curse -- tourists. By 1991, 3,000
visitors a day were entering the tomb and stirring up the dust on the walls. Their
sweat released salt that clung to the walls, and their breath released organisms
that remained trapped inside the tomb. The tourists brought with them bacteria
and fungi that damaged the contents of the tomb, leading the Egyptian
Antiquities Organization to declare the area closed.

[From: The 20th Century by David Wallechinsky]

See also: Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation

Giza News

The Sphinx Sits Over A Time Bomb

[From: Egypt News; received June 14, 1999.]

Last week the Arabic daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat published an article by
Ahmed Osman in which the Sphinx restoration project has been severely
criticised.

The article points out that the Great Sphinx of Giza is still at risk of being
damaged and a complete collapse could occur in a few years time -- despite the
completion of a ten-year restoration project! Beneath the rock of the Giza
Plateau the underground water level has been rising for the last fifty years
causing salt to develop inside the stone forming the Sphinx's body. The article
cites two main causes for the rising water table: the building of the Aswan Dam
and the growth of the village of Nazlet El Samman, which extends between the
Nile and the Giza Plateau.

According to the Cairo weekly Akhbar El Adab, Dr. Mohamed Abdel Hadi, Dean
of the Luxor College for Restoration, accused the restorers of using a chemical
substance called "Nemex" in their restoration of the Sphinx's neck and chest.
This, it is claimed, produced salts on the surface of the stone and led to the
formation of a solid layer that can fall at any moment.

Dr. Ali Hassan, the former Secretary General of the S.C.A, told Ahmed Osman
that instead of treating the real problem facing the Sphinx from underground
water damage, the restorers built a layer of stone to cover the body of the
statue, thus leaving it to deteriorate from the inside away from our eyes. Akhbar
El Abad also reported Dr. Yaseen Zidan, a professor of restoration, as saying
that the international organization of UNESCO has threatened to take the
Sphinx off the list of protected world heritage monuments unless these
problems are dealt with.

Rosetta Stone Poll Results

[From: Egypt News; received June 12, 1999.]

Over the past few months EDEN -- The Andrew Collins website has been
hosting a poll focusing on whether or not the Rosetta Stone should be returned
to Egypt. The poll was set up after authors Robert Bauval and Graham Hancock
issued a plea for the return of the stone, suggesting "that the Rosetta Stone be
flown in a special British Airways flight to Alexandria on the 31 December 1999
and there taken to the newly completed Bibliotheca Alexandrina -- the UNESCO
Library Of Alexandria -- and placed in the main entrance hall."

The results of the poll indicate that 73 percent thought the Rosetta Stone
should be returned whilst the remaining 27 percent voted for it to stay in the
British Museum.

The Rosetta Stone was found in July 1799 by French soldiers during the
occupation of Egypt by Napoleon and was eventually ceded to the British after
the defeat of the French forces. It is made from a solid piece of black basalt and
is inscribed with three forms of script: Hieroglyphic, Demotic and Greek that
represent a single text honoring Ptolemy V (c.190 BCE). Scholars were able to
decipher the Hieroglyphs through its relationship to the Greek script.

The Ptolemies were of Greek-Macedonian descent that ruled Egypt between

323 to 30 BCE. "Under the early Ptolemies, the culture was exclusively Greek.
Greek was the language of the court, the army, and the administration. The
Ptolemies founded the university, the museum, and the library at Alexandria
and built the lighthouse at Pharos."

See also "Writing in Egypt under Greek and Roman Rule"

No doubt there are those that would argue the Rosetta Stone is more Greek
than Egyptian.
 Giza Catacombs

[From: Keith Grenville through Egypt News; received May 16, 1999.]

It was reported from Cairo on 13th May that " ... a network of giant catacombs
carved out of stone was unearthed beneath a block of flats in Giza."

Dr. Gaballah Ali Gaballah, secretary general of the Supreme Antiquities Council,
said in a statement, that the 17-metre long, two-metre high burial gallery runs
under a number of adjacent buildings. According to Dr. Zahi Hawass, director of
Giza monuments, the catacombs date back to ancient Roman times as
indicated by distinctive pieces of pottery found at the site. He said the
underground tombs were most likely used during early Islamic timesin view of
the presence of glazed pottery." (Source: Cairo Press review from Egyptian
Press Office South Africa.)

Keith Grenville
The Egyptian Society of South Africa
Society Web Site

Giza Update

[From: Egypt News; received May 31, 1999.]

According to a report by Amargi Hillier, the Great Pyramid is to be reopened on

Thursday 3 June. Amargi's update is accompanied by some nice digital images
of the Great Pyramid's interior. Other sites of interest will be opened to the
public in June. These include the Sphinx Temple and the tombs of Seshenufer,
Snefrukh'ee and Neferma'et -- high ranking officials during the Old Kingdom
period. At the Egyptian Museum in Cairo a new exhibit, "Lost and Found" is due
to open later this year. The exhibit features stolen objects that have been
recovered following investigations by Egyptian and foreign police officers.