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The Mystery of When the Sphinx Was Built

The Sphinx is located in the pyramid tomb area of ​​Giza, Egypt. The head part is said to be shaped by the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Khafre according to his own portrait, and there is also a view that Regidev built it according to the portrait of his father Khufu. Who built the Sphinx is also a mystery. At first, ancient Egyptologists believed that it was Pharaoh Khufu. The purpose of the construction was to guard his own pyramid. This statement derived a vivid description:

In 2610 BC, Pharaoh Khufu came here to inspect his tomb, the Great Pyramid, which was about to be completed. Khufu found that there was still a huge stone left in the quarry, and immediately ordered the stonemasons to carve a sphinx according to his face shape. But Raynal and some other archaeologists gradually deduced that the stone statue was built on the orders of Khufu’s son, Pharaoh Hafr. Hafr ruled Egypt in 2600 BC, and the dynasty lasted for 500 years and finally collapsed due to war and famine.

According to hieroglyphic records, Khufu built a 146-meter-high pyramid for himself, 400 meters away from the location where the Sphinx was later built. Hafre also built his own pyramid, but it was 3 meters shorter than his father’s and 400 meters away from the Sphinx. Raynal found some evidence linking the Sphinx to the pharaoh Hafr, the earliest evidence dating back to 1853.

That year, a French archaeologist named Auguste found a life-size statue of Hafre carved from black volcanic stone near the Sphinx, near the remains of a building later known as For the Temple Valley. In addition, August also discovered the remains of a specially laid stone road, connecting the Valley of the Temples and the temple next to the Hafr Pyramid. In 1925, another French archaeologist, Emile Barez, unearthed another ancient architectural relic right in front of the Sphinx, known as the Temple of the Sphinx.

These evidences show that Pharaoh Khufu arranged a great building plan, including the Sphinx, his own pyramid and temple, etc., but many archaeologists still insist that the Sphinx was built by Khufu. Until 1980, Rainer hired a young German geographer, Tom Aigner, who proved in a new way that the Sphinx belonged to the series of buildings of Pharaoh Hafr.

After examining rock samples from the Sphinx and the Temple of the Sphinx, Rainer and Tom found many fossil samples, and by identifying these fossils they found that many of the stones used to build the temple walls were carved from the Sphinx Apparently, craftsmen used ropes and pulley carts to pull the huge remaining stone blocks carved from the Sphinx to the site where the Sphinx Temple was built for “waste utilization”.

It thus appears that Hafr incorporated pyramids, sphinxes, and temples into one unified architectural plan, but who carried out the immortal plan? In 1990, an American tourist fell off his horse 800 meters away from the Sphinx, and his horse tripped over a low wall. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Egyptian Society of Antiquities and an authority on archaeology, subsequently launched an investigation and found An ancient Egyptian kingdom cemetery has been discovered.

There are 600 people buried here. In the center is the tomb of the overseer, with an epitaph indicating the name and identity of the deceased, and around it are the tombs of general laborers, without identification. It was near this cemetery that Renard discovered his Lost City nine years later.

Since the 1980s, ancient buildings have been discovered here from time to time. Rainer and Hawass have been paying close attention to them, but they didn’t realize that this is a spectacular residential area until they completed precise surveying and mapping. There are 10 The size of a football field, the construction dates back to Khafre’s reign.

The center of the residential area is four barracks made of long mud bricks, which have the same colonnade, sleeping platform and kitchen as ordinary houses, but the scale is larger than ordinary houses, and can accommodate 50 people sleeping side by side.

The barracks can accommodate 1,600 to 2,000 workers, Renner said, and more if the sleeping platforms are double-decker. The diet of the workers showed that they were not slaves, and Rainer found the remains of male animals under 2 years old in the site, indicating that the workers’ diet was mainly beef. Rainer believes that it is very likely that ordinary Egyptians built the Sphinx and the surrounding ruins through rotation in the form of state taxation or enfeoffment levels.

45 centuries ago, humans lacked iron, and the Egyptians mainly used stone hammers, combined with copper chisels, to complete more detailed work. The researchers found that copper chisels could not hold up to knocks, began to dull after just a few hits, and needed to be replaced frequently. All things considered, it was estimated that each laborer could chisel a cubic foot of stone per week. At this rate, 100 workers can complete the Sphinx in 3 years.