The origins of these discussions date back to the late 1970s, when John Anthony West, an independent American researcher, studied the obscure and difficult to understand work of the brilliant French mathematician and symbolist R. A. Schwaller de Lubitsch. Schwaller is best known for his work on the Luxor Temple, but in his more general work, Sacred Science (first published in 1961), he speaks this way of the archaeological consequences of climatic conditions and floods that last happened in Egypt over 12,000 years ago.
Apparently, a great civilization preceded the powerful streams of water that swept through Egypt; we come to the conclusion that even then there was the Sphinx, the one whose sculptural image was carved out of the rock in the western part of Giza, whose lion's body, with the exception of the head, shows indisputable tears of water erosion.
This simple fact, which no one seemed to be paying attention to before Schwaller, clearly challenged the generally accepted point of view of Egyptologists, according to which the Sphinx represented Khafre and belonged to the era of 2500 BC. e. As for West, after reading this passage, he suddenly realized that Schwaller offers a way, using the methods of geology, “to prove the existence of another and, possibly, a greater civilization that existed before dynastic Egypt and all other known civilizations, and for millennia before them.
If it was possible to confirm only the fact of water erosion of the Sphinx, then the entire generally accepted chronology of the history of civilization would be crossed out and it would be necessary to completely revise the assumptions associated with the so-called "progress", on which the entire modern education system is based. It is difficult to find another equally simple question that would have such serious consequences …
West's initial opinion was as follows:
In principle, one cannot object to the possibility of water erosion of the Sphinx, since everyone agrees that in the past Egypt was subjected to abrupt climatic extrusions and was periodically flooded - both by the sea (and in not too distant times), and by strong floods of the Nile. The latter are believed to correspond to the melting ice of the last ice age. According to modern views, it took place around 15,000 BC. e. However, extreme floods of the Nile periodically occurred even later, up to about 10,000 BC. e. It follows from this that if the great Sphinx was subjected to water erosion, then it was built before the corresponding flood or floods …
"In principle" this logic is reasonable. In practice, as West later had to admit, "floods or floods" could not cause the kind of erosion that we see on the Sphinx:
The problem is that the Sphinx has eroded all the way down to the neck. This would require a rise in water throughout the Nile Valley by 18 meters (at least). It is difficult to imagine a flood of this magnitude. Moreover, if this hypothesis is correct, then we would have to admit that the erosion of limestone blocks of the so-called Temple of the Dead at the end of the road leading from the Sphinx took place in a similar way; and this would require a flood reaching the foot of the pyramids, that is, raising the water another 30 meters or so …
Promotional video:
As West recalls, having received official admission to the pit, Schoch also
quickly became more categorical … The deeply weathered Sphinx and the pit wall surrounding it and the slightly weathered or obviously wind-eroded tombs of the Old Kingdom, located to the south and dating from the era of Khafra, were carved into the same rock. Therefore, according to Shokh, it is geologically impossible to attribute all these structures to the same time of creation. Our scientists have come to an agreement. Only water, and specifically - in the form of precipitation - could lead to the picture of erosion we observe …
In short, Schoch's position, which is fully supported by paleoclimatologists, is based on the fact that the heavy rains that are necessary to cause the observed erosion of the Sphinx stopped falling in Egypt thousands of years before 2500 BC. e., when, according to Egyptologists, the Sphinx was built. That is, according to the most conservative geological estimates, the construction of the Sphinx refers to “at least the period between 7000 and 5000 BC. e..
At the same time, according to Egyptologists, between 7000 and 5000 BC. e. the Nile Valley was inhabited only by primitive Neolithic hunter-gatherers, whose "tools" were limited to sharpened pieces of flint and sticks. If Schoch is right, then it follows that the Sphinx and neighboring temples (built from hundreds of 200-ton limestone blocks) are the work of some unknown ancient but advanced civilization."
At this point, I think it should be noted that the opinions of West and Schoch about the time of the construction of the Sphinx were somewhat different. Schoch expressed a more cautious version and attributed the construction time to 7000-5000 BC. West believed that the Sphinx was built 12,000 years ago and earlier. Recently I watched a program where a Russian Egyptologist, when asked about the age of the Sphinx, confidently answered about the times of Khafra, as well as about the windy nature of the erosion of the Sphinx. It is very interesting to listen to a person who understands a certain issue (Egyptology), while having absolutely nothing to understand about another issue (geology), but he very confidently talks about what he does not understand. As a matter of fact, you don't even need to be a great expert in the field of destruction of any rock under the influence of environmental factors to notice how water falling from aboveleft her footprints on the stone. These tracks are very visible on the Sphinx.