Some say the Great Sphinx is thousands of years older than commonly believed. Debates about his age have been going on in the archaeological community for many decades. In the early 90s, geologist Dr. Robert Schoch of Boston University was the first to stir the scientific community when he announced that the Sphinx date back to 5000 or 7000 BC, predating the dynastic Egyptian culture.
“In 1990, I visited Egypt for the first time. My only goal was to explore the Great Sphinx from a geological point of view. I believed that the Egyptologists correctly estimated his age. But I soon discovered that the geological evidence contradicted the data of the Egyptologists,”Schoch writes on his website.
Egyptologists are of the opinion that the Sphinx was built during the reign of Pharaoh Khafra. It is believed that Khafre, also known as Pharaoh Khafren, organized the construction of the Sphinx in 2500 BC.
But geological evidence points to a more ancient era. The Sphinx was carved from the rock at the construction site, in addition to the body of the Sphinx, the structure includes walls of rock that surround it.
“I found traces of erosion, which, from my point of view, could only have arisen as a result of downpours and runoff. But the Sphinx is located on the edge of the Sahara Desert, this region has been very arid for the past 5000 years."
Schoch studied several nearby structures that are uniquely from the Old Kingdom era in Egyptian history to compare them with the Sphinx. These structures had traces of erosion from wind and sand that were markedly different from water erosion.
He concluded that the Sphinx dates back to an earlier period, from about 5000 to 9000 BC, when the region had more rainfall. After a detailed study, Schoch came to the conclusion that Pharaoh Khafre ordered the restoration of the Sphinx in order to make it part of his tomb. By that time, the Sphinx was already several thousand years old. During the dynastic era of ancient Egypt, the Sphinx may have undergone other changes.
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“It is quite obvious that the present head is not the original head. The original head must have suffered severe weathering and erosion. In the dynastic era, they made a new head, chipping the original one, as a result it became smaller,”says Schoch.
He also suggested that the figure was originally in the shape of a lion, not a sphinx.
This statement caused shock among scientists, historians and Egyptologists, who argued that in Egypt in such an ancient era there was no civilization capable of building the Sphinx. However, in other parts of the world, archaeological sites have been found that testify to the existence of such ancient civilizations. One of these places is the remains of the Gebekli-Tele complex in Turkey, the time of its supposed construction is 9000 BC.
