Forgotten Ages Research

The Sphinx—Sentinel of Hidden Mysteries

Product ID: HHR8

Report Topics:

• Geology, archaeology and history of the Sphinx monument
• Modern controversies concerning how old is the Sphinx—how maverick geologists are upsetting the “established” date
• Images of the Sphinx from the earliest Dynasties?
• Zodiacal symbolism instilled in the portrayal of the Sphinx—is it a prophecy in stone?
• The Sphinx as the Guardian of Secret Knowledge—legends and stories of hidden chambers, as well as strange artifacts and ghost lights observed in the area surrounding the Giza monuments

Full Report:

Directly to the southeast of the Great Pyramid, a distance of less than 2,000 feet away, and situated almost on the eastern edge of the Giza plateau, is a reclining figure in stone, half-lion and half-human, called the Great Sphinx.

Though dwarfed by the size of the Pyramids towering around it, and sometimes neglected by researchers and visitors who are more intrigued by the mystery of the larger monuments, the Sphinx in its own right is a true wonder, and a true unsolved enigma. It stands today as one of the world’s largest single-stone sculptures, measuring 66 feet high, 240 feet long, and 38 feet wide across at the shoulders. The ears of the Sphinx are 4 feet 6 inches, the nose 5 feet 7 inches, the mouth 7 feet 7 inches, and the width of the face is 13 feet 8 inches.

The entire figure was carved in situ, out of an outcropping or gebel of limestone on the Giza plateau. Its sculptors also cleared away an considerable area of rock around it, so that the Sphinx appears to be resting on a flat stone surface, at the bottom of its own niche or small valley.

Not until Captain Caviglia’s excavations in 1816 was it discovered that the Sphinx once wore a stone crown and a beard—the pieces being found at the foot—and the sculpture had at one time been painted red. Selim Hassan’s excavations in the 1930’s finally uncovered the entire body of the Sphinx, which had been unknown and buried in sand for thousands of years. For most of its history, only the Sphinx’s head had remained above the surface.

The Sphinx was carved out of Upper and Middle Eocene highly porous soft limestone that forms three distinct zones, seen in the head, the body and the base. The upper zone is composed of marly limestone which is a mixture of sand grains in a groundmass of fine calcerous matter and clay. The lower zones are more compact and are composed mainly of fossiliferous limestone with micritic texture and microcrystalline calcite. Here, some recrystallization into sparite occurs in the mold of fossils along fracture planes, and calcite transformed into dolomite is also apparent. Four more distinct layers have been detected below the Sphinx, using shallow seismic refraction.

The monument as a whole is set on a monocline limb dipping to the east, and on the south are Upper Eocene rocks with overlying Pliocene sediments that contain significant faulted areas. These have undergone some movement, with 58 documented natural seismic events having occurred between 220 B.C.E. and A.D. 2001, as well as measurable reactions from local quarry blastings.

The Arab physician-philosopher and traveler Abdul Latif (1162–1231) remarked that in his day the Sphinx was still the most admired sight in all Egypt. Unfortunately, in subsequent centuries the head of the Sphinx underwent deliberate mutilation, from both Arabs and Europeans. Al Maqrizi reported that in 1379 a Moslem fanatic named Saim el Dahr, angry by the attention still being given to the “pagan” image in the desert, defaced the monument by hacking off its nose. Later, medieval and Renaissance visitors to the land of the Nile broke off pieces of the Sphinx’s headdress and even its lips, to take back with them as talismans for magical spells and remedies. Still later, invading Mamelukes and Frenchmen in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries left their mark by using the head for target practice. Finally the British, adding insult to injury, attached an ugly gray cement collar on each side of the Sphinx’s head around its neck to prevent the head from coming off, worn down by the blowing sands.

During the times in its history the Sphinx was completely unburied and venerated, improvements and additions were made on and around the structure which can still be seen today. The original Sphinx was of solid stone, yet it underwent such severe erosion over a considerable span of time that a survey of the core rock in 1980 could find no trace of the original took marks on its surface. During the Old Kingdom, about five millennia ago, a plaster covering was added to the body, and portions were re-carved, such as the nails sculptured into the core stone toes of the paws, and in particular the entire head.

Some brickwork was added in the later New Kingdom, which has a marvelous and unique property. The stone has a very low salt content, and through time formed a protective dura-seal over the repaired surfaces, preventing further erosion from taking place.

Today, modern restoration experts who since 1979 have been replacing old brickwork for new around the monument’s paws and chest, would like to use this ancient type of stone again. The problem is, no one knows where the New Kingdom builders acquired their stoneware from, its origins as yet not located.

Later still, sections of the sides of the of the feline body were built up to their original shape by two successive layers of brickwork, the first made of stones 3.5 feet long attributed to the Ptolemaic period about the second century B.C.E., and the other of small stones placed there by the Romans in the time of Nero and Marcus Aurelius.

As part of this last reconstruction, two square fire pits were built on, one on either side of the lion form at the base below the head, which when lit at night illuminated the entire monument, giving the impression of the Sphinx having flaming wings. During this period the entire Sphinx was painted red. A huge crimson figure with fires flickering about it, must have been an impressive sight in Classical times.

In other works, to the east of the Sphinx the Romans constructed a staircase of thirty steps leading from the courtyard in front of the paws up to the landing. Here were found the remains of what looked like a pulpit.

At the other end of the landing, forty feet in length, another flight of thirteen steps led directly to a ceremonial platform structure with five more steps and topped by two columns. This platform was level with the gaze of the Sphinx’s eyes, which were focused on the observer standing between the two columns. Also in the Classical era, a small enclosure made of stone slabs fourteen feet high was erected between the paws of the Sphinx, as well as a small altar that can still be seen today, made of a block of Aswan red granite taken from a nearby temple. In an earlier age, a small obelisk graed the space between the paws. In the older versions of the Tarot, the sacred figures of divination and contemplation, the “Fortune” Arcana card depicts the recumbent Sphinx holding a short sword with a blunted point—a distant memory of the obelisk.

One of the greatest questions concerning the Great Sphinx is the riddle of who built it, and when. Conservative scholars insist that the monument was made in the days of the Fourth Dynasty by Pharaoh Khafre, the supposed builder of the Second Pyramid. A ramp way leads from the Second Pyramid and ends alongside the Sphinx, at a small complex called the Sphinx or Valley Temple. But it is curious that the ramp way is not straight but angles off, as if to purposely miss the Sphinx, strongly suggesting the Sphinx was already there when the causeway was built. Conservative historians also argue that the face of the Sphinx resembles the likeness of Khafre, as is image is presented in other sculpture from the Fourth Dynasty.

This may be true, but the face of the Sphinx shows evidence of having been reshaped and re-surfaced in earlier ancient times. In fact, the entire head of the monument is out of proportion with the rest of the body, being smaller, indicating it had been carved down from a larger, original shape far back in antiquity. Egyptian legend records that, at its beginning, the face and head of the Sphinx had been that of a woman, and that later, at the whim and egocentricity of a Dynastic monarch, the cranial features were altered, and a royal crown and beard of stone were added onto it, which subsequently fell off.

The conservative opinion regarding the Great Sphinx also counters the testimony of scholars, historians and worshippers throughout Egyptian history. In 1904, E. A. Wallis Budge, then Keeper of the Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum, stated his belief about the Sphinx that, “this marvelous object was in existence in the days of Khafre, or Khephren, and it is probable that it is a very great deal older than his reign and that it dates from the end of the archaic period.”

Gaston Maspero, who conducted an extensive survey of the Sphinx in the 1920’s, once stated his belief that the sculpture should be dated to an age long before the Dynasties: “The Great Sphinx Harmakhis (its ancient name) has mounted guard over the (Giza) plateau ever since the time of the Followers of Horus“—the Age of the Gods, twelve thousand years ago.

Pliny, the first century Roman naturalist, noted that the Egyptians held the Sphinx sacred as the “tomb of Armais,” the Hellenized name for the god of the Sphinx, Harmakhis, said to be one of the earliest deities to rule along the Nile. Amenhotep II (1448–1420 B.C.E.) likewise referred to the Sphinx as being very ancient, even older than the Pyramids themselves.

Without a doubt the most controversial testimony is found on a large stone stele which can still be seen today standing upright, prominently visible between the paws of the Sphinx near its chest. The stele was dedicated by Thutmosis IV (1420–1411 B.C.E.), and tells how, as a young man, he once fell asleep under the head of the Sphinx, which he called the “Splendid Place of the Beginning of Time,” and in a dream the god of the Sphinx came to him and promised him the throne of Egypt if he would clear the sands away which buried the body of the monument. Thutmosis did as promised, and history records the fact of his rulership.

Unfortunately toward the bottom of the stele the words are barely readable due to erosion, and it is here that Thutmosis gave “praise to Un-nefer…Khafra…the statue for Atum-Harmakhis.” What is interesting is most conservative historians interpret this last line to mean that Pharaoh Khafre made the Sphinx. But renowned Egyptologist J. H. Breasted commented that this is, “a conclusion which does not follow from the text.” In fact, in the context of the preceding lines, where Thutmosis describes his clearing away of the sands from the Sphinx, it would appear the monarch was praising those who had done the same before him.

In other words, Khafre did not sculpture the Sphinx, he was only involved in freeing the monument that was already ancient in his time. Maspero supported this interpretation, saying: “The Sphinx stele shows, in line thirteen, the cartouche of Khephren. I believe that to indicate an excavation carried out by that prince, following which, the almost certain proof that the Sphinx was already buried in sand at the time of Khafre and his predecessors.”

This conclusion is confirmed by the Inventory Stele, another engraved stone, found by Auguste Mariette in 1857 near the Pyramid. The stele clearly describes how Pharaoh Khufu, who reigned before Khafre, also attempted to dig out the Sphinx from its sandy burial, and make repairs on it. The question is, how far back did these diggings and subsequent burials go?

It seems certain that, when the Sphinx was carved, its sculptors did not have the problem of shifting sand to contend with, otherwise it is doubtful such a large project would have been undertaken, knowing their work would quickly be half buried. If the Sphinx was made before the desert sands existed, then it is to be dated to a period between 8,000 and 6,000 years ago, at a minimum, which is when geologists and paleo-climatologists know the Sahara and Libyan regions underwent a great drying out, forming the present desert wastes.

Another indication that a great age should be assigned to the Sphinx is that its image was held sacred long before the Fourth Dynasty. Egyptologist Hassan noted that, in the early part of the twentieth century, a limestone female sphinx was found by members of the French Institute while conducting excavations at Abu Roash, at the Pyramid of Dedafre.

Dedafre was a predecessor of Khafre, meaning that the female sphinx antedated the Great Sphinx if one assumes the Sphinx had been made by Khafre. Before this, Hassan further noted, there were amulet images of half-men half-lions dating to Predynastic and proto-Dynastic times which appear in great numbers, and enjoyed a widespread popularity.

A number of First Dynasty ivory tablets from the tombs of Hor-aha, Udimu and Semerkhet at Abydos portray a large sphinx image half-bured, with only the head and forepaws showing. One interesting feature is that the head is show quite large, but the face is very indistinct, as if the monument pictures had undergone great weathering, and the artists were not sure if the face was that of a man or woman. What we may have here are images of the Sphinx just before its head was recaptured to a smaller size, by one of the early Pharaohs.

In sharp contrast to all this attention given to sphinxes at such early periods—except for the one female sphinx at Abu Roash, and another smaller sphinx found in the temple of Khafre at the foot of the Second Pyramid—there are no other sphinx images dating to the later Fourth Dynasty, when the Great Sphinx was supposed to have been made, according to conservative historians. What this strongly suggests is, the Great Sphinx was in fact well known long before the Fourth Dynasty, but by the Fourth Dynasty instead of having been created, its memory and worship was already mostly forgotten.

One of the most convincing proofs for the Sphinx’s great age is the evidence of advanced erosion which the surface of the monument has undergone. There is practically no other monument of structure in Egypt—especially from the Fourth Dynasty—which exhibits such a degree of wear and tear.

The one exception is the Temple of the Sphinx, located directly in front of the figure, which, because of its advanced architecture and similarities to the Pyramid’s construction, also must be dated to a period far earlier than Dynastic Egypt.

John Anthony West, in his survey of the Sphinx and its Temple, demonstrated that the extensive erosion to which both monuments were subjected was not caused by blowing sand. The fact is, for most of their existence throughout recorded history, these two monuments have been buried in sand, which served to protect them from the wind. The Temple, lost at an early period, was only recently excavated and restored in part, while the Sphinx was totally uncovered for barely an estimated 1,400 years of the past 4,700 years.

What is more, the erosion is evenly distributed over the faces of the monuments. Since the desert wind, the khamsin, blows only from the south, if the Sphinx and Temple had been eroded by wind, then we would expect the southern exposures of the monuments to show the worst effects. They do not. Citing geologic research, West pointed out that the erosion on the Sphinx and Temple is that of water action and not wind. Erosion by air-borne particles tend to roughen surfaces, leaving them fractured and deeply pitted.

But flowing water attacks and wears down weaker rock strata quicker, in a layering effect. This is the characteristic seen in the cliff walls of Luxor, at Abydos and other locations along the Nile which geologists recognize were subjected to the massive floods of circa 10,000 B.C.E. And it also is the characteristic of the stone surfaces of the Sphinx and the Temple of the Sphinx.

As West concludes, if the Sphinx and Temple exhibit the weather erosion caused by the deluge of twelve millennia ago, then there is no possible way of dating them to the Fourth Dynasty, only 4,300 years ago. Instead, it means we must seek to place them in an era far more remote to the Dynastic Egyptians, than the Dynastic Egyptians were to us.

On October 23, 1991, Robert M. Scoch, a Boston University professor of geology, reported the results of his findings from Giza to the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. He had used sonic transducer equipment to probe the subsurface rock of the Sphinx, to identify the depth of weather patterns exhibited by the monument. Dr. Schoch’s work was supported by geophysicist Dr. Thomas Dobecki of Houston, who agreed that the sum of evidence supports their contention that certain aspects of the Sphinx were carved long before the reign of Khafre. In fact, they place its original sculpting long before the rise of historical Egyptian civilization, at sometime between 7000 and 5000 B.C.E., perhaps even earlier, stretching all the way back to 10,000 B.C.E.

In a report on his investigations, Schoch wrote: “Both the Great Sphinx and the fourth dynasty tombs are carved out of what seem to be similar or identical limestone rock, yet while the body of the Sphinx and on the Sphinx ditch (valley floor) there are eroded channels up to two feet deep, the tombs are unweathered to the point where one can still clearly read the inscriptions carved into their sides.”

Schoch also noted that, to have received such advanced erosion marks, the monument had to have been formed before the last period of heavy rainfall in this part of Egypt, called the Nabtian Pluvial, prior to 3000 B.C.E. at the minimum.

Low level seismic researcher carried out by Dobecki demonstrated that below the surface the limestone in front of the Sphinx was weathered to a depth nearly eight feet, while toward the rear it reaches a depth of only four feet. From this data, Schoch believes that the head, torso and paws of the Sphinx had been carved out first, and that in a later period, possibly the late Neolithic or Predynastic periods, the back portion was completed.

Interestingly, the figure of the Sphinx itself embodies a clue asto its great antiquity. In astrology, the lion is the Zodiacal sign of Leo, and the woman represents the sign Virgo. Many esotericisms believe the body of the lion fused with the face of the woman, as seen in the original Sphinx, symbolizes the last transition point or “cusp” in the celestial Precession of the Equinoxes between the Age of Virgo and the Age of Leo, which occurred circa 10,600 B.C.E. In Egyptian religion, the lion with a woman’s head often represents the goddess Tefnut, whose name means the “spitter,”because she was often pictured with an ever-flowing emission of water coming out of her mouth. This is directly associated with the sign of Aquarius, the figure who holds a vase that pours water in an unending stream.

Now today, we are in the transition period between the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius, which happens to be directly across the Zodiac from the transition between Virgo and Leo. We have come around to that point in time when we are looking directly into the face of the Sphinx, as if to say that now we will suddenly be made aware of its hidden secrets. Thus the Sphinx, which has always been taken as a symbol for timelessness antiquity, may yet become a symbol for the coming Golden Age.

Archaeologists Caviglia and Baraize found fragments of a poem near the Sphinx, written in Classical times, which identified the Sphinx as the transfiguration of peace and harmony, the goals of future Aquarian society. The poem describes the ancient festivities around the monument with thoughtful, tranquil words:

They perished also.
Those ancient walls of Thebes, which the Muses built,
But the walls that belong to me have no fear of war,
They know neither the ravages of the enemy, or sobbing.
They rejoice always in feats and banquets,
And the chorus of young people, form all parts of the world.
We hear the flutes, not the trumpets of war,
The blood that waters the earth is of the sacrificial bulls,
Not from the slashed throats of men.
Our ornaments are the festive clothes, not the arms of war,
And our hands hold not the sword,
But the fraternal cup of the banquet.
And all night long, while the sacrifices are burning,
And our heads are decorated with garlands,
We sing hymns to Sphinx Harmakhis.

According to other ancient traditions, such as those preserved by the Coptic Templar Order, the symbolism of the Sphinx goes much deeper, encompassing the story of Initiation of humankind through the Ages, past and future. In its final form, the Sphinx originally had the body of a Lion, the face of a Human, the hindquarters of a Bull, and the wings of an Eagle. We see this Lion-Human-Bull-Eagle combination echoed in the visions of the prophet Ezekiel and the apostle John, as the faces of the Four Beings before the throne of God, also portrayed prominently in the symbols of the Tarot.

Astrologically, they also form the four spokes of the Zodiacal Wheel, the Fixed Signs of Leo, Taurus, Aquarius and Scorpio (the Eagle being the high expression of this sign). In terms of Cosmic Ages, as we noted, the transition from Leo marked the time period twelve thousand years ago of the approximate date of the building of the Great Pyramid and Sphinx, which was a major step in the spiritual evolution of humanity. Next, in the Age of Taurus six thousand to four thousand years ago, saw the rise of the known ancient civilizations and an awakening to the spiritual teachings of the past, epitomized in the founding of the various global Mystery Schools. Now, the Age of Aquarius is beginning to dawn, prophesied to mark another step in our progress, a new level of truly planetary awareness, on to continue until the advent of the distant Age of Scorpio, when yet another plateau in our spiritual growth will then be gained.

At that time, about the year A.D. 9000, this material planet will no longer be needed to support the needs of the soul, and the Human Spirit shall Graduate to enter the high realms beyond time and space. This goal is what is symbolized in the fiery wings of the Sphinx, which in actuality are the flames of the Phoenix—the final form of Transcendence into the Beyond.

If, as several researchers now suspect, the Sphinx in its original form dates back several thousands of years earlier than the Dynastic period, when could there have been a prehistoric civilization along the Nile that was responsible for its origins?

Recent paleo-climatology and geologic research demonstrates that about 10,000 B.C.E. there was a very sudden warming event that ended the Ice Age and began the modern Holocene Age of generally warmer climate and glacial retreat.

In Africa, as the glaciers associated with the Mountains of the Moon melted, the waters filled the Nile river valley with lakes that reached their greatest capacity between 10,000 and 7000 B.C.E. From 7000 to 4000 B.C.E. the lakes remained full, creating a rainy climate and much precipitation throughout the valley. Afterwards, from 4000 to 2500 B.C.E., the lakes began drying out, and from circa 2500 B.C.E. down to the present the valley has been left with very few lakes, little rainfall, an oasis here and there as remnants of greater fertility, and a desert environment on either side of the thin Nile fertile strip.

Maps made by synthetic aperture radar taken on April 9, 1994 from the space shuttle Endeavor just north of the Safsaf Oasis located 200 miles west of the current bed of the Nile indicate that what is now the Sahara Desert was filled with runoff rivers now buried beneath the sands, that could have supported vegetation and wildlife—and possibly a civilization—during the earlier optimum climate period. In fact, there was a maximum of six thousand years during which a high civilization equal to if not greater in extent to that of Dynastic Egypt could have come into existence and flourished.

In fact, Dynastic Egypt may have developed in response to the collapse of an older civilization that succumbed to the encroaching desert sands as the climate changed, its survivors having to retreat to the narrow band of the Nile valley and re-establish themselves after having dominated the much wider fertile regions in wetter times.

In the north, Giza would have been a last remnant from a more distant culture, while in the south the Abyssinian Highlands of the Blue Nile may have once served as a focal center. The ancient Egyptians once called this latter region the “Land of the Gods,” pointing to a possible location where their chief deities were once human and ruled the earth in a far earlier time, symbolizing a far older civilization. Much more research and exploration in this area, as well as in the Sahara-Libyan desert to the west of the Nile, will be a major undertaking for the future. And once such explorations are completed, we may yet be able to identify the true carvers of the original Sphinx.

Conservative Egyptologists still remain steadfast in their opinion that the face of the Sphinx is that of Pharaoh Khafre of the Fourth Dynasty, notwithstanding that several forensic artists, using detailed biometric analysis, have determined that, structurally, the two countenances are unrelated. In fact, there is good evidence to suggest that the Sphinx’s face is not even Egyptian, but has more affinity to Saharan features such as Berber or Tuareg. What is more, there is a growing belief the Sphinx has a definite feminine aura about it, and some have speculated it was carved to commemorate an unknown Predynastic or Early Dynastic Queen.

Through twenty-seven years of research, Stephen S. Mehler has found proof to support what the Ancients recognizes all along, that the face is that of a woman, not a man. While it is true that in the early part of the last century the remains of a stone beard was found at the unburied base of the Sphinx, most archaeologists recognize that this was a later addition to the monument, that the original face was in fact beardless.

At the very dawn of Dynastic Egypt, in about 3200 B.C.E., the first Pharaoh is recorded to have been Menes or Narmer. From a detailed study of the symbols and hieroglyphs on the slate palettes which have come down to us from this early period, Mehler believes that Menes-Narmer united Southern and Northern Egypt not by military means alone, but through a royal marriage between the Two Lands.

As ruler of Southern Egypt, he married the heir to the throne of Northern Egypt, whose name has come down to us as Neith-hotep, having the connotations, “At Peace With Anat,” or “A Table of Offerings to Anat.”

On one side the famed Narmer Palette, Menes-Narmer, wearing the Red Crown of Northern Egypt, is show as being led by a priestess and her retinue holding the nome-standards for the Nile Delta. This priestess may have been Nieth-hotep portrayed in her religious office, accepting the rulership of Menes-Narmer of her kingdom. Together they later produced a son, Hor-aha. Upon Menes-Narmer’s death, Hor-aha ceremonially married his mother to legitimize his rulership—and thus the Dynastic royal matrilineal descent began.

Mehler believes that Neith-hotep was more than merely Queen, but like Hatshepsut and Nefertiti a millennium later, also held the title Pharaoh, as a co-regent with both husband and later son. She was identified not only with the goddess Neith or Anat, a prominent early Northern Egyptian deity, but also with Hathor and Isis of Southern Egypt. An ivory plaque found in Hor-aha’s cenotaph at Abydos bears in addition to his royal cartouche a dedication to a newly built temple of Neith, most likely to honor his mother. Neith-hotep’s influence was so great that, as Mehler suggests, Hor-aha had her image recarved onto the Sphinx monument in her memory. Two plaques—one found in Hor-aha’s tomb and the other in Neith-hotep’s mortuary temple—clearly show a half-buried image of the Sphinx before it was re-fashioned. The modern forensic as well as orthodontic analysis of today’s Sphinx face also suggests that Neith-hotep had a Black African or Libyan ancestry.

Yet if it was only recarved in an early Dynastic period, when could it have been first carved? Careful measurements demonstrate that the face of the Sphinx does not look precisely due east, but gazes 4.25 degrees south of east, at an azimuth of 94.25 degrees. If the Sphinx’s countenance had originally been fashioned to point due east, the discrepancy could have been caused by the gradual shift in the Earth’s axis tilt over a very long period of time.

Attempting to compensate for both the short-term and long-term planetary wobbles, as well as a minor axis shift which accompanied the Gothenberg Event twelve millennia ago—the best estimates put the Sphinx looking precisely east between 25,000 and 100,000 years ago.

The ancient festivals which took place in front of the Sphinx were undoubtedly part of a much larger ritual that had to do with the secret purpose of the Sphinx itself. In Egyptian mythology, the lion was the guardian of secret places. This stemmed from the ancient belief that the lion sleeps with its eyes open, and was thus an appropriate symbol for vigilance. In Egyptian religious architecture, sphinxes always stood on either side of doors or gateways, as keepers of treasure, or temples and repositories were often made in the shape of sphinxes. Dr. Paul Brunton observed in the wall engravings of the Temple of Edfu, the image of the god Horus transforming himself into a sphinx, to do battle with Set, the Chaotic One, in order to protect the sacred precincts. The god Anubis, the protector of the Underworld and guardian of the god Ra during the hours of the night, was sometimes shown as a sphinx when depicted as going forth to destroy the enemies of the Sun god. On the wooden panel form the arm of the royal chair of Thutmosis IV, and on the side of his chariot, the Pharaoh is clearly represented as a sphinx, trampling on the heads of his foes.

One ancient inscription, translated from Bergmann, is of a sphinx addressing the soul it protects: “I watch over your chapel, I guard your chamber, I ward off the intruding stranger, I cast down your foes to the ground with their weapons, I drive the wicked from your chapel, I destroy them in the lurking places, I block the way so they cannot go further.”

Yet, for all its ferocity, the Sphinx also symbolized the greatest of mysteries. Clement of Alexandria noted that the image of the Sphinx was designed to, “declare that the doctrine concerning God is enigmatical.” In this sense, the Sphinx image, too, stood for wisdom and knowledge of a very high order. In fact, in more than one instance in the ancient records we find the Sphinx associated with hidden scrolls of knowledge.

In the Inventory Stele, Pharaoh Khufu, speaking in the first person, described how, “the writings of Harmakhis” (the Sphinx) were “brought before me for investigation.” The Papyrus of Henefer likewise tells of, “the decrees of the Chamber of Archives,” an underground storehouse of knowledge which established the dominion of the god Horus after his victory over Set.

Other inscriptions call the Sphinx setepet, the “Select Place,” the repository for the records of the land. On one stele found near the Sphinx, designated by Hassan as No. 84, is a picture of Thutmosis IV making an offering before the monument. In his left hand, the hand of receiving, he holds a scroll of papyrus. Far earlier, in the wall inscriptions found in the Pyramid of Unas from the Fifth Dynasty, the Sphinx is referred to by the ancient name Rwty, and the text reads: “O Atum, who shines as Rwty, who makes your orders to be heard as you have written them in the documents, to those who are before you.”

In every case, the allusion is made to the fact that, during the reign of certain monarchs, the records of the history and deeds performed in the land were gathered, read to the people, and the deposited in secret vaults somewhere near the Sphinx. But nothing was ever permanently removed, only added to. The records, the legends indicate, were but a portion of a much larger collection of writings and artifacts, going back to the Time of the Rulership of the Gods. And the severe warning was given that whoever attempted to break in or rob the secret chambers met certain death. For this reason the Sphinx was called seshep-ankh, the “strangler of life,” and from this tradition of the malevolent side of the monument, the Greeks derived their story in Oedipus Rex of the savage creature, the female sphinx, who devoured all those who attempted to solve her riddle but failed. In later centuries the Arabs carried on this ancient tradition, and even today still called the monument Abou El Hol—the “Father of Terror.”

One of the earliest known names for the Sphinx, as found in the Pyramid Texts and other early Dynastic literary sources was Rwty. Author and archaeologist Mark Lehner observed that Rwty as a proper name is related to Re-stew, Ra-sheta, Re-tau and Rosta, all variations on the name of the secret sanctuary located in Am Duat, the Underworld, described in the “Book of Coming Forth into Light.”

Significantly, this sanctuary is related to “the deepest mysteries,” the passage of the soul into realms of immortality. This was directly associated with the rites of Initiation or “rebirth,” over which the Sphinx was guardian.

Rwty also has the connotation of “protector,” and the Sphinx’s capacity in this regard, with its elaborate internal defense mechanisms against intruders, was well attested to throughout its long history.

In yet another association, archaeologist Gaston Maspero noted further that: “Rwty was a god in the form of a lion. Sometimes his name was written with two lion signs, and he is called the Double Lion God.” The symbolism here was probably the same as that for Janus, the Roman god with two faces. He has the ability to look everywhere at once, the ultimate watchman. He too, like the Sphinx, was guardian over the entrance into the Underworld, and the secrets of overcoming death. More than this, the god could also see both into the past and forward into the future. In the same way, the double line figure for the Sphinx had the same meaning, with one feline named Yesterday and the other feline called Tomorrow. This was particularly meaningful to the history of humankind, as both Chronicler and Oracle. Rwty the Sphinx, with its enigmatic stare, is keeper of wisdom from the distant past which, in a New Era soon to come, will be fully revealed once more for the continuing spiritually evolving human race.

The Sphinx was not only the guardian of its own treasures, but also of other secret chambers associated with it that were located in its immediate vicinity. Ibn al Nadim, writing in his book The Index, described how:

“In the middle of the (Giza) plateau, a beautiful chamber was built. At its top are two large, superbly dressed blocks, surmounted by two stone statues representing a man and a woman facing each other. The man holds in his hand a stone tablet covered with writing, and the woman a mirror and a gold tablet decorated with beautiful engravings. Between the two pedestals is a stone vessel sealed with a gold lid, enclosing sacred, odorless healing resin. The pavement of the chamber is hollowed with a man-sized tunnel that plunged downward; its ceiling is made of stone, and one finds there statues seated and standing, as well as artifacts the meaning and purpose of which is beyond our understanding.”

El Qodai likewise recounted the existence of mysterious and unknown chambers in this exact same area. He told of three doors, each made of marble and measuring ten cubits high and five wide, having a lintel with an indecipherable inscription traced in blue, opening up into three chambers. Each door could not be lifted by one hundred men, yet they slid open easily when statues in the niche of three columns three “beds” made of “luminous stone,” within which are preserved three men dressed in robes, each holding a book of unknown hieroglyphs. The second chamber possesses many stone shelves with baskets containing gold boxes and “jewels that speak.” And the third chamber is filled with strange tools and instruments made of unrecognizable metal and glass, some of war, others for peace.

Andre Pochan, commenting on these and other picturesque records, stated: “The preceding descriptions do not correspond to what we know about the area of the three pyramids; but that does not prove their infeasibility. We could attribute these to the Arabic imagination and view these accounts as nonsense; however, the discoveries of past centuries, especially that of the tomb of Tutankhamen, should arouse in us certain caution.” Nineteenth century Egyptologist Auguste Mariette likewise took such stories seriously, and spoke these words before the Academie Francais: “It is not impossible that below some part of the monster’s body (the Sphinx) there exists a crypt, a cave or subterranean chapel.”

The great Wisdom enclosed beneath the Sphinx not only took the form of written records, but also spoken words in symbolism. It is said that at one time in the dim past a Seeker could stand at a specific spot before the Sphinx, and at sunrise, as the rays lit up the stony gaze, they could ask a question aloud, and in oracular fashion an energy from deep within the monument focused upon the mind of the Seeker, and thereby they received their answer in mental pictures. Around the Sphinx, in fact, many votive tablets depicting a single ear have been unearthed, indicating that the Sphinx’s “voice” was indeed heard and recognized.

Hilton Hotema, who spent a lifetime penetrating the secret mysteries of the past, observed about the Sphinx:

“There is a tradition that it is a great complex hieroglyph, or book in stone, containing the whole totality of Ancient Wisdom, and reveals its message to him 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 form the most ancient of times many wise men have attempted to solve. Legend said that it devoured those who approached it and could not solve the riddle. The symbology of the Sphinx means that there are deep questions of the mysteries of life which man should not approach unless he knows how to answer them, or is prepared to accept the answer when given to him. Having once come in contact with certain ideas, man is unable to live as he lived before. He must either go further, or perish under the burden which is too heavy for him to carry.”

The legends and evidence for lost chambers beneath the Sphinx are actually only part of the total story concerning the secrets hidden deep in the earth throughout the Giza area. There are many indications that the unfound chambers in the Great Pyramid, and in the other neighboring Pyramids, are all linked together with the Sphinx, in a large system of vaults and passageways which the legends call the “Hall of Records.” This underground complex is the heart, the focal point of preserved knowledge from a forgotten civilization. More than a hall filled with books and writings, it is a virtual museum, housing actual working models and machinery of a once highly sophisticated science and technology. Of course, as with the secrets of the Great Pyramid, there are many clues and much speculation as to where the entrance to this fabulous Hall is located.

Tom Valentine, who has done extensive investigation of the Great Pyramid and other mysteries at Giza, recorded the story of an American Army colonel who was a member of the U. S. Attaché Office in Cairo in 1945. One night, in a discussion with King Farouk on the ancient mysticism of the Egyptians, the King offered to take the officer out to the Sphinx to show him a secret.

Upon arrival below the gazing figure, the American watched in amazement as Farouk touched a certain spot, and a slab opened before them. The King entered, and the American fearfully followed him down a narrow passage.

In the dim light, the officer saw a “large chamber,” and standing in front was a statue of a “guard with a sword.” They did not dare approach further, but returned to the surface. Farouk died many years ago, and no one else has been able to located the secret entrance again.

What gives the story a note of truthfulness is a Coptic tradition recorded by El Qodai, Al Masudi and Al Maqrizi that there exists a single subterranean chamber under the Sphinx with entrances to all three Pyramids. And each entrance is guarded by mechanical statues of amazing abilities. The first is an idol of black and white speckled agate, with eyes open and shining, sitting on a throne with a lance in his hand, and the image has the power to produce a terrifying “whispering sound” from its side, which takes away a man’s senses, so that he loses consciousness and dies. The second statue, made of marble, standing with a sword in his hand (just as the American colonel reported) has the headdress of a coiled serpent which can “bite and choke” and intruder until he dies from lack of breath. The third statue is an alabaster eagle that draws a person to it until he is “stuck fast” and cannot move.

Looking behind the mythic elements and defining the guards’ defense mechanisms in modern terms, we find the use of 1) a vibration which disorientates the motor center of the brain, 2) an injection of poison that disrupts either the respiratory of cardiovascular system causing breath loss, and 3) an air-borne gas or toxin which attacks the nervous system bringing about total paralysis. The use of such sophisticated defenses were well known to the ancient Egyptians, who used them to discourage robbers from breaking into the tombs of their royalty. If the Egyptians utilized such elements in their tombs, we would expect equivalent defense mechanisms would have been employed in something as important as the Hall of Records, to guard against accidental or intentional entrance by individuals who would not understand or might misuse the Wisdom contained therein.

In some cases, the defense mechanisms are not physical, but are spiritual in nature, infused consciousness or guardian discarnate intelligences, which have their own range of powers of delusion and death. Dr. Paul Brunton, in 1935, interviewed a modern Egyptian mystic-magician of Cairo, who possessed knowledge of the occult passed down to him, father to son, over untold generations. He told Brunton:

“Knowledge of controlling genii (spirit entities) was the chief part of the power of the ancient priests. Genii were used to act as guards over the most important tombs and treasures; they were invoked in temple ceremonies; and they were also used for the most evil purposes. Inside the Pyramid and connected with the Sphinx are secret passages and chambers and hidden records, and there too is a peculiar order of genii. They were captured by ancient Egyptian High Priests and imprisoned in those places to guard against certain secrets. They threw of glamour over the mind of anyone likely to penetrate the secret places, and thus defend them from intrusion. Still, the genii who guard the Pyramid and Sphinx secrets can be won over--only to do this it is essential to know their particular form, invocation, name and written sign. This knowledge, unfortunately, has been lost with the ancient Egyptians.”

In similar terms, the medieval Arab chronicler Al Maqrizi wrote that:

“The Copts relate that the spirit attached to the First Pyramid is a naked yellow devil equipped with a mouthful of long teeth. The spirit of the Second Pyramid is a beautiful woman who charms men who look upon her, smiles at them, attracts them, and makes them lose their minds; her mouth is also equipped with long teeth. The spirit of the Third Pyramid is an old man who carried a censor in which perfumes are burned.”

He noted further that the Pyramids are “surrounded by immaterial spirits,” which protect the monuments from all intruders,” except for initiates, who had performed the necessary rites.” Al Maqrizi, too, stated: “Numerous people have repeatedly seen these spirits circling the Pyramid around midday and at sunset.”

On January 8, 1897, researcher William Groff read a paper before the Institut d’Egypte, in which he reported strange phenomena around the Giza area:

“About two weeks ago, I happened to spend the night in the desert in the company of our vice-president, Dr. Abbas Pasha; we were near the pyramids of Giza. At around 8 P.M. I noticed a light which seemed to be slowly circling the third pyramid at about half its height on the north and then the east; it was like a small flame or falling star. It seemed to me that the light circled the pyramid three times, then disappeared.

“At around 11 P.M. I again saw a light. This time, it was a pale bluish color; it rose slowly, on the north side almost in a straight line, and once it had reached a certain height above the pyramid’s summit, it disappeared. Having spent the night in the desert, near the pyramids, numerous times, I have often noticed lights around these pyramids. These lights, though rarely seen, occasionally appear about five hours after sunset. I suspect these lights derive from emanations leaving the pyramids’ interiors. These lights have been seen in the past, with varying frequency, and have given rise to many legends and traditions.”

This type of unexplained phenomena is still going on in the present day. Recently, Jim Sorenson, an American businessman who has lived in Egypt for the past thirty years, has set up a camera that overlooks the Giza plateau from the east, and it gives a live 24-hour view of the Pyramids posted on the Internet. Besides views of beautiful sunsets, full moons and light-and-shadow plays on the monuments’ surfaces, other “objects” have also been recorded. On March 23, 2006, at 2:30 P.M. local time, an odd silvery object suddenly appeared emerging from behind the Second Pyramid’s capstone, moved behind the Great Pyramid, then flew off-screen. A preliminary analysis indicated that this was not a plane, helicopter, or an indigenous bird or insect flying in front of the lens.

On April 3, between 3 and 4 P.M., a large white blob bounced around the two large Pyramids, then vanished. On April 6, at nearly 8 A.M., two points of light hovered high over the two Pyramids, then rapidly sped off after a full minute.

Sorenson also notes that other strange phenomena has been captured by his camera, including unexplained shadows suddenly moving across the lighted surfaces of the Pyramids in a matter of seconds during daylight, as well as other dark forms that have briefly interrupted the view of the Sound and Light program in the early evening hours.

Despite the various mechanical and spiritual defense precautions, it appears that a few people have been allowed to enter some of the hidden chambers and return, perhaps to keep alive the fact of the Hall of Records’ existence to the outside world. The Arab author, Altelemsani, in a manuscript preserved in the British Museum, recounted the mysterious happening at Giza in his lifetime. Not long after the opening of the Pyramid by Caliph Al Mamoun’s men, a party of Arab workmen entered the monument to see the empty King’s Chamber. During their visit, however, the workmen became lost, and in their wanderings entered chambers and long tunnels not known to anyone else, and which, as they later calculated, must have honeycombed the earth between the Pyramid and the Nile river, in the direction of the Sphinx.

They reported that in one place they saw, high on a pedestal, a statue of black stone of a man holding a lance, and another statue, in white stone, of a woman armed with a bow. The descriptions are remarkably similar to the older Coptic traditions.

The bewildered explorers also saw a great mechanical reddish-gold cockerel which, as soon as they approached, beat its wings and emitted a terrible shriek, scaring the workmen away. It is interesting to note that El Qodai and Al Masudi also preserved records that some of the hidden passageways below the Pyramid and Sphinx had marble doors which could be opened by moving images of birds made of precious stones. Thee are three of these in number: a dove in green, a vulture or hawk in yellow, and a cockerel in red.

Finally, the Arab workmen, exhausted by their ordeal, were able to retrace their steps through the tunnel system, and came out again inside the Great Pyramid. Their adventures, however, did not end without tragedy.

One of their party became separated from the rest, and only after the workmen had emerged did they miss him, and began looking for him. He suddenly appeared, stripped naked, screaming hysterically not to follow him as he was possessed by a genii. He ran back into the Pyramid, and was never seen again.

His friends only then recalled, all too well, the warning given by Scheherazade in “A Thousand and One Nights” that many of those who dared penetrate the Secrets of the Ancients were either entombed alive or driven mad.

The workmen who escaped from the Hall of Records would have had nothing more than a tall tale to their credit, if not for the fact that they brought back with them tangible proof of their experience. One of the Arabs presented to his master, Ahmed ben Toulum, a goblet of strange red crystal, “of rare color and texture.” When examined in the presence of the ruler and Altelemsani himself, the historian recorded the remarkable observation that the goblet, “was the same weight when empty as when full of water.”

Andrew Tomas, a modern researcher of the unexplained, commented: “If the chronicle is accurate, this lack of additional weight brings us to indirect evidence of the existence of an extraordinary science.” Author Italo Sordi suggested that the mysterious goblet might have been made of a substance which acted as an anti-gravitational screen, nullifying the weight of whatever it contained.

Unfortunately, the goblet was transported to Baghdad to become part of the treasures of the Caliph, and was later lost when the city was sacked and looted.

Curiously, the Arabs have a story of a second enigmatic goblet or cup, this one discovered in a mound to the east of the Sphinx. The finders believed it to be the cup of King Solomon, but only because, for them, King Solomon represented an ancient ruler of tremendous wisdom.

The cup had been carved out of a single piece of white onyx, and had strange powers of its own. When water was poured into it, the cup somehow transformed the energy of the incoming water, imparting it to the cup itself, causing it turn either to the left of to the right. Here again is another example of the use of forces unknown and incomprehensible to our science today.

Believing the cup to have supernatural powers not meant to be manipulated by devout Moslems, the Arabs reportedly reburied the cup where they had unearthed it, near the Sphinx, and its location has remained secret even to the present time.

While some researchers are looking for clues around the Sphinx, there are not a few others who believe the center of the Hall of Records underground complex is located more toward the south of the Pyramids and Sphinx, and they see these monuments as having been constructed as “pointers,” in some way directing the eyes of the observer to hidden doorways in the sand, in this area.

Thomas Dimanne, a student of Egyptian symbolism and history from northern California, made several observations which could have important implications. First, Dimanne discovered that the Giza monuments form a rectangle, with 1) the apex of the Great Pyramid as the north corner; 2) the Sphinx’s head is the east corner; 3) the Second Pyramid’s northwest-apex-southeast edges the rectangle’s bisection line; and 4) the northwest corner of the Third Pyramid the west corner. The missing element completing the rectangle are something marking the south corner and/ or the bisection line on the rectangle’s south side. Are there hidden chambers of the Hall of Records at these points? Dimanne believes it is a possibility.

Another pattern delineated by the monuments focuses on a different spot. A longitudinal line drawn through the head of the Sphinx, a latitudinal line paralleling the northern edge of the Third Pyramid, and a bisection line between the Great and Second Pyramids, all intersect at a point just to the south of the Sphinx.

Interestingly, no major excavation work has been done at any of these spots Dimanne pinpointed. It would be most curious to see what the results would be.

John Michell, author-researcher on ancient mysteries, once wrote: “In the subtle ratio of the Pyramids is concealed a coded message from a doomed civilization.” One detailed attempt to “decoding” the patterns in the Pyramids and Sphinx was undertaken by Rocky McCollum, Elmer D. Robinson and Gerald J. Fraccaro, begun in 1978.

The engineer, mathematician and airline pilot did a number of measurements using Univac and Datacom computers, and performed several onsite inspections of the Giza area as confirmation work. The result of the trio’s research revealed a number of possible sites where entrances or secret chambers may be located. All the sites are related to a “Golden Spiral”—a geometric figure created by continually dividing rectangular areas by the golden section ratio number of Fibonacci—1:1.618. McCollum found that the apexes of the three Giza Pyramids fall precisely on the upper circumference of the spiral, while a longitudinal line drawn through the middle or “heart” of the Sphinx forms the bisection line for the total area circumscribed by the Golden Spiral.

One site is located where the Spiral ends, about one mile south-southeast of the Sphinx. Here, Fraccaro, in his on-the-spot observations, discovered a strange mastaba-like structure and accompanying courtyard, which together form a cross. It appears to have been used in later periods as a tomb, though the inscriptions on the outer walls date from the Third and Fourth Dynasties, as does a number of burial sites nearby, to the west. Archaeological excavations sponsored by Farouk near the turn of the last century identified the mastaba-temple as the Tomb of Tary. Yet at the center of the courtyard is a walled shaft descending down for 80 feet.

Nearby are two more shafts, at least 100 feet in depth. The strange fact is that, even though these shafts have been exposed to blowing sands of the surrounding desert for untold millennia, they have not filled up with sand. The reason seems to be that all these shafts appear to be inter-connected underground, and that there is a detectable air current passing through and up the shafts, that constantly filters out any sand from falling in.

One observer, who climbed down to the bottom of one of the shafts in the early part of the twentieth century, described the passages leading off in several directions, which he could not even begin to trace. Could these tunnels be linked with others further north, beneath the Giza monuments?

Not far from here, angling off the rocky butte to the south of the Sphinx, are the remains of an ancient causeway. Excavations begun in 1991 revealed this causeway has an impressive height of 30 feet or more, with its own gateway through it. Local inhabitants call the strange edifice the Wall of Crows. Significantly, such causeways in Egypt usually led up to a pyramid or other major structure. Each of the three Giza Pyramids have one. What did this fourth causeway lead up to? Unfortunately, it ends where today is located a Moslem graveyard, and no excavations in this area have been allowed.

McCollum believed something very important is also located where the Golden Spiral intersects the latitudinal bisection line for the Giza iconography, in a place roughly 1,300 feet south-southwest of the Third Pyramid. One finds there a rocky knoll about 820 feet in diameter and 245 feet high. In October, 1975, a dowser named Lewitt C. Hart, from Oregon, visited Giza and performed several experiments using divining rods of various types. On previous occasions, in the United States, Hart successfully located buried metal objects with his rods, even out-performing sophisticated metal detectors.

In the fourth day of his Giza tour, Hart was walking across the center of McCollum’s knoll, and suddenly got a very strong reaction from his rods. The Oregon dowser was convinced that, deep below the rock outcrop, is a large mass of metal, which he believes is inside a tomb or chamber.

Four years later, in the spring of 1979, a second dowser—Bill Cox of California—accompanied McCollum on a survey expedition to Egypt, and he too pinpointed strange underground patterns at the knoll site. Cox was able to locate a deeply buried chamber measuring 44 by 77 feet, plus the foundation of an ancient temple 32 feet by 56 feet, located 65 feet to the east. Both rectangular areas point due north and south.

McCollum also believed that in this same area is where he called the Fourth Pyramid—another Pyramid that is aligned on the same spiral apexes of the Three known Pyramids, only this one is lost beneath the sands.

Whatever the structure or structures actually are buried at the knoll, there is a certainty that something was indeed once built here, for fragments of Aswan granite, stonework not native to the Giza area, is found strewn about the site. Based on the number of fragments, the only conclusion is that a considerable about of the granite material had been transported to the site from afar. And the only time in the ancient past such enormous energies were expended for moving stone, was in order to build a monument of major proportions.

Another area where investigators believe there may be a center to the secret underground maze of the Hall of Records lies east of the Sphinx, between the edge of the Giza plateau and the Nile river. This region, too, has hardly been touched by the spade of archaeology, so that a number of definite possibilities exist. Directly in front of the Sphinx by about 200 yards, for example, is a large mound still waiting to be fully excavated. In 1935, Hassan uncovered the roof of a small temple here, but did not live to finish the project.

English researcher Collin Amery reported there is another prominent mound untouched just to the south of this. On a visit to Egypt, Amery climbed to the top of the Third Pyramid, and from this perspective, he observed, “I was able to draw an imaginary line through the paws of the Sphinx, using the apex of the Great Pyramid as the starting point. From here, if you continue the line in a southeasterly direction, a point is seen beyond that statue where a small cliff or sand hill is clearly visible. This could well be the site of the Hall of Records.”

[Copyright 2009. Joseph Robert Jochmans. All Rights Reserved.]