The Real age of the Sphinx

 

The Claim

The Sphinx was built 1000’s of years before the pyramids

 

This is one of the those claims that people have been arguing about ever since it was first suggested, and as of now there isn’t an answer convincing enough to make either side change its mind.

 

The Sphinx of Egypt is one of the most iconic ancient monuments on earth, with its face being recognised by people from every country and is one of the most sought after pieces to study for archaeologists.

 

The ancient empire of the Egyptians was by far the most advanced for its time, building huge pyramids before the Roman empire even existed. The Sphinx is thought to have been just another incredible piece of work the Egyptians built during their reign, but now there’s another theory that the Sphinx is older than the pyramids, much older.

 

The general age of the Sphinx is agreed on by most to be around 4500 years old, making it from about 2500BC, which would make sense as many of the other monuments in the country were built around that time.

 

However, the Sphinx has a pattern of erosion on it that seems to have been caused by water, and because it doesn’t really rain in the desert this would mean the Sphinx would have to have been built around 9000 years ago when the region was much wetter.

 

This would be around the end of the last ice age when people were still very basic, to the point that they didn’t even have pottery. The work it would take for some one who doesn’t even know what a mug is to build a perfectly crafted giant sculpture out of pure rock would be impossible, which makes the water erosion the more intriguing.

 

This theory is rejected by most Egyptologists as there isn’t any evidence of a civilisation capable of building such a thing, but non have come up with solid explanations as to how the water damage came to be.

 

One theory suggests that the Nile flooded at times or was diverted for some reason, but the problem with this is that the structure seems to have been rained on many times, an effect that flooding wouldn’t produce.

 

The water damage side doesn’t have a much better story though, as no one alive could have built such as thing, and even if there was a civilisation somewhere in history capable of building it around 7500BC, its very strange that there isn’t a single other sign of them.