Monday, January 11, 2010

Sphinx

Features
For more than four millennia, the Sphinx rises from the sands of the Egyptian desert. The figure is about 73.5 m long, 6 m wide and 20 meters high. Only the front feet have a length of about 15 m. Paint on the ear suggests that the figure was originally painted in bright colors. It was carved from the remains of a limestone hill, which served as a quarry for the Cheops pyramid. In addition to the Sphinx, a temple was built, which is the Valley Temple of Khafre's pyramid, almost exactly in line. Thutmose IV erected between the paws of the Sphinx a dream board, whose inscriptions tell of his life.

Function
Why was the Sphinx, is still unknown. Maybe they should guard the plateau of Giza. The German Egyptologist Herbert Ricke said that the statue belonged to the sun cult and Harmachis represents a local form of the sun god Horus. Perhaps the statue is also a picture of Horus depicted as Pharaoh Chephren, or even a replica of Cheops. Mark Lehner, who has researched from 1979 to 1983 at the Sphinx, Chephren than expected, like other builders. The German Egyptologist Professor Rainer Stadelmann preferred against the king Cheops. Using modern methods have been in recent years, other pictures and statues of these two pharaohs compared with the head of the Sphinx. A clear and unambiguous assignment was not possible so far.

Structure
That the head of the Sphinx was set later in the lion's body, it has been scientifically disproved. The significant color differences are due to the different rock layers. The geologist Thomas Aigner identified the stones that were used in the Sphinx Temple, with a layer that is located at chest height of the Colossus. In the Valley Temple of Khafre were used blocks, which come from the upper part of the Sphinx. Thus, dates are like "look older than 8000 years" as unscientific speculation. According to the researchers of the head has been revised several times over the years.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia