Sphinx Research: A blog about a recent discovery of ancient Egyptian Art. A team of researchers from the University of Cairo are currently studying a vast cemetery, known as the Necropolis, which contains many statues and tombs.
This project is being led by Dr. Zahi Hawass and is expected to take fifteen years to complete, due to the sheer size of the Necropolis grounds. The images retrieved so far show numerous statues of sphinxes, in fact, far more than were previously thought to exist.
The sphinxes date back to different dynasties and have been found in the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom. Despite this, it appears that the majority of these sphinxes have been undiscovered until recently. This may be due to them being buried in sand or mud for centuries before they were found.
Some of the sphinxes are painted while others are not, with most having faces that are badly damaged as a result of erosion or vandalism over time. However, it has been found that they all have unique features which differ from one another, adding another layer to their history.*
The Sphinx on the Giza plateau is one of the most iconic monuments in the world. It depicts a human head with the body of a lion and has faced the setting sun for 4,500 years. Over time, sand buried its front half and left it largely hidden from view.
Tomb robbers dug tunnels into its back about 2,000 years ago and people have been climbing on top of it for centuries.
The Sphinx’s identity has been debated over the centuries, but now a new theory indicates that it may be a likeness of Pharaoh Khafre, who reigned from 2558 to 2532 BC. If this is true then this would make the Sphinx approximately 2,500 years older than previously believed.*
Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), initiated a research programme to discover if the Sphinx was originally painted in different colours which could indicate its original identity.*
In August 2008 an Egyptian-American team led by Dr Mark Lehner conducted non-invasive scanning tests to determine what lay beneath the surface of these structures.* The team used state-of-the-art equipment including ground penetrating radar (GPR) scanners that look like large satellite dishes mounted on trucks with computers
“This discovery represents a significant contribution to the current knowledge of the Sphinx,” Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a statement. “We will now study the area surrounding the Sphinx to determine if there are other new discoveries that can contribute to developing our knowledge about this archaeological site and its surroundings.”
A recent discovery in Egypt has archaeologists around the world in an uproar. The Sphinx is one of the most iconic and mysterious ancient Egyptian monuments on Earth. It is a statue that was carved out of the rocks of a plateau overlooking the great Egyptian city of Giza.
Tomb robbers made several attempts to raid tombs and pyramids built in honour of pharaohs. Over thousands of years, Egyptians had built several tombs including the Great Pyramid, which was built for King Khufu. This pyramid was built with smooth stones that weighed millions of pounds each, so it would be impossible to bring these huge blocks into position without some kind of machinery.
It is well known that these structures were planned and built by Egyptians, but they are also filled with ancient hieroglyphs that tell the story of their history. Some suggest that these hieroglyphs were not written by Egyptians, but they were rather encoded messages left behind by aliens who visited Earth thousands of years ago.
A new discovery at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has led many people to believe that secret messages have been left behind by aliens who visited Earth thousands of years ago. Archaeologists have discovered a mysterious stone disk on top of a pillar at this site. The size and shape of this disk
The Sphinx is a popular tourist attraction in Egypt, dating back to around 2500 B.C. It is located on the Giza plateau of the west bank of the Nile River. The Great Sphinx of Giza is generally considered one of the world’s largest and oldest statues, as well as one of the most enigmatic.
The Great Sphinx has had a number of different names in its long history, including “Abu el-Hol”, “Khafre’s Father” and “The Great Dreamer.” The original name was “The Stretching Sphinx,” which describes its form. The English name comes from an inscription on a stele that commemorated repairs by Khafre (the builder of the second pyramid at Giza) to the nose of the sphinx and was written by the royal scribe Amenhotep.
The sphinx is made from blocks of limestone covered with a thick layer of stucco painted to resemble granite, but originally it was probably colored red. The layers have been stripped off over time, but they were clearly visible in 1818 when an earthquake hit Egypt and exposed part of the core structure. There are also holes at certain points that indicate that there were once metal fixtures (such as nipples) installed
For a long time, ancient Egypt was a land of mystery. We knew about their hieroglyphics and pyramids, but the ancient Egyptians were a bit distant. They were ancient, after all. The Sphinx seemed to be a big part of that puzzle as well. Many people believed it was built by the Ancient Egyptians, but there were some who believed it might have been built in more recent centuries by someone else.
When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, he brought with him 167 scholars and artists. They set up the Institut d’Égypte in Cairo, one of their main goals being to discover as much about the civilization that had created all these monuments as possible. One of these scholars was Jean-Francois Champollion, who would be the first person to successfully decode the Rosetta Stone
This is why he is considered to be the “father” of Egyptology. It was because of him that we started to understand what the Ancient Egyptians were really like.
The Rosetta Stone is an important part of this story because it contains both hieroglyphics and demotic (a simpler kind of writing). Champollion used his knowledge of Greek and Latin to translate hieroglyphics into English for the first time!
The internet is a wonderful thing. It has changed the world in many ways and has made communication almost effortless. But are we becoming so reliant on being connected to the internet that we have forgotten how to communicate with each other?
We can now shop online, bank online and use online services for pretty much everything else in our lives. We can even communicate with others via social media without everyone having to be in the same place. It is no surprise therefore that when we do actually get together face-to-face some people find it challenging to hold a conversation.
The fact is that technology has become so advanced that we don’t have to engage with each other as much as we once did. The majority of us can now do everything from the comfort of our own homes which means that we don’t need to use our bodies and facial expressions as much as we once did. As a result, we are depriving our brains of experiencing real emotion and learning how to read others’ emotions for ourselves.
Research shows that people who are good at reading others’ emotions are more confident and happier than those who are not. So if you want to be a happy, confident person then you need to learn how to read others’ emotions – something only achieved by engaging in conversation