The Sphinx - its history in light of recent excavations [1/1, 1 ed.]

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Toe lis

History Recent

S o t mx in i k e

Liokt

Excavations

of

B y the Same Author In English : 1. EXCAVATIONS

AT GIZA, VOL.

I (1929-1930).

2 . EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, VOL. II ( 1 9 3 0 - 1 9 3 1 ) . 3 . EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, VOL. I l l ( 1 9 3 1 - 1 9 3 2 ) . 4. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, VOL. I V ( 1 9 3 2 - 1 9 3 3 ) . 6. EXCAVATIONS

AT GIZA, VOL. V ( 1 9 3 3 - 1 9 3 4 ) .

6. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, TUB SOLAR VOL. VI, PART I (1934-1935).

BOATS,

7. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, THE OFFERING LIST IN THE OLD KINGDOM, VOL. V I , PART I I . 8 . EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, A DESCRIPTION OF THE MASTABAS AND THEIR CONTENTS (in the Press).

In French : 9 . HYMNES RELIGIEUX DU MOYEN

EMPIRE.

1 0 . LA Pof-ME DIT DE PENTAOUR ET LE RAPPORT OFFICIEL SUR LA BATAILLE DE QADESH.

In Arabie : 1 1 . LITERATURE OF ANCIENT EGYPT, 2 VOLS. 1 2 . ANCIENT EGYPT FROM PREHISTORIC TIMES TO THE AGE OF RAMESES II, 6 VOLS.

T H E GREAT SPHINX OF G I Z A

The Its

H i s t o r y

Sphinx

in

t h e

L i g h t

of

R e c e n t

E x c a v a t i o n s

by

Prof.

SELIM HASSAN, PH.D. ILLUSTEATED FIRST

EDITION

GOVERNMENT

PRESS,

1949

CAIRO

(Vik»ka>

Copyright

: All rights

PRINTED I X BOYPT

reserved

TO THE MEMORY OP MY U'BIBND

Prof. P E R C Y

E.

NEWBERRY

PREFACE

Of all the monuments in which Egypt abounds, chere is not one which stimulates the imagination to the same extent as the Great Sphinx of Giza, the magnificent man-headed lion which gazes eternally out over the fertile Valley of the Nile, with its face to the rising sun. Who has not heard of the Sphinx, the monster whose very name has become a by-word for mystery ? Its features, reproduced in a profusion which would have become wearisome in a lesser work of Art, has rendered its appearance familiar to the inhabitants of every civilized country. It has been the theme of poets, painters, musicians, theologians and historians, and yet in spite of all that, it has remained the silent mystery of the ages, the Great Paradox, being at once the best known and the least known of all the monuments in Egypt. For in spite of the multitude of writers who have dealt with the subject of the Sphinx, nothing was known concerning it, beyond its outward appearance, measurements, etc. When was it made, for what reason; what did it represent ? These were ques­ tions which remained unanswered, and served to add to its reputation of mysterious silence.

PREFACE

Speaking personally, the Sphinx has always exercised a great and powerful fascination over my mind, and it had always been the dream of my life to excavate this wonderful monument, in the hope that more modern methods of excavation would succeed in revealing the secrets which the old, slip­ shod methods had failed to do. Accordingly, when the way was suddenly opened to me in 1936, the reader can imagine with what eagerness I hastened to set to work on this long-coveted site ! Before proceeding any further, I should like to say a few words on the subject of the art of excava­ tion, according to the methods which we applied here on our Giza site. To be very brief, one might say that the art of successful excavating lies in the observance of these few rules :— (1) Never leave a site until it is cleared down to the level of the natural rock, or in sites where rock does not exist, until the undisturbed strata of the soil is reached. (2) Photograph every object as it is found, in situ for preference. Also photograph the work in all its stages, and keep a full diary and register. (3) Carefully preserve all sculptured fragments, they may in many cases appear to be of no interest, but often other pieces of the same object will come VIII

PREFACE

to light, perhaps far from the original fragment, and if all are carefully preserved, they may in many cases be fitted together. (4) Accurately copy all inscriptions, even fragmen­ tary ones, immediately. These are the archaeologist's most precious finds, and must at all costs be carefully preserved. (5) Be observant. A thin streak of plaster in a confused mass of mud debris will show the direction of a ruined mud-brick wall. A minute scrap of broken pottery will often date a large monument. (6) Above all, keep an open mind. What may seem to be a proved fact to-day may wear a very different aspect to-morrow. These are the rules we have always followed in our excavations. Whether they are successful or not, I leave the reader to judge after reading the following pages. When I began working upon the Sphinx, there were many wise-heads who laughed, and said that I was labouring in vain on a site that had been repeatedly plundered and excavated since Antiquity, and which could not possibly produce anything new as evidence concerning the Sphinx. And that was true, to a great extent. The Sphinx site certainly IX

PKEFACE

had been repeatedly re-worked and yet it had preserved its secret intact, for the simple reason that the Sphinx itself is an uninscribed monument, except for the granite stela placed against the breast, which is, after all, a late addition, made when the Sphinx was already regarded as an antiquity. But all the previous work had been concentrated upon the Sphinx itself, and its immediate surroundings, merely a few metres to the north and south of it having been laid bare. But I determined to widen the actual field of investigation, and examine every inch of ground in the whole amphitheatre of the monument. At first this seemed to be a hopeless task, but by dint of hard work and patience, not to mention the removal of over a quarter of a million cubic metres of sand, the task was at length accomplished ! And I am happy to say that the effort revealed more than I even dared to hope for; and moreover, most of the monuments recovered opened up an absolutely new field of research concerning the Sphinx cult. Therefore, after ten years' residence actually beside the Sphinx, years spent in daily work and study among the monuments of the Old Kingdom, a complete study of all the previous work ever under­ taken in connection with the Sphinx, and finally,

PREFACE

after the study of the above-mentioned new material, I think that the time has come to put the facts as we see them before the world, and present to the reader, the Great Sphinx of Giza as he appears under the searchlight of Science. More last words should be added here that the aim of this little volume is not an exhaustive study of all the materials gathered by me during the excava­ tions which I have undertaken around the Sphinx, but, strictly speaking, it is a brief survey of the whole subject. A more detailed examination of the inscrip­ tions and objects found on this spot will be forth­ coming in a special volume in my '' Excavations at Giza" series. Finally, I have to thank the Director-General of the Egyptian Government Press, Hamid Khadr Bey, and his staff for the good work they have done. At the same time, my warmest gratitude is due, in particular, to Hassan Munib Eff., of the Egyptian Government Press, who has taken the trouble of reading and correcting all the proofs very carefully and doing as well the very hard job of preparing the index. The efforts he has made in the Press in bringing out this work in its technical form is also gratefully acknowledged. C a i r o , August

1949

S E L I M HASSAN XI

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