Two Sphinx Monuments in Ancient Egypt - The Proof

Hello everybody, and welcome to Ancient Architects. As well as three great pyramids and the Sphinx, there is growing evidence that there is a second Sphinx, which some believe remains hidden on the Giza Plateau. Two researchers of the ancient past, Gerry Cannon and Malcolm Hutton, are close to releasing a new publication that details the evidence. After examining depictions of Sphinxes in ancient Egyptian art, they are often portrayed in pairs, which some interpret as male and female. The two researchers believe that two Sphinxes guarded the pyramids, as well as the elaborate maze of underground tunnels and temples. We know that the Sphinx is carved from a natural rock outcrop. And as one of my previous videos shows, geological evidence scientifically proves it was actually thousands of years older than the 2500 BC date we are given. It would have been carved before the Giza Plateau was covered in sand. It would have been a fertile savannah that was no stranger to heavy rainfall, which is the main cause for the erosion seen most obviously on the Sphinx enclosure walls. So what evidence is there for a second Sphinx? Well, first of all, there is a Sphinx-shaped mound just to the north of the Sphinx, which certainly looks to be the correct shape and size to be the remnants of an ancient Sphinx. It would be in the right position as well, to look like a second guardian of the Kafra pyramid, side by side with the one that remains. On the dream stele, between the paws of the Sphinx, placed there by Pharaoh Thutmose IV, we also see a pair of Sphinxes, indicating that the hidden Sphinx could well have been on display when the stele was erected. Jerry Cannon has also noticed that the right-hand Sphinx on the stele has clear female features and characteristics, compared to the male on the left, which is apparently a commonality in Sphinx carvings and reliefs across ancient Egypt. There doesn't seem to be a great deal more evidence to prove that the mound next to the Sphinx is actually its counterpart, and it certainly isn't enough to encourage authorities to agree to an excavation. So what do we know? Egyptologists state that King Khafre built the Sphinx between 2520 and 2494 BC, but there is absolutely no archaeological evidence to say that he built it or even repaired it. Looking at ancient records, one ancient Egyptian reference during the Middle Kingdom states that Khafre merely found the Sphinx and altered its face. The same source states that another Sphinx faced this one on the opposite side of the Nile, being built to represent the dividing line between northern and southern Egypt. But there is one other Middle Kingdom source that states that Khafre did build it. But if there are two Sphinxes, maybe both sources are in fact correct. It wasn't just the Egyptians that documented a second Sphinx. The Greeks and the Romans also mention it, and it is thought to have been destroyed around 800-1000 years ago. The primary sources all talk about a second Sphinx being opposite, not by the side, and there is even more evidence. The Arab writer Al-Ijrizi, who lived between 1099 and 1166, stated that the second one was built of mud brick and faced with stone. Around 1200 AD, Cairo was subject to a large earthquake, and people used casing stones from the Great Pyramid to rebuild part of the town, so the same could have been the case with the second Sphinx, which exposed the underlying mud brick, leaving it to deteriorate in the weather. Like the ancient Egyptian source, Al-Ijrizi states that the second Sphinx faced the Great Sphinx on the other side of the Nile, when the river was far closer to the Giza complex. The migration of the Nile eastwards then erased it in its entirety. This is corroborated in the Annals of Rabi II from 1024 AD, where it states that there is a smaller Sphinx across the Nile, in a ruined state of brick and stone. As well as being sat side by side, Sphinxes do face each other on avenues, and the Nile was, of course, the grandest avenue in Egypt. Like Jerry Cannon and Malcolm Hutton, I do believe there was a second Sphinx. I believe that Khafre discovered the truly ancient Great Sphinx, removed the sand, and then built its counterpart on the opposite side of the Nile, a far cruder construction. Therefore, the source from the Middle Kingdom that states that Khafre built the Sphinx is completely accurate, but this has been purposefully taken out of context by modern Egyptologists to fit their narrative. Yes, Sphinxes are found in pairs in ancient Egypt, as Cannon says, but the Great Sphinx wasn't built by dynastic Egyptians. It was a far older, more ancient structure, built by a far more ancient culture, which we know very little about. So what about that mound to the side of the Sphinx? Well, maybe something does lie there, but it is mere guesswork, and if there was evidence of a Sphinx, I'm sure somebody in the past, whether Napoleon's expedition or 19th or 20th century antiquarians, would have exposed it and documented it. I'm more inclined to believe the ancient sources and eyewitness accounts of a facing Sphinx on the other side of the Nile. I believe the old dynasty Egyptians renovated the truly ancient Giza Plateau, but I strongly doubt that they had anything to do with its construction. Thank you for watching this episode of Ancient Architects. Please like the video, please subscribe to the channel, and please share this across your social networks. Thank you.