The original site, where the Sphinx is located, was a gently sloping plane with an outcrop of harder rock. The head of the Sphinx was carved out of this outcrop. To form the body of the Sphinx, the stone has been quarried away from all around the soon-to-be body.
The main features of the Sphinx are comprised of different geological conditions.
The head of the Sphinx was made of a hard strata which is resistant to the effects of the natural elements. The present damage to the face was caused by soldiers who used the Sphinx as an artillery target in the 18th century.
The body of the Sphinx was made of a softer limestone strata which in turn consists of alternate harder and softer layers. These alternate layers are visible on site as weathered corrugation, which is about two feet deep into the bedrock.
The base of the Sphinx, as well as the bottom of the original quarry site are made of a harder limestone which is resistant to the effects of the natural elements.
The Eroded Body
The question is: what caused the erosion of the body?
There are two possible causes:
Possible weathering by wind and sand.
Since the body of the Sphinx is located in a hollow, it takes less than twenty years to fill the hollow and cover the body totally. The Sphinx has been covered, for most of its time, by sand since the time it was created thousands of years ago. Therefore the Sphinx was not subject to weathering exposure to wind and sand, instead it was actually protected from such natural elements. Additionally, the concave shape of the corrugation cannot be the result of wind and sand storms.
Possible water erosion.
Most scholars have resigned themselves to the fact that the water caused the erosion to the body of the Sphinx. Geologists agree that Egypt was subject to severe flooding, at the end of the last Ice Age, c. 15,000-10,000 BCE.
So, if the erosion was caused by water, the Sphinx must have been carved before Egypt was under water i.e. more than 12,000 years ago. This, in turn, is too radical for scholars to swallow, as they prefer not to change their theory that Khafra (Chephren) built the Sphinx. As a result, those unfamiliar with scientific principles, suggested that the ground water, and not direct flooding, caused such erosion.
Never mind the egos, let us study the evidence regarding the cause of this water erosion.
The Repaired Paws
Researchers have found out that the extended front paws of the Sphinx were repaired three times in three distinct operations. The research also concluded that each repair operation was intended to replace or reinforce prior repair operations. In other words, the eroded condition of the paws has never worsened since the earliest repairs were made, i.e. it was a single event, and not a continuous process, which caused this erosion. The question is, what was this single event?
The study by Mark Lehner, Field Director for the American Research Center in Egypt, showed that no substantial damage occurred to the Sphinx since its original weathering event. Lehner wrote:
"It seems necessary to conclude ... that the core-body of the Sphinx was already in a severe state of erosion when the earliest level of masonry was added ....
If we assume that a sand covering would act more to protect than to erode the statue, this leaves less than a millennium, or perhaps half a millennium, for the core to have eroded to the conditions shown by the profiles under the added masonry."
Lehner estimated that the earliest of the three repairs occurred during the New Kingdom. He, however, never provided any historical or physical evidence to support his suggested time era. Some scholars are inclined to believe that the earliest repair was done by Khafra(Chephren) who was more of a restorer of the Sphinx than its builder.
Did the Ground Water Do It?
Many academicians have resigned themselves to the fact that the water caused the erosion to the body of the Sphinx. However, contrary to scientific principles and/or rationale, it was suggested that ground water may have risen, through capillary action, to react with the limestone of the Sphinx body causing this one-time erosion event. After 500 years the ground water dropped back down, and this phenomenon was never to occur again!
The evidence is overwhelming against the ground water theory. Here is why:
Over the course of thousands of years, the inundation of the Nile had gradually deposited additional silt, on the ground of the Nile valley. Whenever the ground rises, so does the ground water table. It is estimated that the ground water table was thirty feet lower in Khafra's (Chephrens) time than its present level.
It is impossible for the ground water:
to rise from a much deeper level than its present level,
to erode two feet deep channels into the body of the Sphinx, and the walls of the quarry pit, in the span of five hundred years, and
to drop, after this 500 years, and not ever rise again.
Additionally, why didnt this ground water theory have any effect at the following places:
The bedrock of the quarry pit where the Sphinx rests? This area was never eroded and therefore was naturally never repaired.
Any other structure which was built during the Old Kingdom, and there are scores of them throughout Egypt?
The Pyramid (so-called Mortuary) Temple of Khafra (Chephren) stands 150 feet (46m) above the Giza plateau, and had a similar erosion pattern to the body of the Sphinx. There was definitely no ground water in the case of this temple. So how do we explain the similar erosion pattern?
There is no other rational answer except that the water erosion occurred at the end of the last Ice Age c. 15,000-10,000 BCE.
