What is under the Great Sphinx of Giza?
Upvote:8
The small opening shown in the video you link, which a worker covered with what looks like a temporary hatch cover, is probably related to ground water erosion testing and abatement projects. The same article linked by Brian Z has the following section at the end (emphasis mine):
Today, the Sphinx is still eroding. Three years ago, Egyptian authorities learned that sewage dumped in a nearby canal was causing a rise in the local water table. Moisture was drawn up into the body of the Sphinx and large flakes of limestone were peeling off the statue.
Hawass arranged for workers to drill test holes in the bedrock around the Sphinx. They found the water table was only 15 feet beneath the statue. Pumps have been installed nearby to divert the groundwater. So far, so good. “Never say to anyone that we saved the Sphinx,” he says. “The Sphinx is the oldest patient in the world. All of us have to dedicate our lives to nursing the Sphinx all the time.”
Another article from 2007 discussing the issue can be read here Pyramids, Sphinx Threatened by Rising Groundwater.
A more recent article (2012) Egypt's Sphinx, Pyramids threatened by groundwater, hydrologists warn discusses some of the measures being taken.
Another You tube video with the sensantionalistic title "Caught Drilling Under the Sphinx...They Know What's Down There!" actually has footage beginning at time stamp 7:40 showing some workers drilling one of these test holes. Note the proximity to one of the reconstructed areas of the Sphinx, similar to the location shown in the OPs video.(Note at 8:08 in the OPs video the pipe-like fitting straight out from the mysterious opening).
A video about mysteries under the Sphinx gets many more hits,however, I think the 'mysterious' works under the Sphinx are very un-mysterious plumbing projects meant to monitor and protect it.
UPDATE: When I went back to YouTube, the video Drilling under the Sphinx (Featuring Dr Zahi Hawass and Dr Mark Lehner) was at the top of my recommended list. This short video (3:47) seems to be the source for the footage of the workers, and has Hawass and Lehner discussing the ground water testing/measurement project.
Upvote:9
Probably sand and limestone and that's about it. The narrator in the video claims that there is a ladder, but it's conspicuously not visible in the shot. It almost seems like a reference to the crackpot theory of a Hall of Records or something along these lines.
An article in Smithsonian Magazine describes the extensive archeological work of Mark Lehner:
In 1977, [Lehner] joined Stanford Research Institute scientists using state-of-the-art remote-sensing equipment to analyze the bedrock under the Sphinx. They found only the cracks and fissures expected of ordinary limestone formations. Working closely with a young Egyptian archaeologist named Zahi Hawass, Lehner also explored and mapped a passage in the Sphinx’s rump, concluding that treasure hunters likely had dug it after the statue was built.
More post
- 📝 Did Stalin describe Beria as his Himmler?
- 📝 Why was there a "workers' militia" in Eastern Europe but not in the USSR?
- 📝 Did the USA have a plan to defeat Germany without Britain?
- 📝 How were the Morisco refugees from Europe received in North Africa, given that they were foreigners and Christian?
- 📝 In the Medieval period, how long would an average swordsmith need to forge an average sword?
- 📝 Is there a possibility that the Islamic civilization visited America before Columbus?
- 📝 Where does this hairstyle originate from?
- 📝 Did Kampfgeschwader 6 operate Me-262s and Bf-109s from the same airfield? If so, which one?
- 📝 When did Russia learn about the Philippines and the Japanese and Spanish presences there?
- 📝 What English company founded in the 1200s filed for bankruptcy in the 2000s?
- 📝 Why was Woody Woodpecker a "natural" hit during WW2?
- 📝 How long did Adolf Hitler serve on the front lines as an infantryman in WWI before becoming a courier?
- 📝 Why did Russia set up so many cities in Siberia and Far East?
- 📝 Was being in the KKK politically/socially acceptable in early 1900's American South?
- 📝 What is modern criticism of Nazism?
- 📝 The first head/chief/leader/etc of the Federal Housing Administration?
- 📝 Why, apart from religious reasons, might someone in thirteenth century England give land to a Church?
- 📝 Accuracy of Ancient Dates of Persian/Middle East Based on Astronomy
- 📝 Are there any theories of Tiglath Pileser III's origins?
- 📝 Six bulls for ship's provisions
- 📝 Can historiography be thought of as "fractal"?
- 📝 Why did the first Safavid Shia become Shia?
- 📝 Would occupying Big Round Top have been a good idea for the Confederates?
- 📝 Did anyone in England in the 1680's wear a beard?
- 📝 Were U.S. ships attacked in Tokyo Bay?
- 📝 Who believed the earth was flat?
- 📝 How were border controls implemented in Western Europe in the 1970s
- 📝 Is this excerpt from an AI-generated answer re Portugal in WWII based on any real events?
- 📝 How did Mongol nomads acquire metal weapons?
- 📝 What does "APT" mean in box 34 of the WD AGO 53-55?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What is under the Great Sphinx of Giza?
- 📝 Great Sphinx photo from WW2 shows a big platform under the chin
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 What is the evidence to claim that political order in ancient Rome was sufficiently different under "kingdom", "republic" and "empire"?
- 📝 On what basis do some historians accuse the British government of genocide during the great Irish famine?
- 📝 What did Tacitus write about Nero and the Great Fire of Rome 64AD?
- 📝 What effect did the Attack on Mers-el-Kébir have on Great Britain's international relations during WW2?
- 📝 What was the role of Indian princes and aristocratic landowners under British colonial rule?
- 📝 What words were obliterated from the Great Colonnade at Palmyra?
- 📝 What is the name of the theory opposite to the Great Man theory?
- 📝 What was the size of the Chola Empire's navy under Raja Raja Chola I?
- 📝 What is the source of "the three most useless things in the world are the Great Wall, Pyramids, and the Yamato"?
- 📝 What was the civil weapons legislation under Hitler?
- 📝 What was the maximum percent of the Soviet territory that was under Nazi control?
- 📝 What is the anomaly in drawing of the Great Pyramid by National Geographic?
- 📝 During the Great Depression, roughly what proportion of Americans lived below the World Bank PPP $1.25/day poverty line?
- 📝 What happens if a vassal inherits not under the control of their sovereign?
- 📝 What alternate north-south supply routes did the Soviet Union have when the Volga and Stalingrad were under attack?
- 📝 What was the personal philosophy of Alexander the Great in his youth?
- 📝 What post 18thC countries rulers escaped to a remote/separate region and hung on while the country collapsed under revolution?
- 📝 What steps did President Herbert Hoover take to reduce unemployment during the Great Depression?
- 📝 What did Cyrus the great look like?
- 📝 What good came from the Great Leap Forward?
- 📝 What were Lord Macartney's original words about Chinese under the Qianlong Emperor's brutal regime in 18th century?
- 📝 What does the forward "Bullnose" of a Bailey Bridge that is under construction look like?
- 📝 What machine technology did the Egyptians have to build the great pyramids?
- 📝 What did cataphract units wear under the armour?
- 📝 Under Catherine the Great were all officers appointed for five years?
- 📝 What were the largest companies in the world before and after the Great Depression?
- 📝 What is the story behind the Education of Alexander the Great by Aristotle - Jose Armet Portanell