The Sphinx - its history in light of recent excavations

304 Pages·1949·22.128 MB·English

by  Selim Hassan

T oe S ot mx
lis History in ike Liokt of
Recent Excavations
By the Same Author
In English :
1. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, VOL. I (1929-1930).
2. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, VOL. II (1930-1931).
3. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, VOL. Ill (1931-1932).
4. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, VOL. IV (1932-1933).
6. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, VOL. V (1933-1934).
6. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, TUB SOLAR BOATS,
VOL. VI, PART I (1934-1935).
7. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, THE OFFERING LIST IN
THE OLD KINGDOM, VOL. VI, PART II.
8. EXCAVATIONS AT GIZA, A DESCRIPTION OF THE
MASTABAS AND THEIR CONTENTS (in the Press).
In French :
9. HYMNES RELIGIEUX DU MOYEN EMPIRE.
10. LA Pof-ME DIT DE PENTAOUR ET LE RAPPORT
OFFICIEL SUR LA BATAILLE DE QADESH.
In Arabie :
11. LITERATURE OF ANCIENT EGYPT, 2 VOLS.
12. ANCIENT EGYPT FROM PREHISTORIC TIMES
TO THE AGE OF RAMESES II, 6 VOLS.
THE GREAT SPHINX OF GIZA
The Sphinx
Its H i s t o ry in t he L i g ht of R e c e nt
E x c a v a t i o ns
by
SELIM HASSAN, PH.D.
Prof. (Vik»ka>
ILLUSTEATED
FIRST EDITION
GOVERNMENT PRESS, CAIRO
1949
Copyright : All rights reserved
PRINTED IX BOYPT
TO
THE MEMORY OP MY U'BIBND
Prof. PERCY 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
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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
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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,