13/07/2025
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In the heart of the Giza plateau, the Great Sphinx continues to raise questions that challenge traditional explanations of Egyptology. Among the mysteries that remain unsolved, one of the most fascinating concerns the moat surrounding the Sphinx: a depression carved into the limestone rock, up to 18 meters deep in some places. Why build such an imposing monument inside a hollow that, if left to itself, would have filled with sand in a matter of years? Is it possible that the Sphinx is much older than we think?..
To better understand the issue, we need to take a step back in time to the so-called African Humid Period, a phase that lasted roughly between 10,000 BC and 4,000 BC. During those millennia, the Sahara was not a desert, but a verdant landscape rich in savannahs, lakes, and waterways. In this radically different scenario, the Nile had a much wider and more ramified course than it does today...
A study by geographer Eman Ghoneim, published in 2012 (Ancient drainage systems and paleohydrology in the Eastern Sahara), identified the existence of a paleo-tributary of the Nile, now buried under sand and rock, which in ancient times flowed right next to the Sphinx. This natural channel, probably navigable, connected the main monumental sites along the Nile, serving as a river highway for the transport of building materials and foodstuffs...
If the Nile really flowed just a few meters from the Sphinx at the time of its construction, then the moat in which it was carved could have contained water, keeping the statue protected from the sand. This hypothesis, now reevaluated by researchers such as Robert Schoch (Voices of the Rocks, 1999), confirms that the Sphinx could not have been erected in the desert, otherwise it would have been submerged by sand within a few years...
It is no coincidence that when it was rediscovered in the 19th century, the Sphinx was completely covered with sand up to its neck. This fact suggests that its construction dates back to a time when the region was still green, perhaps at the beginning of the African Humid Period, if not earlier...
Schoch also argued, with geological data, that the erosion present on the walls of the moat is compatible with prolonged action by water, and not by wind and sand, as was previously believed. His hypothesis is that the Sphinx dates back to at least 7000–9000 BC, but could even be older...
Another obvious anomaly is the structure of the Sphinx itself. The head is too small in relation to the body, disproportionate according to all Egyptian aesthetic standards. Furthermore, the paws and tail, which are visible today, are made of bricks and not of the same limestone as the body. This indicates that they were added later, at a time when the original meaning of the Sphinx had already been lost...
It is possible that, in Pharaonic times, priests and architects found a much older statue, perhaps a sacred symbol belonging to an earlier civilization, and decided to “restore” it by adapting it to Egyptian iconography. However, the results were questionable: the body is too elongated, the head too small, and the overall appearance is more reminiscent of a slender feline than a majestic lion, the symbol of Egyptian royalty...
Why, then, did the Egyptians, notoriously perfectionists and masters of symmetry, agree to leave their most famous national statue ‘imperfect’? One possible answer is that they had no choice: the original head was perhaps damaged or symbolically outdated, and modifying it too much could have desecrated a sacred and ancient object...
Geological, hydrological, and archaeological evidence suggests that the Sphinx is not a ‘typically Egyptian’ monument, but a legacy of a much earlier era. An era when the climate was radically different, the Nile was a branched river, and the Sahara was populated and fertile.
This new narrative ties in with the theory, increasingly supported by interdisciplinary data, of the existence of a pre-Neolithic global civilization, active in the millennia following the end of the last ice age, especially in equatorial and subtropical areas...
