Could it be possible that the original sculptor of the Sphinx was not a human?

The ancient pyramids and the Sphinx are probably our most profound impressions of ancient Egypt. The disappeared civilization left behind miraculous buildings, and archaeologists, like detectives, continue to pick up fragments of the past, trying to piece together and restore a historical truth that is closest to the truth. But compared to the pyramids, which have many clues, the fog shrouding the Sphinx seems to be even thicker.

According to archaeological evidence, the Sphinx was built around 2500 BC, which means it has a history of about 4500 years. Unfortunately, this can only be used as indirect evidence, and we have not found any inscriptions about it. Therefore, when the Sphinx was built remains an unsolved mystery. In addition, why it was built, who built it, and how it was built have always been secrets that historians and archaeologists have been committed to exploring.

Image source: Pixabay

The main reason why the Sphinx is regarded as an architectural wonder is its huge size - about 73 meters long, 20 meters high and 19 meters wide. What is even more shocking is that most of the main body of the statue is carved directly from a piece of limestone in the Giza area . Given the level of civilization at that time, it is hard to imagine how the ancient Egyptians could carve such a huge statue "with bare hands".

However, in a recent study participating in the Fluid Motion Gallery of the journal Physical Review Fluids, Leif Ristroph, an experimental physicist and applied mathematician at New York University, and his colleagues found that the Sphinx may not be a purely man-made work: wind erosion may have carved the rock into a general shape that is very similar to a lion. The ancient Egyptians may have further carved on the basis of natural sculptures to build the Sphinx.

Wind erosion Yadan

The research dates back to 1981, when geologist Farouk El-Baz published an article in Smithsonian Magazine speculating that wind might have been the most important "carving tool" before the ancient Egyptians carved various details into the Sphinx.

Image source: Pixabay

If you look closely at the main part of the Sphinx, you may find that it is very similar to the rocks in the Gobi and desert areas of Qinghai, Xinjiang and parts of Gansu in China. This wind-eroded landform is called Yadan landform . In Uyghur, the word "Yadang" means "a small hill with steep walls."

Yadan landforms usually appear in arid lacustrine plains. On open plains with sparse vegetation, winds carrying fine sand and gravel can "run rampant" and polish the rocks here. Each layer of the layered sedimentary rocks here has different textures and is subject to different degrees of wind erosion: sandy rocks are more easily eroded, forming concave shapes; while harder clay and mud layers are stronger and mainly protruding. The combination of different depressions and protrusions forms a variety of magnificent and bizarre rock landscapes.

These polished structures are not symmetrical. Their windward sides are usually very steep, even close to vertical, while their leeward sides have a very gentle slope. The whole thing looks like an inverted bottom of a ship - or like the body of a Sphinx.

Water sculpture "clay lion"

Listrov has always been interested in fluid dynamics. After learning that the Sphinx may be related to the formation of the Yadan landform, he remembered that when he was studying karst landforms (mainly the dissolution and precipitation of soluble rocks by water flow), he noticed that many natural structures would evolve into interesting shapes similar to animals. Listrov was curious whether the natural environment also participated in the formation of the Sphinx.

In order to recreate the geological conditions of the area where the Sphinx was located (probably) 4,500 years ago, Listrov and his colleagues built a semi-ellipsoidal mound with bentonite (mainly composed of clay mineral montmorillonite) - this is to imitate the terrain of the area where the Egyptian Sphinx is located. Some studies have shown that the rock layers of the Nile Valley were cut into many similar conical hills by water and wind at that time. They also embedded short plastic cylinders that are harder and resistant to corrosion - this can simulate larger gravels in sedimentary rocks, or harder rock components.

They then ran fast-flowing water over the clay piles —to mimic wind erosion—to see how nature would carve and reshape the hills. The researchers periodically recorded changes in the 3D morphology of the clay piles using an optical scanner and injected fluorescein dye through an array of needles upstream of the water flow to demonstrate laminar water flow.

The laboratory setting compressed time and space. In just a few hours, Ristroph and his colleagues observed the "birth" of the mini Sphinx. Under the erosion of water flow, the hard cylindrical inclusions in the clay gradually turned into the lion's head. Under the feedback effect of the solid forcing the fluid to change direction, the water flow under the lion's head was faster, split and deflected, resulting in high shear stress and high erosion rate under the head, forming the lion's neck, claws and slightly arched back.

The shape of the lion formed in the laboratory is strikingly similar to the main shape of the Sphinx, indicating that this magnificent sculpture is likely to have been formed by a similar mechanism to the Yadan landform. Listrov believes that their results provide a possible "origin story" for the Sphinx formed by erosion.

However, Listrov also mentioned that their experiment is only a rough simulation of the natural process of the Yadan landform. The process of water erosion of clay and wind erosion of rock is not exactly the same. But it may explain the effect of uneven composition on rock erosion , such as the shape change caused by the presence of harder and less corroded parts in the rock.

We may never know the most authentic history, and the same is true for the mystery of the Sphinx. No one can be sure that it is completely artificial, nor can we say for sure that it is the work of nature. What we can do is perhaps to explore the ratio of the two a little bit and tell a more reasonable story.

References

[1]https://journals.aps.org/prfluids/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.8.110503
[2]https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2023/october/did-nature-have-a-hand-in-the-formation-of-the-great-sphinx--.html

[3]https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/study-reveals-how-natural-processes-helped-sculpt-the-great-sphinx-of-giza/

[4]https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/06/world/great-sphinx-giza-nature-scn/index.html

[5]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza

[6]https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/great-sphinx-giza-pyramids-pharaoh-ancient-egypt

[7]https://aeraweb.org/national-park/

[8]https://research.si.edu/publication-details/?id=127346

[9]http://www.xian.cgs.gov.cn/kpzs/dxzs/201703/t20170324_425416.html

Planning and production

Source: Global Science (ID: huanqiukexue)

Author: Bu Zhou

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Editor: Zhong Yanping