Picture this: the gods have come and gone, dynasties have risen and face-planted, cities have popped up and crumbled, tourists have come, posed, and posted a million thirst traps on Instagram… but the Sphinx is still just sitting there like, “Yeah, I’ll wait.”

Today we’re heading to Giza to talk about the world’s most famous stone cat with a people head: the Great Sphinx of Egypt. It’s massive, it’s mysterious, it’s eroding faster than our faith in humanity, and it sits at the crossroads of legit science, wild speculation, and whatever the hell Edgar Cayce was doing.

We’re going to walk through what the Sphinx actually is, what we think we know about its history, how old it might be, why people keep insisting there’s a secret Atlantean library under its paws, what modern tech like ground-penetrating radar and fancy satellite scans are actually showing under the Giza plateau, and why so many folks see Dr. Zahi Hawass as the final boss of “Nothing To See Here, Move Along.”

Strap on the sunscreen, adjust your tinfoil nemes, and get ready for Hysteria 51.

Special thanks to this week’s research sources:

Main References Mentioned in the Episode

• Lehner, Mark.
• The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries.
• London: Thames & Hudson, 1997.
• Hawass, Zahi.
• The Secrets of the Sphinx: Restoration Past and Present.
• Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1998.
• Jordan, Paul.
• Riddles of the Sphinx.
• New York: New York University Press, 1998.
• Gauri, K. Lal, John J. Sinai, and Jayanta K. Bandyopadhyay.
• “Geologic Weathering and Its Implications on the Age of the Sphinx.”
• Geoarchaeology 10, no. 2 (1995): 119–133.
• Schoch, Robert M.
• Voices of the Rocks: A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes and Ancient Civilizations.
• New York: Harmony Books, 1999.
• Reader, Colin.
• “A Geomorphological Study of the Giza Necropolis, with Implications for the Development of the Site.”
• Archaeometry 43, no. 1 (2001): 149–159.
• Sharafeldin, S. M., K. S. Essa, M. A. S. Youssef, H. Karsli, Z. E. Diab, and N. Sayil.
• “Shallow Geophysical Techniques to Investigate the Groundwater Table at the Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.”
• Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems 8 (2019): 29–43.
• https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-8-29-2019
• Biondi, Filippo, and Corrado Malanga.
• “Synthetic Aperture Radar Doppler Tomography Reveals Details of Undiscovered High-Resolution Internal Structure of the Great Pyramid of Giza.”
• Remote Sensing 14, no. 20 (2022): 5231.
• https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14205231
• Hancock, Graham, and Robert Bauval.
• The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind.
• New York: Crown, 1996.
• Cayce, Edgar Evans, and Edgar Cayce.
• Edgar Cayce on Atlantis.
• New York: Hawthorn Books, 1968.

Geology, Weathering & Age of the Sphinx

• Gauri, K. Lal.
• “Geologic Study of the Sphinx.”
• Newsletter of the American Research Center in Egypt 127 (1984): 24–43.
• Gauri, K. Lal.
• “Geologic Features and the Durability of Limestone at the Sphinx.”
• Environmental Geology and Water Science 16 (1990): 57–62.
• Chowdhury, A. N., A. R. Punuru, and K. L. Gauri.
• “Weathering of Limestone Beds at the Great Sphinx.”
• Environmental Geology and Water Science 15 (1990): 217–223.
• Harrell, James A.
• “The Sphinx Controversy: Another Look at the Geological Evidence.”
• KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt 5, no. 3 (1994): 70–74.
• Matthusen, August.
• “A Rebuttal to Robert Schoch on the Weathering of the Great Sphinx.”
• (Online article, catchpenny.org, c. 1999.)
• Harrell, James A.
• “Comments on the Geological Evidence for the Sphinx’s Age.”
• (Online article, Hall of Ma’at, 2000s.)
• Liritzis, Ioannis, and Asimina Vafiadou.
• “Surface Luminescence Dating of Some Egyptian Monuments.”
• Journal of Cultural Heritage 16, no. 2 (2015): 134–150.
• https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2014.05.007

Geophysics, Groundwater & Subsurface Scans

• Sharafeldin, S. M., et al.
• “Shallow Geophysical Techniques to Investigate the Groundwater Table at the Great Pyramids of Giza, Egypt.”
• Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems 8 (2019): 29–43.
• Sato, Motoyuki, et al.
• “GPR and ERT Exploration in the Western Cemetery in Giza, Egypt.”
• Archaeological Prospection (2024).
• (Ground-penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography survey west of the pyramids.)
• Biondi, Filippo, and Corrado Malanga.
• “Synthetic Aperture Radar Doppler Tomography…” (as above).
• (Satellite SAR micro-motion tomography on Khufu’s pyramid.)
• Lehner, Mark.
• “ARCE Sphinx Project 1979–1983 Archive.”
• American Research Center in Egypt / OpenContext.
• (Field notes and geological collaboration with K. Lal Gauri and T. Aigner.)

Alternative Chronologies, Orion / Leo & “As Above, So Below”

• West, John Anthony.
• Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of Ancient Egypt.
• Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 1993 (rev. ed.).
• Schoch, Robert M., and Robert Bauval.
• Origins of the Sphinx: Celestial Guardian of Pre-Pharaonic Civilization.
• Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2017.
• Bauval, Robert, and Adrian Gilbert.
• The Orion Mystery: Unlocking the Secrets of the Pyramids.
• New York: Crown, 1994.
• Hancock, Graham, and Robert Bauval.
• The Message of the Sphinx (as above).

Esoteric, Hall of Records & Atlantis Material

• Cayce, Edgar Evans, and Edgar Cayce.
• Edgar Cayce on Atlantis.
• New York: Hawthorn Books, 1968.
• Todeschi, Kevin J.
• Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records: The Book of Life.
• Virginia Beach: A.R.E. Press, 1998.
• Todeschi, Kevin J.
• Edgar Cayce’s Atlantis.
• Charlottesville, VA: 4th Dimension Press, 2014.
• Blavatsky, Helena P.
• The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy.
• London: Theosophical Publishing Company, 1888.
• Lewis, Harvey Spencer.
• Rosicrucian monographs and AMORC publications on hidden chambers at Giza (early 20th century).

Zahi Hawass, Antiquities Politics & Controversies

• Hawass, Zahi.
• The Secrets of the Sphinx (as above).
• Murphy, Kim.
• “Getty Institute Probes Riddle of the Deteriorating Sphinx.”
• Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1990.
• Borger, Julian.
• “The Fall of Zahi Hawass.”
• Smithsonian Magazine, July 17, 2011.
• “Zahi Hawass Fired.”
• The History Blog, July 18, 2011.
• “History Catches Up to Famous Egyptologist Zahi Hawass.”
• The World (PRI), August 1, 2016.

Egyptomania & Cultural Context

• Fritze, Ronald H.
• Egyptomania: A History of Fascination, Obsession and Fantasy.
• London: Reaktion Books, 2016.

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