The Entrance in to the Sphinx, no myth, just stupidity

Hawass and Lehner deceive the public

There are some documentaries on youtube showing Dr. Zahi Hawass and Dr. Mark Lehner climbing down a shaft inside the sphinx. Zahi says "there is nothing in there".

What they don't show us

There is really nothing! At least not where they are. Look at the graphic below. The entrance into the rump of the Sphinx is above the floor level at the same place where they stand and it leads into a burial chamber under the Sphinx. They need to climb up the tunnel, but in the documentary they climb down the 9 m tunnel leading to the groundwater. The reason why they don't show you the entrance into the Sphinx is because it is blocked by cement.

Yes, the chamber is inaccessible today but it was only made inaccessible in 1926 and we have records of it from the time before. Hawass and Lehner didn't know about that tunnel till 1976 when some basket carriers, who worked at the excavation in 1926 came to them and told them, that there is a cavity in the ramp of the sphinx. So they removed some bricks and revealed the tunnel 😹.

This photo was taken in1976 after the basket carriers told them about the secret shaft

They examined the tunnel and published the result 17 years later in 1993. At the end of that publication they conclude with a surprising speculation about the age and the purpose of this tunnel. Built by the Egyptians 1550 B.C. for purpose of restoration (Hawass prefers that theory), or later by the Greeks or Romans as a burial place or dug by plunderers. Great! As long as aliens are excluded they basically say: "we have no idea who built this tunnel". Hawass and Lehner decided since then not to talk about it. They did not make any effort to proof or disproof one of the theories and they didn't mention the cement in any documentary since then.

After Robert Temple published his masterpiece The Sphinx Mystery in 2009, Hawass made a short note about the blocking cement and the purpose of the shaft in his book Magic of the Pyramids in 2015. He gives us only one page about this tunnel, in comparison to Prof. Temple's vast research material, ridiculous. Hawass comes to the conclusion: "It [the shaft into the body of the sphinx] could have been cut for a tomb to bury someone inside." Aha? What makes him think like that? It seems that he enjoyed reading The Sphinx Mystery and changed his preferred theory that it was done in 1550 B.C., but he doesn't bother to mention the cement blocking their way, nor the burial chamber and not the hieroglyphs witnessed by the first excavators of the 19th century.
So basically from 1976 till today 2018, for 42 years Hawass and Lehner were not interested in exploring the inside of the Sphinx!
But how did actually got the cement there?

The truth is very sad

In 1925 the french engineer Emile Baraize cleared the Sphinx entirely to the bedrock since Roman times. He wanted to repair and to restore it to present the public a great statue but he messed it up. He poured high amounts of cement on the rump of the Sphinx closing all tunnels without exploring and documenting them! What stupidity! 😡 Would the basket carries not remember 50 years after Emile Baraize that there is a tunnel we would have no idea about it. On the other hand we would know about the chamber in the Sphinx. People in history who witnessed the tunnel and the chamber entered the Sphinx not through that tunnel, because the lower parts of the Sphinx, where the entrance is, were covered by sand. They entered through a shaft on rear since there was a fissure, a crack in the stone, which was also cemented by Baraize! 

You can clearly see the fissure on this very rare photo.

Prof. Temple brings in his book: The Sphinx Mystery  a great amount of sources about this entrance in the past 300 years. We have literature about it from the Arabs, British, French and Germans. These sources talk not only about the shaft but also about the chamber at the end of the shaft. For example Ellis Veryard, Johann Vansleb, Thomas Shaw, Charles Thompson, Richard Pococke, Giovanni Caviglia and Auguste Mariette described the shaft and the chamber under the Sphinx. We know from Pliny, Book 36 (17), that King Amasis let himself bury there: The inhabitants of the region regard it as a deity. They are of the opinion that a King Harmais is buried inside it and try to make out that it was brought to the spot: it is in fact carefully fashioned from the native rock. And even Selim Hassan mentions this. But we will not know them, because the way is blocked.

Photos from inside the Sphinx

Hawass and Lehner mention in they article photos made by Pierre Lacau showing the inside of the Sphinx before Baraize closed it. These photos are in Paris in the Centre Wladimir Golenischeff Catalog Nr. CI 17–20. Prof. Temple tried to see them, but was rejected.
1994 Lehner states in his article "Who built it, And why?" that he is preparing a publication of all 226 photos made by Lacau. This was not published so far. Since it took Hawass and Lehner 17 years to publish their report about the secret tunnel and now 24 years past after Lehner's statement I doubt that it will ever happen.

Pierre Lacau

Everyone who is interested in this topic should read Prof. Temple's work. It is without doubt the best study of the Sphinx by a great scholar.