What is the origin of the Sphinx?

There is a view that the Sphinx was built during the "Old Kingdom" period of Egypt, and the builder was Pharaoh Khafre of the Fourth Dynasty (who ruled from 2520 to 2494 BC; The name Khafre was pronounced differently in later Greek texts). This is the traditional historical view that appears in all standard Egyptology textbooks, encyclopedias, archaeological magazines, and common scientific literature. These texts all indicate that the face of the Sphinx was carved in the likeness of Khafre himself—in other words, the face of the Sphinx was the face of King Khafre; this has been regarded as history It’s a fact.

The only problem is that, short of using a time machine, none of us, not even the most eminent Egyptologists, can say for sure whether the Sphinx looks like Khafre or not, because Khafre's body has never been found, and all we can do is continue to study the few existing statues. Among all these statues there is one that is known to be the pinnacle of carving skills, and that is a statue of dark diorite. The statue now sits quietly in a room on the ground floor of the Cairo Museum. It is this eye-catching and beautiful statue that scholars use as a reference to confidently assert that the Sphinx resembles Khafre.

The prestigious National Geographic Magazine in the United States published an article in April 1991, which clearly demonstrated this confidence. In April 1992, the British "Cambridge Journal of Archeology" also published an article with similar content. The above two articles were written by Professor Mark Lehner of the University of Chicago’s Oriental School. Mark Lehner used "photographic optical data and computer images" to "prove" that the great Sphinx was a copy of Khafre's face. He wrote: In 1978, Zahi Hawass, who was the general commander of the Kisha Pyramid, invited me to join them in the excavation work in the area around the Sphinx. After that, I led a team for the first time in the next four years. The Sphinx was systematically mapped in detail. We used stereoscopic photography technology, that is, photographic optics, to create the front and side images of the Sphinx... However, the results of the computer were even more gratifying. After the surveying and mapping results were digitally input into the computer, a 3D three-dimensional model of the mesh structure appeared. (skeleton); and then use 2.6 million plane points to draw the "skin" on the skeleton diagram. Our drawing of the Sphinx may look exactly as it did thousands of years ago. To get the facial shape, I compared other sphinxes and pharaoh statues with the painted Sphinx. With the face of Khafre, the Sphinx has been given a new life... This sounds very moving and convincing, at least in terms of technical means. After all, have they clearly realized who their "2.6 million plane points" based on "stereoscopic photography technology" and "photographic optics" can convince?

Looking beyond the technical jargon, the truth is not that scary. Reading Reiner's article carefully, we found that in order to "reshape" the appearance of the Sphinx, all Reiner did was to use a computer to draw a 3D skeleton diagram of the Sphinx with a mesh structure. Then use Khafre's face on the skeleton model, this is what the article published in "National Geographic Magazine" tells us. This article is accompanied by a photo of a statue of King Khafre carved from diorite. The caption under the photo is: "The author of this article, Reiner, used the face of this statue to recreate the Sphinx on the computer."

From this point of view, what Mark Reiner really did was to use his own In wanting to recreate the Sphinx's face on a computer, he was doing just as the ancient Egyptians before him had tried to recreate the Sphinx on numerous occasions. In other words, the features of the Sphinx today are less like those of Khafre and more like those of many other pharaohs, such as Thutmose IV, or Hotep IV of Amman or Ramses II. (As Lehner admits, this Ramses "completely rebuilt" the great Sphinx around 1279 BC, and he is the last king we know of to have rebuilt the Sphinx. ). The simple and obvious fact is this - during the thousands of years of existence of the Sphinx, often only the head was exposed on the beach. This way, almost anyone can give it a smack in the face at any time. Furthermore, the results of Reiner's photographic optical analysis can at least prove one thing, that is, what he mentioned in the article is that the Sphinx's head is "too small" compared to its body. This reminds one to think that the Sphinx was reshaped on a large scale. Reiner explained that the current head of the Sphinx is the prototype of the very proportional shape of the Sphinx that was widely circulated in the past. He believed that "the people of the Fourth Dynasty may not have drawn up the king's head and the greatness." "However, Reiner did not realize that the head of the Sphinx was once very large, perhaps even like a real lion's head, but later. The possibility that it was smaller because of heavy carving is not only valid but also attractive.

Another point Lehner makes on a related issue may be negligent. He said there was a "slight deviation" between the "central axis of the great Sphinx's head and the central axis of its facial features," meaning that the head was facing east and the features were slightly to the north.

Here again Reiner ignored the possibility of recarving an old and severely corroded statue. On the issue of the history of the Sphinx, Reiner again ignored the latest arguments in geology. Lehner's shortcomings aside, let's see what his article illustrates. Reiner used the "Advanced Research Logic Computer and Automated Imaging" method to transfer Khafre's face to the face of the severely damaged Sphinx. This only shows that as long as there is a good computer imaging system, anyone can Can make one person look like another person.

In the words of one outspoken critic, "The same computer technology could be used to 'prove' that the Sphinx is actually Elvis..."