(mystical gong music) - [Narrator] Across the
silvery Nile from Cairo, on the Giza Plateau, in
the shadow of the pyramids, is one of the true wonders of the world. For nearly 5,000 years, its
existence has been shrouded in mystery, controversy, and uncertainty. How long has it been there? Who built it, and when? Why was it built? Whose face is on it? Are there secret chambers underneath? These questions have
confounded kings, explorers, and experts for centuries. But after all the theories, excavations, and disputes, are we finally able to solve the mysteries of the Sphinx? (dramatic music) (distant thudding) July 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt. In a dust storm, with
temperatures around 115 degrees, the Battle of Pyramids
raged for two hours. Shortly after achieving one
of his greatest victories, Napoleon came across something unexpected, a bizarre object few
Europeans had ever seen. The 29-year-old conqueror was in awe of the colossal head
protruding from the sand. What is it? What does it represent? He had to know more about this bruised and battered creation, and
the culture that made it. - Napoleon came with a whole team, not only a military expedition, which was the main purpose of his visit, but he came with a
whole team of surveyors, engineers, scholars, and artists. - And for the next three years or so, they proceeded to record what they saw. In fact, in virtually record time, they documented a great number of the monuments of Egypt, including the Sphinx. In fact, there's a wonderful drawing that shows people on
the head of the Sphinx, with a plumb line measuring it. (tense music) - [Narrator] Many of
the tombs and monuments examined by Napoleon's
experts, were inscribed with what may be the oldest
form of writing, hieroglyphics. After the fall of Ancient
Egyptian civilization in 30 B.C., the meaning of hieroglyphics remained a complete mystery for
the next 1,800 years. In 1799, an officer in
Napoleon's engineering corps stumbled across a slab of granite near a city called Rosetta. The stone contained the same message inscribed in three different languages. When fully translated, the Rosetta Stone would prove to be the key to unlocking the secrets of Ancient Egypt. When the French were driven out of Egypt by the British in 1801, they left with countless treasures, but without learning any
more about the Sphinx. It would be another 18 years before the strange and ruined head would give up any of its secrets. 1816, the first known modern
excavation of the Sphinx was carried out by a
merchant-turned-explorer, Giovanni Caviglia. - Caviglia came in a time, he can do anything. He could excavate and drill in any place. No one will stop him. - [Narrator] Having heard local rumors and legends of secret
chambers and hidden treasures, Caviglia searched for a
way inside the Sphinx. He cleared sand from the neck, and was astonished to
discover that the head was attached to the
enormous body of a lion 240 feet long and 66 feet high. Between the paws, he found
the remains of a small chapel, an altar that showed traces of fire. Perhaps, the Sphinx was a temple, and the altar had been used for burnt offerings, purposefully and in constant danger of being crushed by shifting sand. Caviglia kept digging. - Caviglia came and he
had a theory in his mind. The theory, he thought there
is a passage, a tunnel, from the paw of the Sphinx
to the Great Pyramid. This was his theory. He was really one of the new ages of thinking about this big tunnel. He excavated everywhere. He found nothing. - [Narrator] Caviglia, however, did make a major discovery, the Dream Stele, an upright stone slab
containing hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone
enabled scholars to crack its tantalizing inscription,
which they learned dated back to the 14th century B.C., and recounted the exploits of
a royal prince, Thutmosis IV. - And he indicates that he slept in the shadow of the Sphinx's head, and that the Sphinx was
buried up to its neck in sand. The sphinx came to him in a dream. - The sphinx talked to
him in dream and said, "My son Thutmose, I'm dying. "The sand is killing me. "If you remove the sand away, "I will make you the king
of Upper and Lower Egypt." And we found there is something
politics in this story, because he killed his elder brother, who was supposed to be the king of Egypt, and therefore, he was telling everyone that they should forget
the crime that he did, because the god, it chose
him to be the king of Egypt. - Well, I would view it
as propaganda (laughs). You know, whether it happened or not, how can you tell, you
know, 3,000 years later? Something is a bit difficult to say, but it is certainly also to say that the god decided
that this young prince would become king, so it's
a way of legitimizing him. - The guys was so thrilled. He's a nobleman, he's had money. He got some troops, cleaned up the sand, fixed it up, and he became pharaoh. So, (chuckles) when the Sphinx
speaks, it really speaks. - [Narrator] The Dream Stele contained what appeared to be a partial reference to a king of a thousand years before, named Khafre, who built
the Second Pyramid. Thutmosis seemed, in some way, to be connecting Khafre to the Sphinx, but the inscription was eroded, and the intent unclear. The Dream Stele would become a benchmark for all future controversies
about the age of the Sphinx. Thutmosis was the first to clear the sand away from the Sphinx, but he was not the last. - The sand that is brought in by the wind, that comes in actually from
north of the Giza Plateau, and veers by this rock
and goes toward the west, finds a hole in the ground
that has no purpose, as far as nature is concerned. It silts, so every time the
Sphinx is left on its own, that moat is filled with sand. And that happened repeatedly. (clicking) - [Narrator] With the invention of film, the Sphinx became a favorite
subject of photographers. This photo taken by Maxine du Camp in 1849 was the first ever shot at the monument. (clicking) Thousands more followed. (mystical gong music)
(cameras clicking) The first moving pictures of the Sphinx, rarely seen, were made in 1902 by the pioneering French filmmakers, the Lumiere brothers. Mostly, the Sphinx was
treated as a curiosity and photo opportunity, not as the subject for serious scientific study, (swooshing) until 1922, when a startling discovery brought international obsession with Egyptian antiquities to an all-time high. - [Announcer] An English
archaeological expedition headed by a man named Howard Carter sought to uncover the tomb of an ancient Egyptian
pharaoh, King Tuthankamen. The world had been given a glimpse of its earliest civilization. The tomb's priceless objects added their story to the jigsaw puzzle of antiquities' mysteries. - [Narrator] Interest in the mysteries of the Sphinx was also revived. In 1925, Engineer Emil Baraize supervised the first full clearing
of sand from the monument. He also undertook a highly
controversial series of repairs. - Baraize started his excavation for the Egyptian antiquities suaves, and he did also the restoration of the nemes, cloth of the Sphinx, a restoration which would
be today very dubious. - There was a serious thought that a bad desert storm
might bring the head off, and concrete was fitted under the head in a sort of vague approximation of what the original wig
would have looked like coming down to the shoulders, not a very good approximation, completely altered the look of the thing. I mean, you look at it now, you look at modern pictures of it, you know, modern filming of it, then you look at this
19th century photographs. It's almost a different thing. Its character was changed terrifically by those restorations, which I believe, and some Egyptologists
believe, should now be removed. We should get it back
to looking like it did throughout most of its history. (tense music) - [Narrator] One of the more
unusual looks of the Sphinx appeared during World War II. For the first time, men actually covered the Sphinx in sand, erecting a beard of sandbags to protect the monument from Nazi bombs. (suspenseful music) Ever since Napoleon first
set eyes on the Sphinx, modern man has struggled
to solve its mysteries. No written history of the
monument has been discovered. No details of its creation seem to have been inscribed in stone or on papyrus. Who made it, and when? For what purpose? The answer to these compelling questions can only be revealed by moving forward into the past. (suspenseful music) The Great Sphinx is a
gigantic stone sculpture cut from limestone bedrock. It rests in a moat-like enclosure, quarried out, most experts believe, for blocks to build the pyramids and nearby temples. If this is true, then the Sphinx will have been carved sometime between 2520 and 2494 B.C. The monument was a brilliant creation of the most sophisticated
culture on earth. But just how did that
culture become so advanced? It is but one more mystery
enveloping the Sphinx. - It was fashionable at one point to say Egyptian culture
sprang from nowhere. Or, there was a foreign invasion that brought new ideas to Egypt. Some very interesting, fairly recent work in pre-dynastic and
earlier cultures in Egypt has shown obviously that
that's not the case. - If we go back just before 5,000 years, just before the initiation
of Egyptian civilization, the whole scene would be
drastically different. In the land west of the Nile, from 5,000 years ago to 11,000 years ago, there were, numerously, the
was a savanna-like environment, there was vegetation,
there were animals and man. - It was a very rich environment. There were fish in the river to be fished. There were game that were attracted to the waters of the Nile. - They really had developed a very advanced river technology that does not translate into civilization. Therefore, something must have happened 5,000 years ago, to ignite civilization. (suspenseful music) - [Narrator] A massive
drought hit western Egypt in the fourth millennium B.C. The lakes dried up,
the rivers disappeared, and there was no longer grass for animals. (suspenseful music) For centuries, this part of the country had been inhabited by desert people, Bedouin-type bands that roamed the land. To save their lives, and
those of their animals, the desert people migrated
to the only source of water they knew, the Nile. - They had desert wisdom. They knew how to deal
with the dry environment. They knew how to deal with rocks. So, we have this whole bunch of people that had desert wisdom, mix with very sedentary people that had river technology. And I believe it was
really this incredible, interesting mix between the two cultures and the cross fertilization of ideas, that ignited Egyptian civilization. - This is when we begin to see evidence of more complex societies. Burials become more complex about the middle of the
fourth millennium B.C. And at the end of the
fourth millennium B.C., there were certainly rulers
over large territories, and finally a king that emerged. (tense music) - [Narrator] Upper and
Lower Egypt were united by King Menes around 3,000 B.C. Under his rule, Egypt experienced an astonishing rate of social and political growth. A mere 500 years later, by the reign of King Khufu, the Egyptians had developed the knowledge and skills to embark on
an extraordinary project, building one of the Seven
Wonders of the World. - This was a time of experimentation, a time of bombasity. The culture had found itself, and was expressing itself in huge, megalithic projects, foremost, the pyramids. - If we leave it up to Hollywood, we think that the pyramids were built by a tyrant who enslaved his people and had them cut the rocks under the threat of the whip. - There were truly no slaves connected with the building. On the contrary, we know that this was a very specialized force of, we would call it pioneer force. - The plain fact is that here was Egypt with a large and highly organized workforce, organized in the first place for agricultural reasons. It was just as well to find
something for them to do in the slacker period of the, you know, political stability poorly depended on it. - If I am king, I would say, "Okay, we collect taxes
from all these people "all throughout the year. "I'm gonna get them to work on a project, "including this dead month." - I don't think it was
an administrative project in the sense of, you know, a WPA project, or a wage labor project
like the Hoover Dam. I think it was more a turning out of the natural communities
of the Nile Valley. They didn't have a choice. But it was considered the
obligatory thing to do for the father who ruled you all, which was the pharaoh, to contribute to these
massive projects here at Giza. - And therefore, in
creating the Great Pyramid, Khufu may have also built
Egypt as one unbroken nation. (mellow music) - [Narrator] It took 23 years for Khufu to construct the Great Pyramid. Some experts suggest
that during this time, he also built the Sphinx. But was it really Khufu,
or one of his successors? Four kings reigned during
the Fourth Dynasty: Khufu, Djedefre, Khafre, and Menkaure. Which king put his face on the Sphinx? - Most people believe that Khafre, the king who built the Second Pyramid, also carved the Sphinx. - The Sphinx is carved from a rock within the quarries of Khufu. - So I think it's possible
that Khufu made the Sphinx. It's possible, but I think
it has a lower probability that Khafre made the Sphinx. - Now we are completely convinced that it is Khufu who has built it because when you see it in the evening, the light on the face, you'll see this is the face of Khufu. - The Egyptians will never write a paper and say, "The Sphinx built by Khafra," and give you a proof that
really built by Khafra. They will never do that. But we, as archaeologists
working in the field, excavating for the last 30
years around the pyramids, we write in books and articles the proof that the Sphinx is dated to Dynasty Four. - One day, I hope when they approve the examinations around the Sphinx, one would discover something
like a foundation deposit, or offerings given to the Sphinx with the name of the one
who has carved the Sphinx. - [Narrator] Egyptologists are
on more treacherous footing when it comes to determining
its original purpose, which has proven to be
as tantalizingly elusive as a desert breeze. What was the Sphinx? A representation of the Sun god? An object of cult worship? The powerful guardian
of the Giza necropolis? In the absence of any old kingdom texts, there can be no certainty
as to its true purpose. However, a key clue is that the Sphinx faces due east into the rising Sun. - A sphinx is the statue of a divinity, and a divinity related to the Sun god. Sphinxes are related to the Sun god. - When the king die,
he become the Sun god. Therefore, I believe that Khufu is the first king in Ancient Egypt, that he made a religious revolution. Khufu was the first king in Ancient Egypt to say in his lifetime, "I'm the Sun god. "I am Ra." - Khufu was the culmination
of the royal divinity. - And therefore, I
believe that the only one who followed him is his son, Khafra, the builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza. Then Khafra actually made
this statue for himself, to worship with his two paws his father. - [Narrator] Many Egyptologists believe that the Sphinx was designed to play a specific role within the Giza complex. But was its inclusion
planned from the start? Or is it possible that there was already something on the plateau, something older than the pyramids, something older than Egypt itself, something that inspired the
creation of the Great Sphinx? (mystical gong music) (tense music) When the Fourth Dynasty kings
came to Giza around 2500 B.C. to build their pyramids
and funereal complexes, they found a limestone
escarpment to the east. There, workers quarried
out limestone blocks to construct the new
buildings, leaving behind a pit with a large lump of
uncut rock in the center. Many experts believe the Sphinx started life as this rocky remnant, that the shape of the leftover stone suggested monumental possibilities. - In the desert west of the Nile, there are many, many of
these wind-carved features, which we call in geology yardangs, from a Turkic word meaning steep bank. (mellow flute music) One of them, near the
Farafra oasis in Egypt, was a dead ringer to the Sphinx. When I saw this one and photographed it, I knew that I'm ready
now to speak (chuckles) my theory and write it up (laughs). And the theory is that in the eastern part
of the Giza Plateau, there are all kinds of hillocks that have been shaped, first by water erosion,
then by wind erosion. And water erosion makes gullies and makes these hillocks stick out from the ground. Then the wind comes to reshape these. The Ancient Egyptians
could have torn this apart while they were building the pyramid. But they didn't, because they
saw beauty in that shape. A clamp, and then aerodynamic back to it. And they decided, "My God, "this we can modify it a little bit "to make it like the shapes in
the desert that we've seen." - They just embellished
it, let's put it this way. They just shaped what was already there into what they wanted. - [Narrator] In the absence
of definitive evidence, we may never know exactly how the idea for the Sphinx originated. What is definitely known
is that the monument is heavily eroded and decaying, the body, more so than the head. Many explanations have been put forth, but the truth may lie in the rock itself. - The Sphinx was quarried
right out of the living rock, like Mount Rushmore in
South Dakota, actually, although there, it's the top of a big mountain, in granite. Here it's limestone. - The Sphinx is carved of
different members of lime, some different layers of limestone, and some of those limestone layers weather much better than others. - It's also clear that they know the layering in the rock already, and they knew that the
head layer, I believe, was a very good building stone. And that's why you see detail on the head so well-preserved. We call it member three. You see the eyebrows and the eyes in sculpture that's original, I believe, to the Fourth Dynasty. And then you have member two, which is the body ravaged by weathering. It's a series of layers that
go hard, soft, hard, soft, but in general, the layers of the body are quite soft and they flake. The bottom layer member one is a good crystalline hard limestone, rather brittle, because
50 million years ago, it was a coral, and then a shore reef underneath the seafloor. - [Narrator] And what they carved out of the limestone layers was an amazing creature like none other, a half-man, half-lion. The Ancient Egyptians were fascinated by the idea of mixing species, and this was displayed in their art. - The Egyptians were fond of making their own combinations of things. They identify the salient aspects of different things,
animals, humans, whatever, and combine them in
different and unique ways, identifying animals for their power, like the lion and the bull, for example, and combining them or some of
their elements with humans, so that that power would
rub off on the human, specifically the king, of course. - In Ancient Egypt, the king always wants to show his power. He wants to defeat his enemies. And as always, you can look
throughout the Egyptian history that the king always hit
his enemies with his feet in a shape of a lion,
because the lion body is a shape of power. - And it was that all-powerful element, that fearsome aspect, that
the Egyptians deified, and combined with their monarch. - You know, in Arabic, the
Sphinx is called abu alhawl, meaning father of terror. Father, not in the sense
of his fathering terror, but in Arabic, when you say abu alhawl, that is to say that he is impressing. He conveys terror. (mystical gong music) - [Narrator] Today,
the Sphinx is mutilated and weather-beaten. No one knows exactly what it looked like when it was new. But experts have speculated that its headdress was full, with flaps curling over the shoulders. A spitting cobra, a divinity protecting whoever wore it, graced its forehead, A long sloping divine beard, a symbol of the god-king,
adorned its chin. As the finishing touch,
the creator of the Sphinx may have added something surprising to the raw limestone. - Based on my studies of the Sphinx, it looks like it has been painted, maybe more than once at various times. - The Sphinx was a sculpture, and Egyptian sculpture,
Egyptian stone sculpture, particularly sculpture made of soft stone was always painted. - The skin, the face would
have mostly been in red. Elements like the beard, the eyebrows would have been in blue. - There were traces of red paint along his eyes and eyebrows, cosmetic lines beautifully outlining the eyes and continuing up to the temples. - And the yellow probably
could very well have been the bands on the headdress, so that you had blue,
yellow, blue, yellow, like the Lapis Lazuli and the gold at Tutankhamun's golden mask. (mellow music) - [Narrator] The Sphinx
started to deteriorate almost as soon as the workmen departed. There were at least
three major restorations of the Sphinx over the next 1,000 years. The appearance of the
Sphinx changed further when both the divine beard
and spitting cobra fell off, possibly during the new kingdom
between 1550 and 1070 B.C. Fragments of each were
discovered centuries later and can be seen today in the Cairo Museum and British Museum in London. For nearly 5,000 years, the Sphinx has remained perched on the Giza Plateau, testimony to the fine craftsmanship of the men that carved it. Surprisingly, in spite of all the work and attention lavished on the monument, it is likely that it was never finished. - As a shelf, the (mumbles)
Sphinx's unfinished. This is a common Egyptian thing. The lower chamber in the
Great Pyramid is unfinished. The vast complex of
King Djoser at Saqqara, that's unfinished. I think this was part of
that rolling project thing, you know, the public works. You labored during a king's lifetime on monuments associated with him. When he died, his successor did a hasty sort of tidy up job,
brought that to a conclusion and said, "Move the
work forth, we'll start "on the next part of this
ever-ongoing project." - Well, it could be that
the Sphinx and its temple never got cranked up with a living cult during the time that the Sphinx was made. From hundreds, if not
thousands, of tombs at Giza, we have whole lists of titles, including priests and priestesses, of the gods and goddesses of the time. There's nothing we can recognize as referring to the Sphinx. Now that may ring bells for the new agers, but you see, for Egyptologists, it fits with the evidence that the temple never was completed, and so it didn't have
an active priesthood. (mysterious music) - [Narrator] Of all the rumors and speculation swirling about the Sphinx, the most popular concerns
the nose, or lack thereof. Who was responsible for
depriving the Sphinx of its nose? When did it happen? How did it happen? To this day, the general public continues to blame the wrong man. (plaintive flute music) Looking at the face of the Sphinx today, one is impressed by the
expressiveness of the eyes and its faint, inscrutable smile. The limestone has weathered
in such an unusual way that moving even a few feet
to one side or the other causes its expression
and appearance to change. What one doesn't notice at first, because the Sphinx image
has become so iconic, is that the nose is missing. - If you will stand in that place, where you see the (mumbles) for one hour, you will hear at least 10 stories. Everyone has an opinion. - [Tour Guide] Now this is the Sphinx, the guardian of the sacred enclosure of the Second Pyramid. - [Woman] And how did the nose get broken? - [Tour Guide] When
Napoleon came to Egypt, his artillery men used it as a target and blew the nose off with a cannonball. - Oh!
- Napoleon? - But I don't think
that's Napoleon Bonaparte. The man that took with him
all kinds of scientists, he took them right along with
the officers and soldiers, I don't think they will go around an archaeological feature like that and begin to shoot at it with cannons. - Some people will say
the barbarians came here, and they did knock and
cut the Sphinx's nose. Others will say no. The Arabs, when they came here, they came right away and they
damaged the Sphinx's nose. - If you look at the face carefully, there's a deep wedge mark right down the top of the nose here,
right at the bridge. And there's another deep groove right on the Sphinx's actually left side, and for all the world, that looks to me as though somebody took two big wedges and pounded them in there. And then the nose looks like it was purposefully
broken off all at once. - (foreign name) visited the Sphinx and (mumbles) from Baghdad. He was there in about 1200 A.D. And he was bawled over
by the Sphinx's face. It was in good form when he was there. - In the 14th century A.D., it's written by the Arab historian called el-Maqrizi, he wrote that there was a religious man, a Sufi, and he came here. He sounded, the people who lives around still look at the Sphinx
with sacred and divine. He did not like this as a Sufi. And he came with a metal and he damaged the Sphinx's nose to show the people that this
is a stone, and not a god. - Working here at the Sphinx, I thought it would have been a marvelous discovery to find a big hole in the floor and there would be the nose. But that didn't happen, of course, and nobody knows where
the nose really went. (mellow flute music) - [Narrator] The old kingdom
collapsed around 2150 B.C. and the Giza Plateau
was largely abandoned. Gradually, all knowledge of the monument, its body, purpose, and
the name of its creator, were lost in the shifting sands of time. (plaintive flute music) The Arabs conquered Egypt in 640 A.D. and brought with them a newfound interest in the lost wealth of the pharaohs. Stories circulated wildly
about secret chambers beneath the Sphinx. Arab adventurers found nothing. But their efforts inspired
future generations of treasure hunters,
archaeologists, and new age writers. - People who think that there
are holes under the Sphinx and treasures under the Sphinx, or not necessarily gold,
but important text, papyrus. But a lot of investigation has been done and nothing was really found. - When I began to be
interested on the Sphinx, mystery unmeasured. I was really looking for
secret tunnels in the Sphinx. And I was the one who really wanted to find that out of the new age, or true, we are true as scholars. And this why I and Mark Lehner
did clear three tunnels. (dramatic music) - [Narrator] The first of these tunnels is located between the paws,
behind the Dream Stele, and goes less than 15
feet inside the Sphinx. (suspenseful music) The second is located
on top of the Sphinx, behind the head, and
was most likely dug out by early treasure hunters. But the largest of the tunnels is located at the rear of the Sphinx. - We knew about this tunnel from this old man, Sheik Muhammad, who was working for us, and he said that his grandfather told him, "If you remove that stone, "you'll find the tunnel
inside the Sphinx." But (foreign name) said that everyone who tried to remove this stone, there's always a curse happen to him. And I told them, "Don't really
worry about this curse." And we came and we opened these tunnels and we entered inside. But before I and Mark
Lehner entered inside, we sent an American friend of us to take the curse first. And we found the tunnel goes for about 45 feet inside the Sphinx body. We found nothing except an old shoes. But what's important that we found out, that the tunnels was cut in the Sphinx was not new tunnels. The method of cutting, and how it was cut, it proved to us that this
is an ancient tunnels, and not modern tunnels. How? Because people from the late period are very interested in the Sphinx, like we do today. Then all of them, they
think there is something underneath the Sphinx, there is tunnels, there is secret rooms,
and that's why the come, and they dig. - When we did the seismic
analysis around the Sphinx, we not only looked at
subsurface weathering, but we looked for other features also. There's a void or cavity or chamber, there's something down there. - The Stanford Research Institute in 1977, and they came and they did make drilling. They went down more than 60 feet in the right paw of the Sphinx. And they found nothing. They found that the
Sphinx is a solid rock, or a loving rock, and there is nothing
underneath the Sphinx. - [Narrator] And yet, the legends persist. Every year, requests are
made by new age groups and by academic institutions wanting to employ the latest technology to search for hidden tunnels or chambers. It seems this is one
mystery of the Sphinx, that, for some, will never die. (wind humming) In the early 1990s, a new
exploration of the Sphinx challenged every accepted
chronology of Egyptian history. Heated debate broke out among experts. - My work on reading
the Sphinx has, in fact, been somewhat controversial,
to say the least. One thing that I was struck by is that there are apparently
different types of weathering on the Sphinx, in the Sphinx enclosure, and elsewhere on the Giza Plateau. What I'm convinced is that on the body of the Sphinx
and in the Sphinx enclosure, which was constructed the
same time as the Sphinx, you find weathering that was clearly the result of rainfall. I feel very confidently that the Sphinx is, yes, older than 2500 B.C., older than dynastic time. Then the big question is, how much older? - That was their vision. It's based on the fact
that there is more evidence of water erosion on the Sphinx, particularly the upper
body, than anywhere. And that is true. There is more water erosion because that part of
the body of the Sphinx was exposed to the
elements from way before the Ancient Egyptians ever existed, before Ancient Egypt, before
the change of climate, but for hundreds of thousands of years. - The softer layers are more clay-like. And the are so soft, in fact, and this is true of the Sphinx itself before it was covered with restoration, they're so soft that you can literally just crumble the stone with your hands, because it's so clay-like. That's what's causing
these rounded recesses, not rainwater washing over
the side of the Sphinx. And the harder layers,
which are kind of belly and rounded-like, you have this flaking, flaking that's so severe
you can take huge chips the size of giant potato chips, sometimes almost a
centimeter in thickness. And it's the salt, probably, that are pushing these flakes off and crumbling as we speak. You don't need thousands
of years of rainwater to make this weathering pattern. It's happening right now
in front of our eyes. - I can't argue scientifically about the weathering patterns or anything like that, but I can tell you that there was nothing
in Egyptian civilization that we know of, that
would be able to create a monument like that, that early on. It would simply be in a vacuum and that makes no sense. - [Narrator] The water erosion theory remains a controversial notion. The vast majority of experts believe there is little or no
evidence to support it. If the Sphinx did not emerge from the mist of prehistory, then who did carve it, and when? Recent excavations on the Giza Plateau have uncovered important new evidence about the people who
really made the Sphinx. (suspenseful music) A short distance to the
south of the Sphinx, Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawass
made an extraordinary discovery that has helped solve
another of its mysteries. - This is where we found
evidence of the workmen camp. And I believe there workmen who worked it in the construction of the
Sphinx and the pyramids lived actually above this area. They lived in the camp here. They eat their beer and bread, and they take their tools, and they go underneath
that bridge, that door, to work from the sunrise to the sunset. - Our excavations that we're doing now, we're refining a vast production complex the size of several football fields for turning out bread and meat. We have scores of bakeries. We have collected more
than 80,000 pottery shards. - And this area, we
discover a Mastaba, grave. And this skull looks like
maybe belong to a young man because his forehead looks small. And the doctors who checked the skeleton said that most of them
died when they were young, between 35 and 45 like this. - All the skeleton of men and women that we found in the lone cemetery, they have a stress on their back. They were involved in moving heavy stuff. The discovery of the tombs
of the pyramid builders also tell us two important things. Number one, that the
builder of the pyramids were Egyptians. And number two, that the
builder of the pyramids and the Sphinx were not slaves. (mellow ethic music) - We have names, family relationships, there's a whole context to
the Sphinx and pyramids. It is this very human context that I find missing in the new age literature. If it wasn't these people, who was it? Where is the evidence? Because you can't make human culture disappear without a trace, leaving only an enigmatic monument, standing like some kind of an iceberg, floating alone. (wind humming) - [Narrator] For nearly 5,000 years, the Sphinx has occupied a prime position on the Giza Plateau. Much has it seen, much has it endured, but nothing in its long,
magical, mysterious life could have prepared the monument for what would be a remarkable rebirth. - It was at 1:30 in the
afternoon, February 1988. A shank from the Sphinx's
right shoulder fell down. - And the whole country was in uproar. How could this happen to the Sphinx? - And I went to buy cucumbers from a man in the streets of Cairo. And the man recognized m, a poor man who doesn't
know how to read and write. And when he recognized my face, he said, "Sir, how is the Sphinx?" That is most embrasive and wonderful word or a sentence I ever heard in my life. - The media, the television shows, the talk shows, radio, everybody in Egypt was in an uproar, "How could
this happen to the Sphinx? "Let us fix it, let us have
this happen never again." - And this why we decided to start a very important campaign to restore this statue
in a scientific way. And not only we have to decide the method of restoration, but we have to take the
opinion of everyone, because the Sphinx do
not belong to Egypt only. It belonged to everyone
all over the world. (clinking) - [Narrator] Beginning in 1990, the Sphinx underwent the most ambitious and comprehensive
restoration ever attempted. 3,000 days and 12,478 stones later, in January of 1998, the restored and preserved Sphinx was unveiled to the world. - When they took the scuffling
away from the Sphinx, and we began to make the celebration, I looked at the Sphinx. I saw the Sphinx was a smile. (thumping gongs music) It was maybe the best
night for the Sphinx. For the 5,000 years
history, he saw everything. He saw Napoleon. He saw people come from everywhere. He saw new age people. He saw people talking about him. But he never had a good
time like that night, that everyone was looking at his face. - In modern-day Egypt, the Sphinx plays a very significant role. I don't really fully understand it but it's very significant role. - Definitely one of the
marvels of the world, to everyone, and it's the
pride of the Egyptians. - For us, it represents the
glory of Egyptian civilization, the things that the
Egyptians were capable of. - So our very concern that
something happens to it, because it's not only to the
Egyptians, the whole world. - The Egyptians of today
kind of put the Sphinx on par with the pyramids,
if not a little higher. - And I would wonder if some of the people
who lived by the Sphinx, don't still, in some way, in a very benevolent way,
still consider the god. (mellow piano music) - [Narrator] Will Egypt's
most recognizable icon ever give up all its secrets? - I don't expect that we're ever going to know everything. I think there's always mysteries, there are always theories that may replace other theories. - If we do know too much, we shall lose our interest. I think it's better not to know too much. We know enough. - I think, you know, like so many modern
scientists and scholars, we have to be comfortable with the level of probability, rather than certitude, rather than certainty. As a matter of fact, I think
if we had to be certain, we'd rebel against it (chuckles). - I like to say about the Sphinx that this is a monument with a very long and colorful history, most
of which we don't know. - I could say to people that
the stone can talk to me. He's a stone, but he's not a stone. He's a stone in the eyes of everyone, but I feel that inside the Sphinx, he's looking at us, keeping the secrets of our past. He's really telling us that we should learn from these secrets to understand our future. (mysterious music)
