>>9863578

(Please read from the start)

“Peter Lacovara, an Egyptologist and curator at the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, Atlanta, assigns "some of the erosional features" on the enclosure walls to quarrying activities rather than weathering, and states that other wear and tear on the Sphinx itself is due to groundwater percolation and wind erosion.”

>> I must admit, the Great Sphinx “survived” in a very harsh environment of a rather long time. I’m surprised it’s in this good shape still.

“Response of other geologists

Some geologists have proposed alternative explanations for the evidence of weathering in the Sphinx enclosure.

One of the alternative erosion mechanisms proposed is called haloclasty. Moisture on limestone will dissolve salts, which are then carried by percolating moisture into the spaces inside the porous limestone. When the moisture dries the salt crystallises, and the expanding crystals cause a fine layer of surface limestone to flake off. It is accepted by Schoch et al. that this mechanism is evident in many places on the Giza Plateau. One proponent of the haloclasty process is Dr James A. Harrell of the University of Toledo, who advocates that the deep erosion crevices were caused by the haloclasty process being driven by moisture in the sand that covered the carved rock for much of the time since it was exposed by quarrying.[10] Lal Gauri et al.[24] also favour the haloclasty process to explain the erosion features, but have theorised that the weathering was driven by moisture deriving from atmospheric precipitation such as dew.

Analysis of the Sphinx's bedrock by the Getty Conservation Institute (1990–1992) concluded that "Continual salt crystallization, which has a destructive effect on the stone, would explain at least some of the deterioration of the Sphinx."

Haloclasty is rejected as an explanation for the vertical erosion features by Schoch because it does not explain all the visible evidence, namely that the water erosion features are not evenly distributed, being concentrated in those areas that would have been particularly exposed to running water, whereas the haloclasty process should have operated evenly on all exposed limestone surfaces.[10] Similarly, Schoch points out that the alternative explanations do not account for the absence of similar weathering patterns on other rock surfaces in the Giza pyramid complex which were cut from the same limestone beds.

Reader, who agrees that the Sphinx predates Khafra but prefers a construction date within the Early Dynastic Period, points to the tombs dug into the enclosure walls during Dynasty XXVI (c. 600 BC), and notes that the entrances of the tombs have weathered so lightly that original chisel marks are still clearly visible. He points out that if the weathering on the enclosure walls (up to a metre deep in places) had been created by any of the proposed alternative causes of erosion, then the tomb entrances would have been weathered much more severely than they are in the modern day.”

>> I’m no geologist, so I’m reading as the rest of anons here, but Mr. Reader has a point: the rainfall erosion on the sphinx should have matched the ones on the other parts of the complex, since they were built during the same time. Right? (Logical thinking). But they don’t. The erosions on the Sphinx are much more acute than the complex, which indicates it’s older.

“It is also agreed that wind erosion has played a significant role in eroding the Sphinx. Schoch states that wind erosion forms distinctive horizontal bands, whereas the water erosion features are clearly vertical.”

>> Changing the erosion cause doesn’t change the fact that Sphinx suffered from a more severe erosion than the entrance of the tombs in the complex; which supposedly were all built at the same time. Since the same natural elements (either rain water or wind) hit the complex for the same period of time, then the damage should be of equal degree on all the complex’ structures. As for the horizontal bands, doesn’t that occur when water level is slowly dropping and erosion occurs because of it? See attached pictures and compare.

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