When you buy through links on our web site , we may earn an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
A routine excavation has uncover ancient wall surrounding the Great Sphinx of Giza , Egypt ’s Supreme Council of Antiquities ( SCA ) announced today ( Nov. 2 ) .
The wall were likely built to protect the Sphinx from waste grit , said SCA Secretary - General Zahi Hawass , who is overseeing the excavation .
The first section of the mud wall found in front of Khafre’s valley temple at Giza.
During routine digging , SCA researcher found two segment of clay rampart on the Giza Plateau , where thepyramids of Gizaand the Sphinx stand . Both wall stand up just under 3 feet ( 1 meter ) . One runs Second Earl of Guilford - south and is 282 feet ( 86 meters ) long , while the other persist east - west and is 151 foot ( 46 m ) long .
The walls are part of a larger enclosure antecedently set up Union of the Sphinx , according to Hawass . As tell in ancient Egyptian texts , King Thutmose IV once went on a hunting trip near the Sphinx . After the trip , he dreamt that the Sphinx want him to elucidate the sand ring its dead body . fit in to Thutmose , the Sphinx forebode that if he restored the statue , he ’d becomeking of Egypt .
So Thutmose had the sand authorise and build a paries to preserve the Sphinx . Until now , researchers think the wall was only work up on the northerly side of the Sphinx . The novel determination disproves that theory .
The researchers also come up a third bulwark to the east of the tabernacle of King Khafre , the detergent builder of the second - largest Great Pyramid in Giza and the likely builder of the Sphinx . harmonise to Hawass , the rampart may be part of the settlement that rise up around King Khafre ’s pyramid after the monarch ’s death around 2532 B.C. In this village , priests and officials manage themortuary cultof the dead king .
Khafre ’s mortuary cult remained secure until the end of Egypt ’s Old Kingdom around 2143 to 2134 B.C. After that , initial excavations suggest the Greenwich Village was give up , said Essam Shehab , the supervisory program of the Khafre ’s valley temple excavation .
excavation continue on the Thutmose IV enclosure wall , agree to the SCA . The archeologists are keeping an centre out for other enigma still hide in the sand .
