Table of Contents
DeDunking treats the Sphinx enclosure as a problem about stone, not a quarrel over who carved the face. The limestone shows channels that rising groundwater and flaking rock do not explain, so a great deal of water once ran through the pit. A geologist whose papers he follows has mapped how the plateau drains and reads the monument as pre-dynastic rather than a Fourth Dynasty invention. The heaviest wear is on the western wall, which he links to a quarry that could have held a lake. People could walk out to a rock above that water, and later Egypt took the spot for the first mound of creation, even cutting the Benben from it. He thinks the pit was opened so water stayed in the design, then recut as the floods dropped. The three pyramids, he adds, copy Orion’s belt. He offers no finished date, only the claim that the usual royal story starts too late.
Key points
- Channels cut in the enclosure limestone are presented as water wear that seepage and surface flaking do not explain.
- The geologist under discussion maps the plateau drainage and calls the Sphinx area pre-dynastic.
- The worst damage on the west wall is tied to a quarry that could have ponded into a lake.
- DeDunking treats that outcrop as Egypt’s first mound of creation and as the source of the Benben.
- He thinks the pit was reshaped across a long retreat of seasonal water, not cut in one campaign.
- The three pyramids are, in his view, a stone copy of Orion’s belt and of Osiris.
Short quotes
There certainly are clear signs of water erosion, and it does look like there was a lot of water carving the channels in the limestone.
DeDunking, Sphinx erosion before the Fourth Dynasty
He treats the grooves in the pit as the work of flowing water. Watch at 4:23
The the groundwater wicking and exfoliation of the rock, pieces of it flaking off, does not explain those channels in it.
DeDunking, Sphinx erosion before the Fourth Dynasty
Seepage and flaking, he says, leave the deep grooves unexplained. Watch at 6:50
Now, he's painstakingly mapped out the region's drainage, and he is of the opinion that this Sphinx may well be a pre-dynastic site.
DeDunking, Sphinx erosion before the Fourth Dynasty
The geologist he is following dates the place before the dynasties. Watch at 9:57
After all, if my belief is correct, the Egyptians would have considered this the original place of creation, not just a minor one.
DeDunking, Sphinx erosion before the Fourth Dynasty
He thinks later Egypt remembered the outcrop as creation’s first ground. Watch at 15:31
I think that the three stars in Orion's belt certainly are emulated by the three pyramids.
DeDunking, Sphinx erosion before the Fourth Dynasty
The pyramid row is, for him, a copy of those three belt stars. Watch at 20:33
Video by DeDunking. Watch on YouTube.