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Did the builders start from a natural landform?

Asked 26 Oct 2026 by ·Part of When was the Great Sphinx carved?·3 answers·0·0 following
Most likely: the body was a reserved block left by cutting a U-shaped ditch into a sloping bedrock bench; no free-standing…Ahead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

Where it stands

Three answers have been proposed. The body was a reserved block left by cutting a U-shaped ditch into a sloping bedrock bench; no free-standing… leads, with evidence 1 for: partly supported by its tests. Two are still possible.

Why it matters

Wind-carved ridges called yardangs sometimes look like crouching animals. If the Sphinx began as one, part of its shape predates any builder and the question of its date splits in two⁠[1].

Answers 3

Evidence: 1 for
Most likely
Evidence: 2 for
Still possible
None of these.
Not tested enough to call either way
Evidence: none yet
Still possible

History

  1. Lehner puts forward: the body was a reserved block left by cutting a U-shaped ditch into a sloping bedrock bench; no free-standing…
  2. Lehner: the ditch was quarried around the body, and its stone went into the Sphinx Temple.For: The body was a reserved block left by cutting a U-shaped ditch into a sloping bedrock bench; no free-standing…
  3. Boury et al. puts forward: a wind-eroded yardang with a hard knob at its head end suggested the lion, and the builders finished it by…
  4. Boury et al.: clay mounds with a hard inclusion in a water tunnel eroded into forms with head, undercut neck, arched back…For: A wind-eroded yardang with a hard knob at its head end suggested the lion, and the builders finished it by…
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