The real riddles of the sphinx.

[saluzi7]

1. Water erosion on the sphinx and it's temple, confirmed by the American Geologic Society. That hasn't happened in a while - say 7,000 years, making the sphinx and it's temple much much older than the pyramids
2. The blocks in the sphinx temple are much bigger than those used in the pyramids or any other temples in the vicinity.
3. The cut off nose - every guide has a different story - Christians, Muslims napoleon -but no real story. To cut off the nose is an ancient sign of extreme disrespect throughout the region.
4. The face on the sphinx is the face of a black man- see the protrusion of the lower face and the lips. I suspect this might be what happened to that nose.
A. Egypt once had a black Pharaoh when the black country of Meroe to the south conquered it.
B. Egypt has a long tradition of pharaohs re cutting and rededicating monuments to themselves. Ramses the II is known to archaeologists informally as Ramses the chiseler.
C. The head on the sphinx is too small for the body.
I propose that the black Pharaoh re carved the head to be his portrait leaving Meroe's mark forever on Egypt. That after he was gone, the nose was cut off and the sphinx allowed to sink below the sands.
5. Now we get into the real weeds - First google Edgar Cayce and then Edgar Cayce sphinx. Enjoy!

[Emily Mewens]

When you say that it predates the pyramids, are we talking the Great Pyramids, or pyramid construction? I knew it was older than the Great Pyramids, but i know that pyramid construction goes much further back than those, since they were towards the end of the era of pyramid construction.

[Old World Studios]

Evidence from the weathering of the limestone of the Sphinx's body and Sphinx Enclosure show weathering much older than the projected dates of the Giza Complex. Not everyone is agreed, of course. But the age of the Sphinx is hinted at in the game... and the additional lore coming soon ("Gil's Secret Library" DLC) will expand on this. The prevailing theory of the Sphinx's history is also found near the end of the game.

[saluzi7]

Next up - google Omm Sety - an English woman who believed she was the reincarnation of an Egyptian princess. Moved to Egypt, and gave widely respected and useful advice to archaeologists. It would be fun to have her in the game - with good leads and bad.

[saluzi7]

There is a problem with Pre-dynastic Egypt [and a Steam game by that name]. Around 3200 BCE, too many things happen all at once. The jump from mud huts to Dynastic Egypt 3150, the development of hieroglyphs all within a few centuries. Too fast! Perhaps a solving the real riddles of the Sphinx would solve that....

[Emily Mewens]

I highly doubt that. The biggest riddles of the sphinx are, who does it, or was it supposed to depict, where did his nose go, and when was it actually built and why. None of these have conclusive answers, as have been covered by most of the posts here.
This also doesnt get into the fact that pyramid construction as we know it didnt come until long after this sudden jump. Even the most basic pyramid construction didnt happen until later. And the Sphinx was built sometime just before the golden age of pyramids, (which by proxy came long before the Giza pyramids, which came towards the end.)

Another interesting thing to think on as well is, we dont know why the egyptians started pyramid construction to begin with. One might say that they came to be because of how simple in design they are to build, however if this were the case then we would have seen them being usesd for more practical uses. Instead the majority of the pyramids were either landmarks of achievements and/or remembrance (similar to statues and shrines dedicated to specific people) or as tombs (though there is some arguments against this..)

But as to *why* the design was chosen in the very beginning is still largely up for debate. We also do not know why they stopped building them as well.

[saluzi7]

The earliest Egyptian pyramids were step pyramids. In the First Dynasty at Saqqara, a large step pyramid like structure was found within the interior of Mastaba 3808 dating to the reign of the pharaoh Anedjib. Egyptologist Walter B Emery found other mastabas of this late 1st Dynasty period that may have been of similar design in which several inscriptions depicting step pyramids during this era are also found, mostly credited to Anedjib's successor Qa'a.[3] The first recognized step pyramid, however, dates to the beginning of the Third Dynasty attributed to the pharaoh Djoser. Though Egyptologists often credit his vizier Imhotep as its architect, the Dynastic Egyptians themselves, contemporaneously or in numerous later Dynastic writings about the character, did not credit him with either the designing of the Pyramid of Djoser or the invention of stone architecture.[4] Djoser's pyramid was first built as a square mastaba like structure, which as a rule were known to otherwise be rectangular, and expanded several times by way of a series of accretion layers to produce the stepped pyramid structure we see today.[5] Later pharaohs, including Sekhemkhet and possibly Khaba, built similar structures, known as the Buried Pyramid and the Layer Pyramid, respectively.

In the Fourth Dynasty, the Egyptians began to build "true pyramids" with smooth sides. The earliest of these pyramids, located at Meidum, was first constructed as a finished "tower-shaped" step pyramid like structure and later converted to a true pyramid which at some point this layer collapsed. Though there is disagreement among Egyptologists whether Sneferu or his predecessor Huni built the tower core, it is generally accepted Sneferu at the least was responsible for converting it to a true pyramid.[6] Sneferu is also credited with building two other pyramids, the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid at Dahshur, which were the first true pyramids to be built as such from the beginning. Though with this innovation the outwardly appearance of Egyptian stepped pyramids came to an end in favor of smooth-sided true pyramids, the pyramids that followed whose cores have been exposed all show some form of stepped pyramid at their center.[7][8]

As to why, the Egyptians were used to building with mud brick. The temple of the Djoser pyramid is straight up mud brick but using stone. The only mud brick walls that persist are slanted retaining walls. A pyramid is four slanted retaining walls. This is what was done in Mesopotamia which highly influenced the Egyptians. Elsewhere, the only walls that stand up to earthquake are slanted retaining walls so pyramids in mesoamerica and Japan (The Japanese pyramids are highly truncated. They are the bases for temples and castles)