Zahi Hawass on archaeology: what the evidence says · JRE #2321
SUBJECT: ARCHAEOLOGY
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
Then I brought a team from Cairo University, and we did drill 30 to 35 feet underneath the Sphinx, everywhere. And I do have photos of everywhere under the things okay. The Sphinx is a solid rock or a living rock and there is nothing underneath
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Drilling and geophysical work around the Sphinx are documented: the Smithsonian reports that Hawass had workers drill test holes in the bedrock (finding the water table only about 15 feet down) as part of groundwater and conservation efforts, and earlier boreholes were placed on geophysical anomalies. However, the claim that there is nothing underneath overstates the certainty of the record. A peer reviewed seismic survey published in Geoarchaeology (Dobecki and Schoch, 1992) defined a series of subsurface cavities on each side of the Sphinx as well as between its paws, and buried bedrock structures in the adjacent desert. Mainstream archaeologists interpret these features as natural fissures and weathering rather than man made chambers, so no hidden room has been confirmed, but published data do show voids and cavities in the rock, which contradicts a flat statement that the bedrock is solid with nothing beneath it. The drilling itself was limited to a small number of boreholes rather than exhaustive coverage everywhere.