How old is the Sphinx?

[JacksonMIA]

Not anymore.....now I date Mr. T...because I'm afraid not to!

ROFL!!!


Well played.

[Scott_F]

Good discussion, thanks for playing at home.

[firebirdVII]

You can only carbon date something that was once alive. Rock is generally not alive at any point. Carbon dating is essentially counting the remainng half life of the carbon 14 atom, present in all living things.

There are some methods to carbon date items found within the rock, or on the rock...say, wood fragments thought to have been used in the carving or moving of a rock. However, these methods are really just best guesswork. To the best of my knowledge, you cannot carbon date a rock.

I believe that a rock can have carbon/once living things in it, but a stone or mineral has to be inorganic.

[The Golden Boy]

Has everyone been keeping up on the excavation of KV-63? (the new tomb found in the Valley Of The Kings)

[JacobTM]

Personally i think it's not the work of alien. its the work of a great civilisation.

It's the work of a great number of slaves.

[jdm61]

Carbon dating is pretty useless on a rock that's part of the natural bedrock. It's not like it was hauled in from somewhere else.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Carbon 14 dating pretty much useless on ANY non-organic materiel? I thoght the trickwith Carbon 14 dating is that it tells you when the particular materiel died

[jdm61]

The best part of watching the Da Vinci Code was all the places in Paris and London that I had been to, seeing them on film. Despite the reputation for how americans get treated in France, Paris needs to be on everyone's list for the art alone. The food... bleck! But the art, fantastic! I was not much of an art buff prior to my trip, but spending two days in the Louve and the Orsay was all it took for me.

You see all those sculptures and you wonder how long it took and basically how it's gotta be a lost art. I don't see anyone kicking out these types of sculptures today.

If ya want food, go to Normandy

[Scott_F]

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Carbon 14 dating pretty much useless on ANY non-organic materiel? I thoght the trickwith Carbon 14 dating is that it tells you when the particular materiel died

some rock is formed by pressures upon sediments and such. lots of organic matter gets trapped inside. bedrock is different. But, yeah, you are correct, you gotta have some organic matter to date or the trick doesn't work.

[The Golden Boy]

It's the work of a great number of slaves.

As I understand it, slaves didn't do most of the work on the pyramids and such- people were conscripted to do it, but not "slaves."

[SpiderVenom]

Hey where's eddie (powerslave cover joke)

I hear and I come...

<--

[Stratman]

Those grooves were caused by water erosion, according to the tour guide back in 1998.

They were adding brick and lime-type cement, but not cement to the North side to facelift and stop further erosion.

When I asked where's the water, I was told that the river used to extend beyond the area where the Sphinx was...

I just walked away shaking my head in disbelief at her explanation.

Anyway, here are some links...

http://guardians.net/spotlite/spotlgt2.htm

http://guardians.net/egypt/sphinx/

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/sphinx1.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3499/sphinx.htm

http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient/sphinx.htm

Interesting stuff

[MikeS]

I’ve always been fascinated by ancient sculpture and architecture. The pyramids at Giza are on my list of places to visit before I die (along with the whole of Europe). While the construction of the pyramids is simplistic and crude by today’s standards, the thought that went into the design and orientation of them is not something you generally see today. The pyramids were also built to last, and they have. Today, we’ve forgotten how to construct a building with a lifespan longer than 50 years. So sad.

On a different matter… I’m not sure how I feel about the support being added under the headrest. Not that I don’t believe these treasures should be preserved, but that the artistic integrity is compromised by such an addition. Artistic integrity is far more valuable than structural integrity. The thing has aged gracefully for thousands and thousands of years, and here our civilization comes along and starts screwing with it.

[GoMano]

About the same age as me & you bro :-)

[JacksonMIA]

He's fourteen.









Sphinx years are a LOT longer than human years.

[Scott_F]

Mike, I think the thing about it is that it spent thousands of years buried in sand. The head had lots of support for ages.

Didn't the Nazi's use it for target practice or something?

[Stratman]

Mike, I think the thing about it is that it spent thousands of years buried in sand. The head had lots of support for ages.

Didn't the Nazi's use it for target practice or something?

I was told that is was the French back around 1800's.

Nazi's searched for ancient secrets.