Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

Mastrelli: A lion with the head of a man,

Carved from a single piece of rock in the egyptian desert.

No monument on earth is more recognizable,

Or more puzzling.

Now investigators will try to put a name to this face,

And provide an answer to the oldest mystery of them all:

The riddle of the sphinx.

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For centuries, the mysteries

Of the past have kept their secrets.

But there are clues cast in gold,

Etched in stone, written in blood.

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We can unlock them.

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Without any inscriptions from the time it was built,

The sphinx has puzzled archeologists for centuries.

But there's one thing we do know:

There's no truth to the legend that one

Of napoleon's cannon balls knocked off the sphinx's nose.

Danish explorer frederic norden

Had reported it missing 60 years earlier.

The culprit is thought to be a devout sufi muslim,

Who in the 14th century didn't like the idea

That peasants were still making offerings to the statue.

Almost 2,000 years after the last pharaoh,

The sphinx was still being revered.

It's a testament to one

Of the most enigmatic statues ever created.

(dramatic music)

The sphinx, a mythical creature with the body of a lion

And the head of a man.

At nearly 60 feet high and 240 feet long,

The sphinx is the biggest single stone statue in existence,

As tall as a six-story building, as long as a 747 jet.

It has watched over the world for millennia,

And stands guard over the great pyramid

Last survivor of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The sphinx has drawn explorers for centuries,

And is one of the most studied treasures of all antiquity,

But it remains a frustrating puzzle.

Hartwig: We really don't know much about it.

There are no texts that date from the time

That it was built.

You would have expected the egyptians

To say something about it.

We look at the sphinx and, what is it?

What is it for?

Who did it?

These are sort of the enduring questions

That we continue to ask as archeologists.

Mastrelli: One text dating

From after the sphinx's construction,

During the reign of thutmose iv,

Does give us an indication why the statue was revered

In ancient egypt.

Hartwig: This is an amazing stela, that is the first mention

Of the sphinx.

At the top of the stela we have two images of thutmose iv,

And in one side he's actually incensing the sphinx

And the other one he's giving water offerings.

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Mastrelli: Carved on the tablet is a legend recorded

By thutmose recounting an incident from his youth,

When he was a young prince.

On a hunting expedition, the young thutmose came

Across the sphinx, buried up to its neck in desert sand.

Exhausted by the midday sun, thutmose lay down

In the shade of the giant statue.

According to the story carved into the tablet, as he slept,

The sphinx spoke to the young prince in a dream.

Hartwig: So we know at this point now

That the sand was covering the sphinx

And in this dream the sphinx came to him and he said,

"if you would clear away the sands from my body,

"I will make you king."

And that's exactly what he did, and thutmose iv became king,

And he commemorated that very event

In the stela that we call the dream stela.

Mastrelli: So thutmose didn't build the sphinx.

By the time he came to power it was already a ruin.

He dug it from the sand and it's possible

That without thutmose the sphinx might have been forgotten.

But generations that came after followed his lead,

Seeking the sphinx's blessing.

Hartwig: With thutmose iv

The cult of the sphinx just explodes.

Mastrelli: From the time of thutmose onwards,

The sphinx became a place of pilgrimage.

The egyptians believed that worshiping the mighty statue

Could bring health and good fortune.

Hartwig: People would come from memphis, the capital city,

They would come from all over egypt

And they would come to the sphinx and leave gifts.

Mastrelli: The egyptians of thutmose's day

Called the sphinx hor-em-akhet, god of the sky.

Three and a half thousand years ago

The sphinx played a huge role in the egyptian world.

But the question remains: Who built it in the first place?

And why?

At first glance, it seems obvious to link the sphinx

To the man-made mountains that tower over it: The pyramids.

The pyramid directly behind the sphinx was built

By the pharaoh khafre.

He also built the two temples nearby.

So experts think that khafre is the most likely candidate.

Lacovara: So the sphinx links up to all of these monuments

Of khafre: The temple, the pyramid.

So the sphinx sort of stands here as a guardian

To all these monuments of khafre.

Mastrelli: But that alone isn't proof.

Some experts point the finger in another direction:

To the builder of another great pyramid

Which lies close to the sphinx.

It was built by the father of khafre.

His name was khufu.

Khufu was the first pharaoh to build a pyramid at giza.

And if any man was capable of thinking big, it was this guy.

Hartwig: Khufu was an amazing innovator.

You can't underestimate what he did,

Because essentially he comes to a vast desolate place

Which is the giza plateau

And he builds egypt's largest pyramid.

Mastrelli: Khufu's man-made mountain took 30 years to build

And was the tallest structure in the world.

Hartwig: Nothing like this had ever appeared

On the landscape before.

This pyramid was built as a type

Of propagandistic statement, you know,

This is the power of the pharaoh.

Mastrelli: So maybe khufu could have built the sphinx.

Having changed the face of egypt, why not go for broke.

His face, there for all to see, for all time.

This way, the theory goes,

He would always be watching over them.

Hartwig: This is the type of pharaoh that would have wanted

To put his mark on the landscape not only in terms

Of this pyramid but also in terms of the sphinx.

Mastrelli: Dr. Melinda hartwig is in the khufu camp of belief:

That it was he who built the sphinx and not his son khafre.

And she is searching for evidence

In the layout of the site

To support her theory.

Hartwig: Today this is the approach

That most tourists would take.

Here's the sphinx in front of us with the pyramid

Of khafre behind.

However, this wasn't how people saw it in the ancient world.

They would have seen it slightly differently

Because they would have been coming from the south.

And so this would have been the first thing they saw:

They would see the sphinx in profile

And they would see the pyramid of khufu, not khafre.

By seeing the sphinx in profile

And the pyramid of khufu behind, you have a sense

Of a two-dimensional rendering which was very important

To the ancient egyptians.

Mastrelli: In their carvings and paintings

Egyptians loved a profile.

Even some of their sculptures were designed

To be viewed from sideways on.

And when you look at this as an ancient egyptian,

It appears as if the sphinx is guarding khufu's tomb.

And that's not all.

Dr. Hartwig turns her attention to the monuments of khafre,

Khufu's son, the man assumed to have built the sphinx.

Khafre's pyramid lies directly behind the sphinx.

But hartwig finds a clue in the layout of the causeway

That leads from khafre's pyramid down to his temple.

Hartwig: So here is khafre's causeway.

Now, this is where the body of the king

Would have been brought up and then buried inside a pyramid.

But when you analyze the position, there's something

That just not quite right.

You would expect the causeway to come right down here,

Like right in front of me, and then head due east,

But instead it swerves.

Mastrelli: Traditionally, the ceremonial path leading

To a pharaoh's pyramid runs due east, in a straight line.

Not this one.

Khafre's causeway is set at an angle

And it appears to go around the sphinx.

Hartwig: It swerves, it's over here, and it swerves

To avoid something, and that thing is the sphinx,

Which means that the sphinx existed there

Already before khafre.

Mastrelli: If the sphinx was already here,

Then that points to it being khufu's creation.

But the final piece of evidence in melinda's theory

May be the most compelling.

Can we match the face on the sphinx

With a known representation of khufu?

Dr. Melinda hartwig

Has identified some compelling reasons

Why khufu may be the pharaoh who built the sphinx.

It's a project that requires a massive ego,

And his pyramid is the largest on the giza plateau.

But does khufu bear any resemblance

With the face of the sphinx?

To explore the question, melinda has come to the only place

In the world where there's a confirmed likeness of khufu:

The egyptian museum in cairo.

What happens when we compare that image

To the face of the sphinx?

Hartwig: When we look at the face of khufu

He has very broad planes

To his face, his ears are pushed forward,

He has deep set eyes.

These are the same features that we see on the sphinx,

So it makes perfect sense that the sphinx is khufu.

Mastrelli: There seems to be a resemblance between the two.

And there's another clue here:

In every known statue of khafre,

He's shown wearing a ceremonial beard.

But the sphinx doesn't have a beard,

And neither does this statue of khufu.

There's only one problem: This statue is less

Than four inches tall.

Hartwig: In getting a positive id,

Of course you need more than just this small little statue.

It's such a tiny thing to compare against something

As massive as the sphinx.

In the end there is so little evidence

That we can be absolutely sure

Of whose face is on the sphinx.

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Mastrelli: It seems likely the sphinx was built

By one of the pharaohs that built these pyramids.

Khufu is a very convincing candidate,

But his son khafre is perhaps an even stronger choice,

As his pyramid lies directly behind the sphinx.

Dr. Peter lacovara has decided to explore khafre's causeway.

It's a raised path that still exists today,

Passing right beside the sphinx enclosure

And running uphill to khafre's pyramid.

Lacovara: We're looking up at the causeway that runs

From the pyramid all the way down to the temple.

Mastrelli: At the corner of the sphinx enclosure,

Lacovara has found an important piece

Of evidence left behind by khafre's builders.

Lacovara: What's really interesting

Is you can see up here

In the corner there's a cut that's been filled in

By modern blocks, and we think there was a drainage ditch

That siphoned water off from the causeway down

Into this big depression where the quarry was

And would have flooded this area when it did rain.

Mastrelli: The purpose of khafre's drainage channel was

To prevent his causeway from flooding

By draining off rainwater into the area

Where the sphinx sits today.

Lacovara believes this is evidence

The sphinx didn't exist before khafre.

Lacovara: Clearly it doesn't make sense

That if this had already existed,

If the sphinx had been built, say, by khufu,

They wouldn't be flooding this area with water.

There would be no reason to be pouring water

In to this great monument.

So it seems clear that that is evidence

That this sphinx was made by khafre and late in his reign.

Mastrelli: If lacovara is right, then when khafre came

To the throne this area was nothing more than a pit used

For collecting excess rainwater,

The sphinx hadn't yet been carved from the stone.

Unlike the pyramids, the sphinx wasn't built out

Of blocks hauled to the location.

It was carved right out of the bedrock in a single piece.

So whoever it was that built the sphinx,

Started by removing thousands of tons of rock

From the desert floor, in the form of huge multi-ton blocks.

The lump of rock left behind was then carved

Into the shape of the sphinx.

And the composition of the rock offers an interesting trail

Of clues as to who may have built the statue.

Lacovara: If you look, the limestone is layered

Like a layer cake,

And some layers were softer than others depending

On what was in them, and so they've eroded more

Than the layers above and below them.

Mastrelli: Lacovara has identified a tell-tale pattern

In the limestone.

Some layers are harder and more durable than others.

And that leaves a unique pattern of weathering running

Through the rock of the sphinx today.

Lacovara has also identified this same pattern

In the temple built by khafre in front of the sphinx.

He sees exactly the same sequence of soft and hard rock.

The grooves in the walls of the temple

And the grooves on the sphinx match.

Lacovara: It's incredible, you can see here

Where we have this differential pattern of wear.

Here's this soft layer here that runs across this block

And the neighboring block.

They're all sort of like fingerprints,

They all tell us exactly where they came from,

And so we can match them all up with the rock

On the sphinx's body itself.

Mastrelli: The unique pattern running through the stone proves

That the rock that once surrounded the sphinx's body

Was taken to make khafre's temples.

So the sphinx itself must have been carved

After khafre's temples.

There was no sphinx before that time.

Lacovara: I think there's no doubt

That khafre built the great sphinx,

I think all the evidence points in that direction.

Mastrelli: So the face on the sphinx has a name.

This is khafre.

One question remains:

Can we discover why he built this monster?

(dramatic music)

The great sphinx of giza was built

By the pharaoh khafre around 4,500 years ago.

But what motivated him to create this vast structure?

Around 2494 bce the pharaoh khafre died,

After ruling egypt for a quarter of a century.

But he wasn't forgotten.

Just a stone's throw from the sphinx,

Archeologists have recently discovered a special cemetery

Dedicated to priests of khafre.

Their job was to keep his name alive after his death

Through religious rituals and offerings to the gods.

It's now believed that this cult of khafre lasted far longer

Than previously suspected.

For hundreds of years priests tended khafre's temple.

But why did khafre's memory survive

For so many centuries after his death?

The answer and the final clue to the mystery

Of the sphinx lies with the giant statue itself

And the temple that sits at its paws.

Archeologists call this the sphinx temple.

Built by the pharaoh khafre,

It's the only one of its kind in egypt.

Lacovara: Around it are these remains of huge pillars

Which would have had giant statues of khafre standing

In front of them.

And then this one here, one over here, one over here,

One there, so we have 12 statues in total.

Mastrelli: Altogether, lacovara maps out the positions

Of 24 stone pillars and what he believes

Were 12 huge statues of khafre.

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To lacovara, this means khafre

And his people were sun worshipers.

Lacovara: It's a time when the god of the sun

Is becoming much more important in egyptian religion.

The solar symbolism of this temple is pretty clear,

It's reflected in the numbers of the statues,

Symbolizing the hours of the day.

Mastrelli: This is the key to understanding the purpose

Of the sphinx.

It's part of a vast cosmic building project.

And when lacovara maps out the positions of khafre's temple,

The sphinx and the pyramid,

Their religious significance becomes clear.

He discovers that during the spring and fall equinoxes,

The two special times of the year when day

And night are in perfect balance,

Sphinx, temple and pyramid are all perfectly aligned

With the rising and setting sun.

Lacovara: And you can kind of visualize it

'cause during the equinox the sun rises directly

Over this court.

In the center axis of the temple we have a niche

For a statue, and then on the opposite wall

Of the temple we have another niche also on center axis,

And these two statues would be illuminated

During the equinox so the sun would rise

And light up the statues giving birth to the statue

As it's illuminated, then as it makes its arc

Across the sky, the statue would be darkened to die

And then it would illuminate the other one showing it reborn

So we have this eternal cycle of death and rebirth.

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Mastrelli: On these special days of the year,

The sun passes over the temple and drops down

Behind the sphinx itself to the base of khafre's pyramid.

Sun, pyramid, sphinx, temple, all united,

With the sphinx, the symbol of the pharaoh himself,

Presenting offerings to the sun god.

Lacovara: This is a giant representation

Of khafre offering this temple to the gods.

Mastrelli: We can look at the sphinx

And call it a vanity project:

A man carves his own image directly into a rock face,

But in fact, the ambition behind it seems far bigger.

The way all this was built, the positioning of each stone,

The alignment of sphinx with temple and pyramids,

These make it a piece of precision engineering.

And the way lacovara reads it, it all has a special purpose:

To give khafre nothing less than immortality.

Lacovara: So the main purpose of all this construction,

All this building, was to ensure the eternal life,

The immortal existence of the pharaoh, of khafre.

Mastrelli: And although his world eventually vanished,

Khafre's plan to live forever seems to have worked.

(rumbling)

Millions of tourists still flock to egypt to gaze in wonder

Upon the face of khafre.

These are not the devoted pilgrimages of the time

Of thutmose iv, and even

If the visitors don't leave offerings

And instead return home with souvenirs,

It's probably not a big deal for khafre,

It's the attention that matters.