Review: Origins of the Sphinx by Robert M. Schoch & Robert Bauval

Title: Origins of the Sphinx: Celestial Guardian of Pre-Pharaonic Civilization
Author: Robert M. Schoch & Robert Bauval
Publication: March 27th 2017 by Inner Traditions
Genre: Nonfiction
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Rating: 3/5

New research and evidence that the Sphinx is thousands of years older than previously thought

• Contrasts what Egyptologists claim about the Sphinx with historical accounts and new research including reanalysis of seismic studies and updates to Schoch’s water weathering research and Bauval’s Orion Correlation Theory

• Examines how the Sphinx is contemporaneous with Göbekli Tepe, aligned with the constellation Leo, and was recarved during the Old Kingdom era of Egypt

• Reveals that the Sphinx was built during the actual historical Golden Age of ancient Egypt, the period known in legend as Zep Tepi

No other monument in the world evokes mystery like the Great Sphinx of Giza. It has survived the harsh climate of Egypt for thousands of years and will remain long after our own civilization is gone. According to orthodox Egyptology, the Sphinx was built around 2500 BCE as a memorial to the pharaoh Khafre. Yet this “fact” has scant to no supportive evidence. When was the Sphinx really built and, most importantly, why?

In this provocative collaboration from two Egyptology outsiders, Robert M. Schoch, Ph.D., and Robert Bauval combine their decades of research to show how the Sphinx is thousands of years older than the conventional Egyptological timeline and was built by a long forgotten pre-Pharaonic civilization. They examine the known history of the Sphinx, contrasting what Egyptologists claim with prominent historical accounts and new research, including updates to Schoch’s geological water weathering research and reanalysis of seismic studies. Building on Bauval’s Orion Correlation Theory, they investigate the archaeoastronomical alignments of the monuments of the Giza Plateau and reveal how the pyramids and Sphinx were built to align with the constellations of Orion and Leo. Analyzing the evidence for a significantly older construction phase at Giza and the restoration and recarving of the Sphinx during the Old Kingdom era, they assert that the Sphinx was first built by an advanced pre-Pharaonic civilization that existed circa 12,000 years ago on the Giza Plateau, contemporaneous with the sophisticated Göbekli Tepe complex.

The authors examine how the monuments at Giza memorialize Zep Tepi, the Golden Age of legend shown here to be an actual historical time period from roughly 10,500 BCE through 9700 BCE. Moving us closer to an understanding of the true age and purpose of the Great Sphinx, Schoch and Bauval provide evidence of an early high civilization witnessed by the Great Sphinx before the end of the last ice age.

First of all I want to say that I definitely enjoyed reading Origins of the Sphinx. Any book with this kind of topic is a must-read for me, but I can't help be a little disappointed with it. 

It was still a great read, very interesting to anyone who's intrigued by the Sphinx and would like to learn more about it and its possible origins. The reason why I am a bit disappointed with this book was mostly that it was much shorter than I had imagined and it also missed something I can't quite put my finger on.

And other than that I already knew most of the things being discussed in the book, which of course is not really critique towards the authors or this book. But still... I felt disappointed when I finished the book. 

But to end on a high note, everything discussed in the book (although I was already familiar with most of it) was really intriguing. Especially Zep Tepi and the true age of the Great Sphinx is something that can give the reader a lot of thought and get away from the mainstream ideas, which is always a good thing.

Dr. Robert M. Schoch, a full-time faculty member at the College of General Studies at Boston University since 1984, earned his Ph.D. (1983) in Geology and Geophysics at Yale University. He also holds an M.S. and M.Phil. in Geology and Geophysics from Yale, as well as degrees in Anthropology (B.A.) and Geology (B.S.) from George Washington University. In 2014, Dr. Schoch was awarded the title of Honorary Professor of the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy, Varna, Bulgaria.
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Robert Bauval was born in Egypt in 1948. A construction engineer, his interest in Egyptology is longstanding, having lived in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East for much of his life. In the 1980s, he developed a line of study linking the pyramids and the so-called Pyramid Texts with astronomy and famously published the best-selling The Orion Mystery. He has also written three books with best-selling author Graham Hancock (The Message of the Sphinx, Talisman, and The Mars Mystery).
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