All language subtitles for Ancient Civilizations Series 1 07of10 Decoding the Great Sphinx 1080p

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>> Few symbols convey
the mysteries of ancient

consciousness more potently
than the Great Sphinx of Giza.

Just south of the Great
Pyramid, on the West Bank

of the Nile River, this
mythical limestone creature

has the body of a lion
and the head of a human.

The Sphinx is the oldest known
monumental sculpture in Egypt.

According to
mainstream scholars,

it was built by
ancient Egyptians

during the reign of
the Pharaoh Khafre,

between the dates
2558 and 2532 BC.

But in 1992, author and
independent Egyptologist,

John Anthony West, claimed
that the Great Sphinx of Giza

was not carved in 2,500 BC but
9,000 to 10,000 years earlier,

before Egypt was a desert and
even before the dawn of man

as we know it.

While studying the works
of 1920s scholar Schwaller

de Lubicz, John
Anthony West discovered

that conventional
Egyptologists had

overlooked an important detail.

The body of the Sphinx
bore distinct markings

of water erosion.

>> Through some friends, I
had an introduction to a very

well-known Oxford geologist,
and I went into him with a very

simple question.

On the basis of a
clear photograph alone,

could he, as a geologist,
tell the difference

between weathering by water and
weathering by wind and sand.

The answer was
cautiously expressed,

as a general rule, yes.

I asked him if he
didn't mind if I

play a bit of the trick on him.

And what I did was I took
a photograph of the Sphinx,

and I masked off the
head and the paws,

and I asked him
what did he think

was responsible for
that weathering?

And he looked at it a
moment, and said, well,

unquestionably, water.

And I stripped the
masking tape off.

And he looked at it a
minute, and he said, oh.

>> If it was water erosion, then
the entire history of ancient

man would have to be rewritten.

The conversation was a
controversial subject

the Oxford geologist didn't
want to get involved with.

This did little to deter
John West from wanting

to solve the mystery.

If the Great Sphinx
of Egypt was built

thousands of years earlier
than was written in mainstream

history, could the water
erosion marks he had examined

shed new light on the
creation of the human race?

Determined to find out,
John sought other scientists

willing to join his quest.

His search led him to Professor
Robert Schoch, a geologist

at Boston University.

>> I first went to see
the Sphinx in 1990,

and I noticed immediately
that there was a disconnect,

because the weathering
and erosion that I saw

on the Sphinx was not compatible
with Sahara Desert hyper arid

conditions.

What I was seeing,
I was convinced,

was precipitation weathering
and erosion, from rainfall,

from water beating down on it.

Now, how do you
have that when it's

been Sahara Desert for
5,000 or more years?

So immediately, I
saw this anomaly,

and the logical
conclusion I had, again,

virtually immediately, was
that the Sphinx must go back

to an earlier climatic regime.

>> Can the water erosion marks
that John West discovered stand

alone to prove the Sphinx was
constructed before 2,500 BC?

In 2008, geoarcheologists
Manichev and Parkhomenko,

argued that, through
their research

of the analyzation of
erosion on the Sphinx,

they figured it
actually was part

of a civilization much older.

>> Two Ukrainian geologists
believe that the Sphinx,

which is on the edge of a
plateau at Giza could be

as much as 800,000 years old.

Why do they believe this?

What they propose is that
originally the Mediterranean

Sea extended all the way
to the plateau of Giza

and lapped up against
the Sphinx to create

the distinctive weathering
patterns that we see.

I think that they could be
right about the weathering,

but I think that we're
talking about the Sphinx

before it was actually carved
into what we see today.

There was a rocky promontory
or knoll at that site,

which obviously, was later
used to carve the Sphinx

and that would have had
weathering patterns on it.

And almost certainly, that does
date back hundreds of thousands

of years and could well
have been weathered by water

at some point in the
past, but certainly, that

was not in the recent past.

>> As theories about how
old the Sphinx is continue,

Robert Schoch has found his
research keeps leading him

further back in time.

Since he first traveled
to Giza in 1992,

Professor Robert
Schoch's research

has taken his first dating
of the Sphinx even further.

His most recent geological
and seismic findings

have convinced him that
the Great Sphinx could

have been carved as far
back as 12,000 years ago,

at the end of the last Ice Age.

>> We know geologically and from
stage of ancient climatology,

that prior to about 3,000, what
is now Sahara was much more

moist, much more temperate,
much more rainfall.

So I concluded that had to go
back at least to that earlier

period.

My initial estimate
was 5,000 to 7,000 BC.

This was very, very
radical at the time.

The Egyptologists
were livid about this.

They were saying all kinds
of nasty things about me,

calling me a
pseudoscientist, because they

said this was absolutely
impossible, because there's

no civilization when you
go back to 5,000 to 7,000

BC that could
construct the Sphinx.

Since then, I've
continued my studies.

I've carried on with this.

I've actually re-analyzed
the seismic data,

and I'm convinced,
at this point,

for a number of technical
reasons, that actually

the seismic data suggests
that we have to go back

to at least around 10,000 BC.

And this also fits much
better, the climatic regime,

and gives enough
time for the erosion

and weathering
that we're seeing.

>> When could the Sphinx have
been exposed to what turns out,

what needs to have been, about
1,000 years of very heavy

rainfall?

There was no rainfall
like that in Egypt

in the time of the
pharaohs either.

The Giza Plateau was as dry
4,500 years ago as it is today.

And yet, here is a structure
that has been heavily weathered

by rainfall, which has fallen
on it for a long period of time.

You have to go back, you
know, more than 11,500 years.

You have to go back
to 12,000 years,

really, to get the kind
of climate conditions

in that part of the
Sahara that would

have been capable of causing
that level of erosion

on the Sphinx.

The rainfall erosion is
most visible on the trench

that surrounds the Sphinx.

Nobody bothered to restore
that, and there you

can see this undulating
profile and cuts through it.

It's classic
rainfall-induced weathering.

And the Sphinx's body has
been repaired again and again.

It wasn't just in the Old
Kingdom it was repaired.

There were more repairs done
in the New Kingdom as well.

And, you know, right down
into more recent times.

They're still restoring the
core body of the Sphinx today.

This, alone, should have alerted
archaeologists to the fact

that there's a
problem because some

of the most extensive
restorations of the Sphinx

when blocks were applied
to that rock-hewn core

body of the Sphinx to repair
damage, some of those date

from the Old Kingdom.

They date from 2,500 BC.

Now, if you've made your Sphinx
in 2,500 BC, what on Earth

are you doing restoring
it massively in 2,000?

It should be pristine.

>> Gregg Braden adds
another layer to the dating

of the Sphinx.

>> When we look at the mystery
of the Sphinx and the Giza

Plateau, in the traditional
dating of only 4,000 years,

where that no longer makes sense
is the erosion on the Sphinx

has now been proven by Robert
Schoch to be fluvial erosion

rather than aeolian erosion.

And fluvial means
vast amounts of water

moving quickly over
long periods of time,

where aeolian erosion,
that would be wind,

blowing and eroding over
long periods of time.

Robert Schoch showed,
beyond any reasonable doubt,

that it is water erosion
that has created the Sphinx.

His findings were accepted by
AAPG, the American Association

of Petroleum Geologists.

They looked at the evidence,
and they said, of course,

this makes perfect sense.

We have no problem with this.

The historians have
a huge problem,

because the last time there
were vast amounts of water

moving quickly over
long periods of time

is when the ice melted
from the last Ice Age,

and that is now being dated,
in that part of Egypt,

between 7,000 and 9,000
years before present.

So I think the evidence
strongly supports

that the Sphinx was in place
when that water was melting.

What it doesn't
account for is the Ice

Age was there for 20,000 years.

Was the Sphinx built before
the ice happened and subject

to the erosion,
or was the Sphinx

built while the
ice was in place?

And we don't know the
answer to that yet.

>> Some researchers suggest
that the Sphinx could have been

built during the
precessional cycle,

even before the current one,
giving it the date of 36,000

BC.

>> John Anthony West's view is
that actually it's not marking

12,500 years ago.

It's marking the
precessional cycle

before that, the
previous Age of Leo,

which would be 25,920
years before that.

The Age of Leo recurs
every 25,920 years.

So the astronomy
doesn't absolutely

commit us to the date
of 12,500 years ago.

But what does, I think, commit
us to the date of 12 and 1/2

thousand years ago,
is the geology.

The way that the
Sphinx is measured

and the fact that that was a
very rainy period in Egypt.

If you wind back the
ancient skies to 10,500 BC,

you go over to
Giza, and you find

that two constellations are
modeled on the ground there.

One is the
constellation of Orion,

the belt stars of Orion in
the positioning of the three

great pyramids, and the other
is the constellation of Leo,

with the Great Sphinx
gazing due east.

And the strangest thing is
that you again get a lock,

not in 2,500 BC, when Giza is
supposed to have been created,

none of it works then.

You have to go back
12,500 years to 10,500 BC

to get Leo locking perfectly
with the Sphinx at dawn

on the spring equinox.

It's the Age of Leo.

It's as though the
lion-bodied Sphinx

is looking at its own celestial
counterpart in the sky.

And the constellation
of Orion due south

on the meridian in exactly the
pattern of the three pyramids

on the ground.

And that only happens
12,500 years ago.

>> Could the Sphinx and the
pyramids have been built

at the same time?

If so, could the ancient
civilization that built it

be marking a very important
time for our current human race?

>> Now, with modern
computer software,

we can look at the ancient
skies in any period we wish.

It's interesting when we switch
from geology to astronomy,

and we start looking at
the Sphinx and the pyramids

as astronomically-connected
monuments.

And we can't do otherwise,
because the Sphinx,

as I mentioned, is perfectly
aligned on due east, perfect.

That's the work of people
who are studying the sky.

>> The temple has to be a
mirror image of the cosmos.

In other words, you have to
represent what you're actually

looking at.

A great example, of
course, is the Sphinx.

Looks at its mirror image on the
horizon of the spring equinox,

10,500 BC.

Boom.

>> Robert Schoch challenges the
conventional explanation behind

the Sphinx being
constructed in 2,500 BC.

>> It's been claimed that the
face of the Sphinx is the face

of the pharaoh
Khafre or Chephren.

So that would date it to
2,500 BC But all of this

is really very circumstantial.

I think there's a
very good possibility

that the Sphinx was not a Sphinx
originally, but it was a lion.

So a lion's body
with a lion's head.

That the human head is a
reconstruction or recarving.

Maybe the head's been
recarved more than once.

But if you think about as a
lion, during the Age of Leo,

at the end of the last Ice
Age, circa 10,000 or so BC,

you had the Sphinx
facing it's, essentially,

own image in the sky
on the vernal equinox,

and I think this was
something that may have

been incredibly significant.

>> What would be the purpose
of such a marker at the Giza

Plateau?

Is there an unseen power
that generations later

tried to capture?

>> The idea of a lion image
as an important sacred notion

in a solar-worshipping culture
is completely understandable.

First of all, the
constellations in the heavens,

so we're looking
upward for inspiration.

And the image of a lion is a
very strong, courageous, noble

quality.

So to put the head of a
pharaoh on the body of a lion

is to acknowledge
that the pharaoh has

these great, powerful qualities.

This is carved out of bedrock.

Not only is the
leader's energy united

with the image of a lion, it
is also united with the Earth.

So we have powerful imagery
of integration going

on in the Great Sphinx of Giza.

>> Could there be a different
kind of power we haven't yet

been able to understand attached
with the Sphinx and the Giza

Plateau?

>> Well, it's bizarre.

I mean, these are
gigantic monuments,

left totally
uninscribed, not even

the name of the
supposed pharaoh.

No architect's name, nothing.

It doesn't have hieroglyphs.

It doesn't have inscriptions.

But they do speak,
once you understand

that the language that
is being incorporated

or the designer,
who used language,

used mathematics and astronomy.

>> If the Sphinx was a powerful
image built only to reflect its

magnificence from the surface
of the Earth to its celestial

home, why would
it be uninscribed?

Why would the creators
not explain its purpose?

That answer might
lie below its feet.

Robert Schoch described how
his investigations led him

to another
significant discovery.

>> Below the Sphinx, I
was looking for subsurface

weathering features,
mineralogical changes.

We also found a
number of anomalies.

One of the anomalies,
probably the most

important and significant,
is under the left paw

of the Sphinx.

And it is, for--

what we can tell
from the seismic,

I'm quite convinced that
it is a cavity, but not

a natural cavity, an
artificial cavity or chamber

under the left paw.

Our initial analysis indicates
that there is something in it.

So it's not an empty cavity.

>> John Anthony West
and Robert Schoch,

in the very brief period that
they had access to the Sphinx,

they ran sidescan sonar
survey all around it.

And what was discovered beneath
the left forepaw of the Sphinx,

down at a depth of about 30
or 40 feet into the bedrock,

beneath the left
forepaw of the Sphinx

is a very large, clearly
man-made chamber.

As soon as the Egyptian
authorities discovered

what they were really doing,
they threw them off the site,

and they weren't allowed to
continue with their work.

Do perhaps the
Egyptian authorities

or the Egyptian archaeologists
and their colleagues

at Western Archeology, do
they perhaps already know?

I mean, I'm not a big
conspiracy theorist,

but there have subsequently
been drilling and investigation

projects under the Sphinx,
which have been passed off

as being to do with
clearing groundwater

from under the Sphinx.

But I wonder if that's what
they were really doing.

I don't think we're being told
the whole truth about what

is happening at Giza.

>> If that might be true, could
the Great Sphinx be guarding

human behavior recorded for
thousands or millions of years?

>> One thing I would
anticipate finding,

if there is something in those
chambers beneath the Sphinx,

is the records of those earlier
civilizations that existed

on this planet.

Plato, the Greek philosopher,
said that the Greek lawmaker

Solon once went to Egypt,
and he was speaking with one

of the Egyptian high priests.

And the Egyptian
high priest asked

about the history
of the Greek people,

and Solon said, in the
beginning, humans were created.

Then, there was a big
flood, a big catastrophe.

And after that, they
were created again.

And the Egyptian
priest began laughing.

He explained to Solon
that actually, there

have been many devastations in
the long history of the world

and the earth has been
repopulated again and again

and again over the course
of many millions of years.

And he said, you Greeks
just remember the last one,

but there have been
many before that.

And he said to Solon you've lost
the records of these earlier

histories.

The Egyptian priest said,
we have those records

of those earlier histories.

>> These things that are still
there underground were so vast

that he was really perplexed,
and he asked the Egyptian

priest who was taking him
around, who built these things?

And their reply to
him was, they were

built by the Crocodile Kings.

Now, that might be
a perfect definition

of what the Anunnaki
were, because we

do see a lot of
depictions of them

with reptilian features
and things like that.

It may be, at one point, whoever
built that chamber and hid what

I believe might be
the Hall of Records

of the Egyptian priesthood, then
chose to actually bury that up.

We might find
writings from them,

tablets, ways of
using their knowledge,

that they knew we
wouldn't be able to get to

until a certain point
in our evolution,

where we would be able to
get down to these chambers

and pull out what was there.

>> If there really is a
chamber guarding the secrets

of humanity, why haven't
we been allowed to have it?

Graham Cere explains
that the Sphinx

tests the soul before it can be
embodied in the great knowing.

>> The Sphinx, to me, represents
kind of the holder of esoteric

knowledge and the
mystery of existence.

It's sort of the watcher
at the gates to heaven.

He tests the soul on
their merit before they're

able to re-enter the garden.

Sort of like the kerubim,
who, with the flaming swords,

guard the entrance
to Eden to make sure

that the soul is pure
enough to re-enter.

So that's one aspect
of the Sphinx.

To me, it also
kind of represents

the integration of angelic
natures with human natures.

>> If the Sphinx does mark the
gateway to secret knowledge

about our planet left by an
ancient high civilization,

then could it be
that, by design,

it is intended to remain dormant
until modern civilization is

ready to see the
universe differently?

Graham Hancock suggests
this question is partially

answered by understanding the
symbolism in Egyptian artworks.

>> The ancient Egyptians
had a, I think,

a beautiful way of
looking at human life.

This was a forgiving culture.

They understood human frailty.

We are not perfect.

We do not enter life perfect.

We are going to make
mistakes, and the question is,

do we learn from those mistakes?

What do we do with the lessons
that duality has to teach us?

Do we integrate those lessons
into our life subsequently,

or do we just ignore them
and carry on as before?

>> Now, these sites are very
controversial, all of them are,

because they force historians to
rethink the traditional story.

We would begin to look at a
cyclic model of civilization,

rather than the linear
model that says civilization

began 5,000 years ago.

It opens the door
to explanations

to many of the things that
look simply mysterious to us

and make no sense at all,
such as the discovery

of entire cities under
the surface of the ocean,

that we find in multiple
places throughout the world.

>> If the great ancient
knowledge in the chamber below

the paw of the Sphinx
is inaccessible,

perhaps the same knowledge may
exist in a different location

or even in a
different frequency.

Healer and author, Sonia Grace,
describes a mystical encounter

meeting the ancient solar deity
Sekhmet during a remote vision.

>> When I spirit traveled
to the Great Sphinx,

it was back in time.

My guides took me, and we
arrived around 15,000 BC.

We were met by Sekhmet herself.

She was standing there.

She's huge.

She's, like, 20 feet tall.

She's enormous, and she invited
us inside and took us down,

going into the earth, a long
tunnel, this deep tunnel,

passageway.

It went this way, it went that
way, it went this way again,

and it opened out
into a huge room.

And she said, this was
the portal for my people.

She says my people came here
long before the Egyptian gods.

She said this Sphinx
was a carving of a lion.

It was not the dog Anubis.

It was a lion.

And she said, it's because
we come from the Leo

constellation,
and it was created

as a site for her people,
meaning X marks the spot.

This is the portal.

So this is where her
people would literally

transport to where they were
from in the Leo constellation.

>> If the Sphinx and the
Great Pyramid are just the tip

of the iceberg of our
understanding of humanity

on this planet, could their
existence be a reminder to dig

deeper?

But when, if ever,
will this knowledge

be available to all mankind?

>> For all its technology
and all its progress and all

the amazing stuff we have,
we live in a very fractured,

very dangerous world right
now, where the whole of human

achievement could be put at
jeopardy by, for example,

a massive nuclear war.

We have the toys to do
that, to bring humanity

back to the Stone Age
in a matter of days,

and it's possible
that we could do so.

But we don't really know why
we're here or what we're doing.

We have an illusion
about what it is,

and that illusion is
locked deep in the past.

That's where it
began, and we need

to recover the truth
about ourselves.

>> Could the knowledge preserved
be by the clan of Osiris?

Is there a link between
the Egyptian gods

and Anki's mission to
help mankind's advancement

towards a higher culture?

Could that specific knowledge
be below the Sphinx?

>> The Great Pyramid,
in particular,

contains mathematical, a
sort of mathematical code.

We know for sure, for example,
that astronomy and mathematics

was used.

The question is why?

It's the sort of-- well,
it's the universal language.

If ever we are contacted or
we contact extraterrestrials

somewhere else in the cosmos,
the only way we can communicate

is through mathematics
and astronomy.

Astronomy would give them
location, sort of a GPS,

if you like, and
mathematics would

be the dialogue between us.

So this monument is
speaking ET, if you like.

It's actually speaking
a universal language.

We have to come to
terms with that,

and we have to ask
the question, is it

something that developed purely
earthbound or is it a contact?

The questions are
legitimate today.

>> Maybe once we tap into
a different dimension,

we will be able
to read the code.

Some believe there are locations
on the planet that open portals

to another dimension
of our current reality.

>> What we do know is, in places
like the Cairo Museum in Egypt,

a number of artifacts have
been found from sites,

such as Sukara, for example,
that scientists simply cannot

explain.

>> Up next, could there have
been portals on Earth where

the code is revealed?