Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

[narrator] in ancient egypt,

The legendary pharaoh khufu is dead.

Who will succeed

The builder of the greatest pyramid in history?

There seems to have been a bit of tension,

Amongst family members.

[narrator] now, egyptologists think that

Investigating the turmoil of succession

Could solve egypt's most enduring mystery:

The riddle of the sphinx.

[mark lehner] there's no signature on the sphinx.

There is no stamp identifying it.

[narrator] this is a story of lies,

Betrayals, and history's most enigmatic statue.

Mysteries and magic are all the time around the sphinx.

[narrator] the story of the pyramids is one of innovation.

It was a resurrection machine.

[narrator] mysterious rituals.

[salima ikram] these are things

That help the deceased re-energize

And live for eternity.

[narrator] back-breaking work,

And palace intrigue.

Unlock the deepest secrets of the pharaohs.

[franck ruhli] every mummy is different,

You never know exactly what to expect.

[narrator] explore the lives of ancient workers

And uncover the remarkable story of egypt's old kingdom.

[colleen darnell] not only did ancient egypt

Make the pyramids,

The pyramids made ancient egypt.

[upbeat music]

[narrator] on egypt's giza plateau,

The famous great pyramid has an equally imposing neighbor.

This huge monument

Formed of more than 70 million cubic feet of rock

Was ordered by a pharaoh called khafre.

Around 2470 bc, khafre comes to the throne

And calls on a vast workforce to build his pyramid.

Professional craftsmen and skilled laborers

Who are continuing a long tradition of pyramid building

In egypt.

Khafre's father is the legendary pharaoh khufu,

The builder of the great pyramid.

And just like his father,

Khafre wants his pyramid built as a tomb

That will guarantee his immortality.

[suspenseful music]

Today, the pyramid tombs of khafre and khufu

Dominate the giza plateau,

But in front of them, lies another gigantic monument,

Built around the same time.

Whose purpose and origin is much more mysterious,

The sphinx.

Archaeologist mark lehner has spent years

Studying every square inch of this immense statue.

[lehner] the sphinx is unique.

By and large, the ancient egyptians did not carve statues

On this scale for another 1,200 years.

The fact that they did so, at this time,

Is another manifestation of this burst of activity,

Burst of gigantism in pyramids,

It was a time of exuberance.

[narrator] it's some kind of mythical beast

With a human head on top of the body of an enormous lion.

Nothing like this had ever been attempted before

On such a colossal scale.

It is one block.

It's made out of the bedrock.

The egyptians made the sphinx

By carving a horseshoe-shaped ditch,

Leaving the center as a core.

[narrator] the sphinx is the largest surviving sculpture

Of the ancient world.

It is more than 65 feet high,

The equivalent of a six-story building

And over 240 feet long.

So who ordered this supersized statue built?

And why?

It is a mystery that has puzzled historians for centuries.

There is no signature on the sphinx.

There is no stamp identifying it as a particular king.

You do have signatures of a sort on the pyramids,

But here at the sphinx, no.

[narrator] mark believes it was built in the years

After khufu died.

So it might seem logical that the sphinx was created

By the builder of the second giza pyramid, his son khafre.

But the answer is not so simple

Because khafre should never have become pharaoh.

Ancient records suggest that khufu had at least 14 children

Including nine sons,

From at least 3 different royal wives.

Other sons like kawab and djedefre

Should have been closer to the throne than khafre.

So, egyptologists trying to solve the mystery

Of who built the sphinx need to also ask

Who succeeded khufu as pharaoh and how.

The first puzzle to solve

Is why ancient builders carved the sphinx

In the first place?

What does it represent?

Historians still don't know what the ancient egyptians

Called this creature.

It was the greeks who named it the "sphinx"

In reference to the legend of oedipus,

Who defeated the monster by solving its famous riddle.

But that was written two millennia

After the egyptian statue was carved.

So what is this immense beast?

And why was it carved in the middle of the giza plateau?

[lehner] there used to be lions as far north as syria,

In the time of ancient egypt.

Lions have always been also symbols

Of royalty, of kingship.

They were the king of the beasts.

[peter der manuelian] well, from early on pharaohs

Like to associate themselves

With winners and powerful beings.

So, what's a powerful being?

A lion!

And so, to be associated with these powerful beasts

Is a good thing.

[ikram] so you have lions on thrones.

They are divine creatures.

They are solar because you think of them with their manes

And they are like the sun because of the color.

But certainly, you can see this link with kingship and gods

And lions all together.

[narrator] to understand the association between

The power of the lion and royalty,

We need to travel more than 5,000 years back in time,

To the very start of egyptian kingship.

[suspenseful music]

[men yelling]

Around 3150 bc, a warlike pharaoh rules the country.

His name is hor aha.

Hor aha, reinforces the borders of his kingdom

By launching raids into neighboring territories.

Archaeologists unearthed his tomb in abydos.

Hor aha is interesting because

He is the first king of the first dynasty,

And he's buried at abydos.

Abydos is this ancient center of power in southern egypt.

And it's the burial place

For the rulers of the first dynasty.

[narrator] investigators examining hor aha's burial

Found something shocking.

[suspenseful music]

So you have the king's burial in the center

And then small chambers all around that tomb

In which different people are buried.

Some evidence suggests they were largely young people.

[narrator] the discovery could be a sign

Of a gruesome ritual.

[dramatic music]

[speaking in foreign language]

In abydos, over 5,000 years ago,

Some egyptologists have suggested that

That the pharaoh hor aha

Orders servants ritually killed and buried alongside him.

[colleen darnell] if the people buried

Around the tomb of hor aha

Were sacrificed upon the king's death,

That would be an example of a servant

Continuing to perform work in the afterlife.

[narrator] if true,

These would be the first known human sacrifices in egypt.

But without more evidence, doubts remain.

[colleen darnell] we cannot say for certain

Whether the people buried around the king

Were ritually killed, perhaps even committed suicide

Upon the death of the king.

Or whether the king was buried,

And then at different times,

Those people's burials were made

As the people died natural deaths.

[narrator] but animal sacrifice was much more common.

Among the tombs is the tomb where evidently,

They buried a lion.

Throughout ancient egypt, 3,000 years,

Lions are symbols of the king,

They are even considered the guardians into the underworld.

[megahed] having lions buried next to hor aha's tomb,

It shows that he's burying with him

One of the symbols of the kingship.

[narrator] this could explain why ancient stone carvers

Gave the famous sphinx the body of a lion.

It had been a symbol of power for kings

Since egypt's first dynasty.

It's a guardian of the cemetery,

It a guardian of this pyramid complex,

And in that crouching pose,

It becomes a protector deity at the site of giza.

[narrator] but if so,

Why does the sphinx have a human head?

A fearsome lion-headed deity could hold clues.

This is the goddess sekhmet.

She's the protective goddess of doctors.

She's the essence of fever and sickness.

Doctors wanna be friends with that force

So they can draw it out of the patient.

[narrator] sekhmet has human qualities,

But they are dominated by her uncontrolled animal nature.

Perhaps with the sphinx, it's reversed.

[lehner] here, though, you have the opposite.

It's intelligence in control of the animal forces.

The sphinx symbolizes intelligence and control

Over might...

Over power.

[narrator] but the intelligence and control

Of which specific human being?

Whose head is it?

Egyptologist have found a clue.

Instead of a lion's mane,

The sphinx wears a head dress called the nemes,

A garment reserved exclusively for kings.

[melinda hartwig] so, you have two things here.

The power of the pharaoh,

The control of the pharaoh,

And also the guardian of the necropolis,

All contained within the sphinx.

[narrator] so which pharaoh's face is on the sphinx?

And who ordered it built?

[colleen darnell] there is still some mystery surrounding

Exactly whose face is on the sphinx.

[narrator] the answer lies in understanding

Who takes power when khufu dies.

Egyptologist salima ikram

Is investigating the giza necropolis for clues.

This is where khufu's relatives were buried.

[ikram] the color of the paints

Is still in some places so fresh

That it looks like the artist has just put down his brush.

[narrator] on the walls of this tomb,

Ancient artists painted an image of khufu's oldest son,

Prince kawab.

[ikram] there seems to have been a bit of tension

Amongst family members.

But that's probably the case, in a royal family when

It is never clear who is going to inherit.

[narrator] by tradition,

Kawab should have succeeded his father.

[megahed] usually, the next king is already known

Before the kings died.

Always it is the oldest son of the king.

If he survived his father,

It means he is becoming a new king of ancient egypt.

[narrator] but kawab never becomes pharaoh.

It is his half-brother, djedefre who takes the throne.

Is this unusual succession evidence of foul play?

[dramatic music]

The theory that djedefre murdered kawab

Was pioneered by a famous american archeologist

Called george reisner.

He is the first to investigate the chronology of succession

In an attempt to unlock the secrets of the sphinx.

The way that we try to understand the royal families

From a period of history this far back

Is really to stand on the shoulders

Of egyptologists before us.

They begin with theories.

And then we try to dissect these theories

About these familial relations

Through time with new archeological evidence.

[der manuelian] it was george reisner who was the first

To have solved the riddle of the sphinx as he claimed it.

This was about 1912 or so.

And so he noticed that khufu's successor, djedefre,

Was not buried in giza

And he concocted a sort of story that

This must be a usurper.

[narrator] djedefre was born

To a secondary royal wife of khufu,

Who was from the area of modern-day libya.

When his brother kawab dies,

It's djedefre who is next in the line of succession.

Reisner sees a tale of murder and power

Straight out of shakespeare.

Modern egyptologists have had their doubts.

[lehner] you know, a sense of story is good

Because I think all human understanding

Is driven by narrative,

But the fact is that the family history is hidden in fog.

[suspenseful music]

[narrator] but they have concluded that around 2480 bc,

It is djedefre and not kawab who succeeds khufu.

And now they have discovered that this unexpected pharaoh

Did do something shocking.

In ancient egypt,

Djedefre is the new king

Having potentially murdered his brother.

Now he makes an unusual choice for a wife.

[anthony] djedefre, son of khufu,

Married his half-sister, hetepheres ii.

[narrator] but incest was common with egyptian royalty.

So that's not why hetepheres is an unusual choice.

Hetepheres had been married to kawab,

Who some people think djedefre, her new husband, murdered.

[ikram] over here you, you can see the title for hetepheres,

Where she is talking about being a great royal wife.

Clearly, this woman was one of the most significant women

Who lived in the time of khufu and thereafter.

This dress is really quite unusual

Because you can see it's very chic

With the shoulder going up like that.

Another remarkable thing is the hair color,

Because people said, "was she foreign?"

Because it seems that her hair is yellow

As opposed to the more normal black that you see.

Maybe this woman was a little bit unusual

And therefore more special.

[narrator] the widow of prince kawab

Joins djedefre on the throne

And becomes the queen of egypt.

[megahed] by marrying the wife of the dead prince

It shows the people that you are welcomed

By the whole family.

[narrator] but does djedefre really deserve his reputation

As a usurper who murdered his brother?

And could he be the king who built the sphinx?

George reisner found other evidence

To develop his usurper theory.

Like all pyramids in egypt, djedefre's pyramid at abu rawash

Is located on the west bank of the nile.

Egyptologist vassil dobrev has been given special permission

To visit the site and investigate.

[translator] we are 400 to 430 feet above sea level here.

We are in the very high area of abu rawash,

The highest in egypt.

And the name of the site confirms this.

Abu rawash in pharaonic, abu is the place.

Ra is ra,

And wash is to honor god.

So, the translation, word for word,

Is the place where one honors ra.

So, as someone who wants to praise the sun god ra,

This is the closest place to the sun.

Ra, also pronounced as ré, is the god of the sun.

Evidence shows he became particularly important

During djedefre's reign.

Djedefre was the first one to really invoke the sun cult

With so much attention.

His name, djedefre is the first name

Where you have the term ra, the sun god being invoked.

[hartwig] his name is configured with the name ra

And he's also the first king to be called the son of ra.

And this is also important because it could be that khufu

Declared himself as the incarnation of ra

During his reign.

And his son, in order to honor him,

Calls himself the son of ra.

[narrator] in abydos,

On the walls of the temple of king seti I,

Built over 1,000 years after djedefre.

Egyptologists have deciphered a rare list of egyptian kings

Many with ra in their names.

[translator] after this, all the kings are called khafre,

Neferirkare.

And it goes on like this

And it's djedefre who is the initiator

Of this very powerful movement of solar religion.

[narrator] but not all egyptologists agree

On what role djedefre played

In elevating the cult of the sun god.

I think we should not draw too many conclusions

From djedefre's name or the location of his pyramid,

Because all true pyramids are solar monuments.

So, the focus on the god ra, on the sun god,

I think does not simply begin with djedefre.

[narrator] on the high plateau of abu rawash,

Djedefre builds a pyramid with a base almost 350 feet wide

And almost 200 feet high.

The pyramid is much smaller than that of his father's khufu,

Which was more than twice as wide and over 250 feet taller.

But djedefre picks this location wisely.

By choosing a high desert plateau,

He ensures that his pyramid would tower above khufu's.

Djedefre builds his pyramid on a hill, on a hilltop

And overlooking the giza plateau.

But it's also very, very close to quarries.

To stone that can be used for the building of the pyramid.

[narrator] but it is here

That the story of khufu's successor

And the riddle of the sphinx takes another turn.

[hartwig] although nothing remains today

Of djedefre's pyramid.

It was complete or nearly complete

During the king's reign.

It was very close to a quarry.

And that same quarry was used by the romans

When they came into power in egypt.

And not only did they take stone from the quarry,

But they also took stone away from djedefre's pyramid.

And that's why there's hardly anything that remains today

Other than the subterranean rooms.

[narrator] djedefre's pyramid was destroyed

Some 2,000 years after it was built,

A misfortune that would push the king from history.

It was only when modern archaeologists

Excavated the ruins at abu rawash

And found statues of the king,

That djedefre's name was restored.

[anthony] in the ancient era,

If a king wanted to proclaim his ownership of the land

Or to have the people understand who he was,

He really had to erect statues and monuments

To get that information across.

[narrator] but the statues show

That the destruction of djedefre's legacy

May not have been an accident.

Because the statues are destroyed or defaced,

We know that there was political intrigue, drama

Or discontent about the way that a king handled

His rule of the country.

Because art is used as propaganda

From the earliest period of time.

[narrator] the noses had been intentionally broken,

And djedefre's name chiseled away.

[der manuelian] it's not so important

That the statue actually looks like you,

It's important that your name is on the statue.

And if you come in and chisel out

Someone's name in hieroglyph,

You are ritually damaging that person.

If you chisel the nose of that person's statue,

They ritually can't breathe,

So there are all kind of ways to damage someone.

[narrator] could this be a clue to solve the mystery

Of who built the sphinx?

Because just like djedefre's statues,

The giant sphinx at giza also has a missing nose.

[dramatic music]

In egypt, archaeologists trying to solve the mystery

Of who built the sphinx investigate

The pharaoh djedefre.

Could there be a connection between

Defaced statues of this king

And the sphinx with its missing nose?

The broken statues of djedefre

Lead early 20th century egyptologist george reisner

To another theory.

That djedefre was a usurper

Whose memory was destroyed by later royalty.

[lehner] reisner is taking facts like

The statues of djedefre are smashed.

It could be because there is a reaction

From the common people against the elite

And the royal house.

That's one possibility.

Or it could be divisions and anger

Within the royal house itself

And competition between collateral lines

Of the royal family.

We don't know.

[narrator] but we do know that

After just 10 to 15 years in power,

Barely enough time to finish his pyramid,

Djedefre is dead.

[megahed] the reign of djedefre was short

Comparing to the rest of the family.

And therefore, it makes us believe that his reign

Was not peaceful at all.

[ikram] when he died,

Whether he died sooner rather than later,

Whether he might have been killed or not, we don't know.

Khufu's other son, khafre took over.

[narrator] could the succession of

Djedefre's half-brother khafre, instead of a son,

Be evidence of more foul play?

[knife stabbing]

George reisner thought so.

He theorized that djedefre

Was murdered by his younger brother khafre,

Who then sought to destroy his memory

By damaging the statues at abu rawash.

Reisner suggested that khafre's pyramid

Built at giza next to his father's

Was evidence that the new king

Was returning to family roots,

After vanquishing his usurper brother.

[lehner] george reisner made up a story

That he was overthrown in some sense by khafre

Who therefore came back to giza as the home plateau.

[narrator] but egyptologists today have their doubts.

[lehner] reisner takes the facts

And he weaves them with a story.

The story of the rebellion, the revolt,

And the anger within khufu's family.

Who knows?

Maybe it's true,

But it is really a huge inference,

For which the linking up of the facts

Is kind of reisner's imagination.

[narrator] the broken noses of djedefre's statues

And the sphinx may just be a coincidence.

[megahed] we know that the nose

In every statue is the weakest part.

So it's very easy to be destroyed.

I don't believe there is a link between

Destroying the nose of the statues of djedefre,

And the nose of the sphinx.

[narrator] many think that djedefre's statues

Were defaced thousands of years later

During the roman conquest of egypt.

Whatever happened, around 2470 bc

Khafre takes control of egypt.

He decides to build his tomb

Directly next to his father's great pyramid.

Returning to giza poses a dilemma for khafre.

He wants to show off his power with a grand pyramid,

But how can he stand out next to khufu's immense monument?

The pyramid of khufu is by far the biggest.

It's the biggest of all time.

[hartwig] khafre's pyramid is interesting because

When you first look at it on the giza plateau,

It looks like it's taller than the great pyramid.

But in fact, it's not.

Khafre built on higher ground, probably to outdo his father.

[narrator] even though khafre's pyramid is steeper,

It was originally 10 feet shorter

Than his father's great pyramid.

But today they stand as a majestic

And almost matching pair on the plateau.

Khafre's return to giza

Marks the end of a complicated power struggle

Triggered by the death of his father, khufu.

But one great mystery still remains,

Who built the sphinx?

Now that egyptologists know the order of succession

First djedefre,

Then his brother khafre,

They've narrowed down the suspects.

And while khafre was long a favorite

Due to his links with giza,

It turns out djedefre didn't entirely abandon the area.

[ikram] djedefre has been long overlooked by egyptologists

And I think that people should focus more on him,

Because it is quite possible that he had more to do

With building at giza,

To finish off khufu's funerary complex,

Than anyone else did.

Because certainly djedefre succeeded khufu,

And it is traditional in egypt

That the person who finishes off a mortuary complex

Is the one who succeeds to the throne.

[megahed] when djedefre moved from giza,

His job in giza was not over.

We have information that

He is the one who buried his father in giza.

[der manuelian] we actually have graffiti

On the south side of his pyramid,

And they mention djedefre's name.

So djedefre was actually involved

In the funeral ceremony of khufu,

That's hardly the role of the usurper.

[narrator] and archaeologists in abu rawash

Have unearthed a link between djedefre and the sphinx.

A statue believed to be the oldest sphinx in egypt,

It represents the wife of djedefre,

Queen hetepheres ii.

The evidence suggests that the idea

And imagery of the sphinx

Was developed during djedefre's reign.

And some egyptologists now theorize that the sphinx at giza

Could have been built by djedefre,

But in the image of his father khufu.

[hartwig] the features of the sphinx

Seem very close to the ivory statuette

That belongs to khufu.

On top of that, there were votive gifts that were left

Between the paws of the sphinx that mentioned khufu.

Also, the sphinx wears an older form of the nemes headdress,

One that we find during the reign of khufu.

[translator] so the sphinx is a propaganda image,

Because through this, djedefre, the son of khufu,

Shows the egyptian people

That there is indeed a life after death.

Because his father khufu has ascended into heaven,

And now he is back on earth as a divine being.

[narrator] vassil dobrev thinks that

Evidence it was djedefre

And not khafre who built the sphinx,

Lies in the layout of khafre's funeral complex.

[translator] I think it's a very simple solution,

It's based on geography.

[narrator] ancient egyptian kings usually built

Two temples for each pyramid.

The first at the foot of the pyramid

Is used to worship the dead king.

A long stone ramp, called a causeway,

Joins the first temple to a lower structure

Known as the valley temple.

Located on the banks of the nile,

It was used for embalming ceremonies.

[translator] when you look at a map of giza from above,

You can see very clearly

That when khafre builds here,

He constructs a temple in the valley.

But the causeway is completely shifted to the south,

As if he avoided the sphinx.

That means that when khafre builds his monument here,

There was already a sphinx in the way.

He tore up all the rules of egyptian architecture,

Which is usually based on symmetry.

In my opinion, it is djedefre who built the sphinx.

[narrator] but mark lehner

Isn't so sure about this theory.

[lehner] maybe djedefre made the sphinx

In honor of his father khufu.

Well, maybe, but there's no proof of that.

There's not even any way to test such an idea.

[narrator] mark believes he can prove

Who did build the sphinx.

On egypt's giza plateau,

Mark lehner thinks that the valley temple of khafre,

Directly next to the sphinx,

Holds the proof that khafre

Is the pharaoh who built this giant statue.

[lehner] I think what happened is khafre had the idea

To take a quarry cliff and turn it into the great sphinx.

And as they did so under the reign of khafre,

The quarry men took the layers from the head and neck,

From the upper layers,

And moved it to the southeast

For building the valley temple.

[narrator] mark has examined the composition of stone

In the sphinx,

And found a match with the stone

Used for khafre's valley temple.

[lehner] as they went down and carved the lion body,

They moved the stone immediately to the east

For making the sphinx temple.

[narrator] so if khafre did build the sphinx,

Which pharaoh does it represent?

[lehner] probably it was khafre himself.

A visionary, like his father, khufu,

Building the great pyramid.

What khafre is kind of adding to this explosion

In this period of experimentation

On a gigantic scale,

He is adding the great sphinx.

[narrator] if true, khafre is using the sphinx

To project his influence.

[hartwig] the sphinx is the head of the pharaoh

On top of a lion's body.

And the symbolism behind that is the intelligence

And control of the pharaoh's face

On the strength and power of a lion's body.

[narrator] in spite of the disagreements that still remain

Between egyptologists about who built the sphinx,

And who it depicts,

All agree on one point.

That the builder of the sphinx

Planned to build a temple in front of it

Where the iconic beast could be worshiped by a cult.

But it was never completed.

So in a sense, the sphinx and its temple

Never got turned on as cult images,

The way you would say,

You design a whole theme park and then turn it on,

And so people could come use it.

[narrator] the builder of the sphinx

Had no chance to consecrate its temple

And to hire priests to ensure the continuation of worship.

But after some 1,200 years of obscurity,

New pharaohs would eventually re-appropriate the site

And imagery.

Generations later, centuries later,

You get visitors coming to these sites.

For example, amenhotep ii

Used to tool around the site in his chariot.

He loved the site of giza,

And he actually built an entire temple

Oriented toward the sphinx

And left a huge stela there talking about

His athletic prowess.

[narrator] amenhotep's son, prince thutmose,

Goes one further.

He orders an inscribed stone slab

Placed between the legs of the great sphinx.

[lehner] thutmose, apparently, he wasn't the crown prince.

He had older brothers.

At this time, princes were educated in memphis

And they were trained in military skills,

Driving chariot

Shooting bows and arrows.

And he was practicing those skills here in the area of giza.

He says in this hieroglyphic text

That he slept in the shadow of the sphinx's head

And the sphinx came to him in a dream.

In the dream, the sphinx said to him,

"thutmose, my son. Look at me.

I'm surrounded by desert sands, I am buried.

Clear the sand away from my body

And I'll make you the king of upper and lower egypt."

[narrator] the young prince ordered the statue uncovered.

Eventually, he becomes pharaoh,

Named thutmose iv.

He installs this stela, now called the dream stela

Between the legs of the sphinx.

Now, this became the centerpiece for this little chapel

Where ramses added his stela in the first year of his reign.

Other kings and princes added inscriptions and stelas

In the first year of their reigns.

This place, the area between the sphinx paws, this chapel,

Was where kings and princes came to be ordained,

Almost like the vatican.

[der manuelian] so, you don't do that sort of thing

Without taking a kind of pride

In the work of your ancestors,

Of pharaohs from the old kingdom

And enjoying being at that site,

Which was so remote to people like

Thutmose iv and amenhotep ii,

As these sites are to us today.

[narrator] in the centuries before thutmose

Ordered the sphinx dug out of the sand,

It had fallen into disrepair.

So, the young pharaoh orders workmen

To undertake a full renovation.

In later times,

Bricks were added to protect the most damaged areas,

They're still visible today.

So, on the cheek up here and on the forehead,

You can see a little bit of color, traces of red.

It's possible that the sphinx was entirely painted red.

But in the new kingdom, when they resurrected it,

There's good evidence that they painted it

In more than just red.

When we were working in the chapel,

I found little bits of egyptian blue.

The special pigment that the egyptians were known for,

In the interstices between the stones.

And there were traces even of yellow.

There was lots of red.

Everywhere you brushed the stones

Before the restoration work of the 1980s and '90s,

Red powder would come out from between the stones,

Almost like the sphinx was bleeding.

This is from when most of the sphinx was red.

There's evidence that wings patterns

Were painted against the flanks of the sphinx.

And in fact, some of the stela from the new kingdom

Show the sphinx with wings on the sides of the lion body.

Why? Because it was a human head, it was a lion.

But it's also horus and horus is the falcon.

So, the sphinx was a much more colorful, complex,

Iconic image,

In the age of empire, when it was restored,

Than the beige ruin that we see today.

[narrator] an icon of the ancient world,

The sphinx retains its aura of mystery and enigma.

For nearly a century,

The theories of egyptologist, george reisner

About how the sphinx was built,

Were believed to be accurate.

He romanticized the succession of the great pharaoh khufu.

Imagining stories of rivalries,

Plots and assassinations

But without any tangible proof.

Today, specialists are more intrigued by khafre's decision

To return to giza

And build his pyramid next to his father.

With no surviving record of who built the great sphinx,

The mystery remains.

[john carnell] whether khafre built it

Or as has been suggested,

The sphinx was constructed in memoriam

For khufu by djedefre.

I don't know that we have good definitive evidence yet.

[colleen darnell] to be absolutely certain

About the builder of the sphinx,

We will actually need more evidence than we currently have.

[narrator] the builder of the second largest pyramid

Ever constructed in egypt is well known.

The pharaoh khafre ensured his memory would endure

By stamping his mark on giza with his monumental tomb.

But what khafre does not know

Is that his will be the last truly colossal pyramid

Ever built in egypt.