Physics may have given us a piece of the puzzle as to how the Great Sphinx of Giza had been carved by ancient humans. A study suggests that nature had something to do with it. Leif Ristroph, along with fellow researchers from New York University, have observed how wind and other forces naturally eroded clay and other land formations to create what is called a "yardang". These yardangs are elongated protruberances, from which the people of ancient Egypt might have been inspired to form the Great Sphinx.
Ristroph and his team wanted to test out a controversial hypothesis by the Egyptian geologist Farouk El-Baz on how the Great Sphinx as well as the pyramids were constructed. El-Baz had asserted that the head of the Great Sphinx had been carved out naturally as a yardang and ancient Egyptians merely added details of its features. Afterward, they just dug out a ditch around the head to form the body. El-Baz also suggested that these formations were possible because the ancient Egyptians were aware of the phenomenon whereby the wind erodes the sand and clay to form conical structures which could survive for ages.
Conducting experiments in a lab, Ristroph and his team were able to approximate how the phenomenon occurred and might lend credence to El-Baz's theory. Despite not fully recreating the natural conditions that could have brought the Great Sphinx and the pyramids about, Ristroph and his team were confident that the results of their experiments may provide a possible explanation behind the phenomenon.
(Image credit: The Cleveland Museum of Art/Unsplash)