Newly Discovered Walls Buffered Sphinx from Egypt's Sand

A routine excavation has uncovered ancient walls surrounding the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced today (Nov. 2). The walls were likely built to protect the Sphinx from blowing sand, said SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass, who is overseeing the excavation. The walls are part of a larger enclosure previously found north of the Sphinx, according to Hawass. 

As told in ancient Egyptian texts, King Thutmose IV once went on a hunting trip near the Sphinx. After the trip, he dreamt that the Sphinx wanted him to clear the sand surrounding its body. According to Thutmose, the Sphinx promised that if he restored the statue, he'd become king of Egypt. 

The site near the sphinx, one of the walls found.

So Thutmose had the sand cleared and built a wall to preserve the Sphinx. Until now, researchers thought the wall was only built on the northern side of the Sphinx. The new finding disproves that theory. The researchers also found a third wall to the east of the temple of King Khafre, the builder of the second-largest pyramid in Giza and the likely builder of the Sphinx. According to Hawass, the wall may be part of the settlement that grew up around King Khafre's pyramid after the monarch's death around 2532 B.C. In this village, priests and officials oversaw the mortuary cult of the dead king. Khafre's mortuary cult remained strong until the end of Egypt's Old Kingdom around 2143 to 2134 B.C. Live Science