The Great Sphinx of Giza

The Great Sphinx of Giza (Arabic: أبو الهول‎ Abū al Hūl, English: The Terrifying One), commonly referred to as the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining or couchant sphinx (a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head) that stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt.

It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high.^[1] It is the oldest known monumental sculpture, and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the pharaoh Khafra (c. 2558–2532 BC).^[1][2]

Origin and identity[link]

The Great Sphinx is one of the world's largest and oldest statues, but basic facts about it, such as who its face was modeled after, when it was built, and by whom, are still debated. These questions have resulted in the popular idea of the "Riddle of the Sphinx," ^[3] although this phrase should not be confused with the original Greek legend of the Riddle of the Sphinx.

The Great Sphinx in about 1880, partly under the sand

The Sphinx against the Pyramid of Khafre

Pliny The Elder mentioned the Great Sphinx in his book, Natural History, commenting that the Egyptians looked upon the statue as a "divinity" that has been passed over in silence and "that King Harmais was buried in it". ^[4][5]

Names of the Sphinx[link]

It is not known by what name the creators called their statue, as the Great Sphinx does not appear in any known inscription of the Old Kingdom, and there are no inscriptions anywhere describing its construction or its original purpose. In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx was called Hor-em-akhet (English: Horus of the Horizon; Hellenized: Harmachis), and the pharaoh Thutmose IV (1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC)^[6] specifically referred to it as such in his Dream Stele.

The commonly used name Sphinx was given to it in classical antiquity, about 2000 years after the accepted date of its construction, by reference to a Greek mythological beast with a lion's body, a woman's head and the wings of an eagle (although, like most Egyptian sphinxes, the Great Sphinx has a man's head and no wings). The English word sphinx comes from the ancient Greek Σφίγξ (transliterated: sphinx), apparently from the verb σφίγγω (transliterated: sphingo / English: to squeeze), after the Greek sphinx who strangled anyone who failed to answer her riddle.

The name may alternatively be a corruption of the ancient Egyptian Ssp-anx (in MdC), a name given to royal statues of Dynasty IV (2575–2467 BC and later) in the New Kingdom (c. 1570–1070 BC) to the Great Sphinx more specifically, although phonetically the two names are far from identical.

Medieval Arab writers, including al-Maqrīzī, call the Sphinx balhib and bilhaw, which suggest a Coptic influence. The modern Egyptian Arabic name is أبو الهول (Abū al Hūl, English: The Terrifying One).

Builder and timeframe[link]

Despite conflicting evidence and viewpoints over the years, the traditional view held by modern Egyptology at large remains that the Great Sphinx was built in approximately 2500 BC by the pharaoh Khafra, the builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza.^[7]

Selim Hassan, writing in 1949 on recent excavations of the Sphinx enclosure, summed up the problem:

"Taking all things into consideration, it seems that we must give the credit of erecting this, the world's most wonderful statue, to Khafre, but always with this reservation: that there is not one single contemporary inscription which connects the Sphinx with Khafre; so, sound as it may appear, we must treat the evidence as circumstantial, until such time as a lucky turn of the spade of the excavator will reveal to the world a definite reference to the erection of the Sphinx."^[8]

The "circumstantial" evidence mentioned by Hassan includes the Sphinx's location in the context of the funerary complex surrounding the Second Pyramid, which is traditionally connected with Khafra.^[9] Apart from the Causeway, the Pyramid and the Sphinx, the complex also includes the Sphinx Temple and the Valley Temple, both of which display the same architectural style, with 200-tonne stone blocks quarried out of the Sphinx enclosure.

A diorite statue of Khafre, which was discovered buried upside down along with other debris in the Valley Temple, is claimed as support for the Khafra theory.

The Dream Stele, erected much later by the pharaoh Thutmose IV (1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC), associates the Sphinx with Khafra. When the stela was discovered, its lines of text were already damaged and incomplete, and only referred to Khaf, not Khafra. An extract was translated:

"... which we bring for him: oxen ... and all the young vegetables; and we shall give praise to Wenofer ... Khaf ... the statue made for Atum-Hor-em-Akhet."^[10]

The Egyptologist Thomas Young, finding the Khaf hieroglyphs in a damaged cartouche used to surround a royal name, inserted the glyph ra to complete Khafra's name. However, the stela offers no indication of the relationship between the Sphinx and 'Khafra' – as its builder, restorer, worshipper or otherwise. When the Stela was re-excavated in 1925, the lines of text referring to Khaf flaked off and were destroyed.

Dissenting hypotheses[link]

Theories held by mainstream Egyptologists about the date of the construction of the Great Sphinx of Giza have been challenged and various alternative theories have been proposed – about the builder or the dating – to explain its construction.

Early Egyptologists[link]

Some of the early Egyptologists and excavators of the Giza pyramid complex believed the Great Sphinx and other structures in the Sphinx enclosure predated the traditional date of construction (the reign of Khafra or Khephren, 2520–2492 BC).

In 1857, Auguste Mariette, founder of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, unearthed the much later Inventory Stela (estimated Dynasty XXVI, c. 678–525 BC), which tells how Khufu came upon the Sphinx, already buried in sand. Although certain tracts on the Stela are considered good evidence,^[11] this passage is widely dismissed as Late Period historical revisionism.^[12]

Gaston Maspero, the French Egyptologist and second director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, conducted a survey of the Sphinx in 1886 and concluded:

"The Sphinx stela shows, in line thirteen, the cartouche of Khephren.^[13] I believe that to indicate an excavation carried out by that prince, following which, the almost certain proof that the Sphinx was already buried in sand by the time of Khafre^[13] and his predecessors [i.e. Dynasty IV, c. 2575–2467 BC]."^[14]

In 1904, English Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge wrote in The Gods of the Egyptians:

"This marvelous object [the Great Sphinx] was in existence in the days of Khafre, or Khephren,^[13] and it is probable that it is a very great deal older than his reign and that it dates from the end of the archaic period [c. 2686 BC]."^[15]

Modern dissenting hypotheses[link]

Rainer Stadelmann, former director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, examined the distinct iconography of the nemes (headdress) and the now-detached beard of the Sphinx and concluded that the style is more indicative of the Pharaoh Khufu (2589–2566 BC), builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza and Khafra's father.^[16] He supports this by suggesting that Khafra's Causeway was built to conform to a pre-existing structure, which, he concludes, given its location, could only have been the Sphinx.^[12]

Colin Reader, an English geologist who independently conducted a more recent survey of the enclosure, points out that the various quarries on the site have been excavated around the Causeway. Because these quarries are known to have been used by Khufu, Reader concludes that the Causeway (and the temples on either end thereof) must predate Khufu, thereby casting doubt on the conventional Egyptian chronology.^[12]

In 2004, Vassil Dobrev of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo announced that he had uncovered new evidence that the Great Sphinx may have been the work of the little-known Pharaoh Djedefre (2528–2520 BC), Khafra's half brother and a son of Khufu.^[17] Dobrev suggests that Djedefre built the Sphinx in the image of his father Khufu, identifying him with the sun god Ra in order to restore respect for their dynasty. Dobrev also notes, like Stadelmann and others, that the causeway connecting Khafre's pyramid to the temples was built around the Sphinx suggesting it was already in existence at the time.^[16]

Frank Domingo, a forensic scientist in the New York City Police Department and an expert forensic anthropologist,^[18] used detailed measurements of the Sphinx, forensic drawings and computer imaging to conclude that Khafra, as depicted on extant statuary, was not the model for the Sphinx's face.^[19]

Water erosion debate[link]

The Sphinx water erosion hypothesis contends that the main type of weathering evident on the enclosure walls of the Great Sphinx could only have been caused by prolonged and extensive rainfall,^[20] and that it must therefore predate the time of the pharaoh Khafra. The hypothesis is championed primarily by Robert M. Schoch, a geologist and associate professor of natural science at the College of General Studies at Boston University , and John Anthony West, an author and alternative Egyptologist.

Fringe hypotheses[link]

Orion Correlation Theory: The Giza pyramids (in outline) superimposed on an astrophotograph of Orion's Belt. Note: the pyramids have been rotated and scaled to facilitate correlation.

The origin and identity of the Sphinx are the subject of many fringe theories that are not generally accepted by mainstream Egyptologists or are unsupported by scientific evidence.

Orion correlation theory[link]

The Orion correlation theory, as expounded by popular authors Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval,^[21] is based on the proposed exact correlation of the three pyramids at Giza with the three stars ζ Ori, ε Ori and δ Ori, the stars forming Orion's Belt, in the relative positions occupied by these stars in 10500 BC. The authors argue that the geographic relationship of the Sphinx, the Giza pyramids and the Nile directly corresponds with Leo, Orion and the Milky Way respectively. Sometimes cited as an example of pseudoarchaeology, the theory is at variance with mainstream scholarship; Bauval and Hancock in turn say that archaeologists are possibly engaged in a conspiracy to ignore or suppress evidence contradicting the established scholarly consensus.^[22][23][24]

The Great Sphinx as Anubis[link]

Author Robert K. G. Temple proposes that the Sphinx was originally a statue of the Jackal-Dog Anubis, the God of the Necropolis, and that its face was recarved in the likeness of a Middle Kingdom pharaoh, Amenemhet II. Temple bases his identification on the style of the eye make-up and the style of the pleats on the head-dress.^[25]

Racial characteristics[link]

Over the years several authors have commented on what they perceive as "Negroid" or Ethiopian characteristics in the face of the Sphinx.^[26] This issue has become part of the Ancient Egyptian race controversy, with respect to the ancient population as a whole.^[27] The face of the Sphinx has been damaged over the millennia, making conclusive racial identification of its characteristics difficult or impossible, much less assuming that a part-lion mythical creature was carved to accurate human standards.

Restoration[link]

After the Giza Necropolis was abandoned, the Sphinx became buried up to its shoulders in sand. The first documented attempt at an excavation dates to c. 1400 BC, when the young Thutmose IV (1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC) gathered a team and, after much effort, managed to dig out the front paws, between which he placed a granite slab, known as the Dream Stele, inscribed with the following (an extract):

... the royal son, Thothmos, being arrived, while walking at midday and seating himself under the shadow of this mighty god, was overcome by slumber and slept at the very moment when Ra is at the summit [of heaven]. He found that the Majesty of this august god spoke to him with his own mouth, as a father speaks to his son, saying: Look upon me, contemplate me, O my son Thothmos; I am thy father, Harmakhis-Khopri-Ra-Tum; I bestow upon thee the sovereignty over my domain, the supremacy over the living ... Behold my actual condition that thou mayest protect all my perfect limbs. The sand of the desert whereon I am laid has covered me. Save me, causing all that is in my heart to be executed.^[28]

Later, Ramesses II the Great (1279–1213 BC) may have undertaken a second excavation.

Mark Lehner, an Egyptologist, originally asserted that there had been a far earlier renovation during the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2184 BC),^[29] although he has subsequently recanted this "heretical" viewpoint.^[30]

In AD 1817, the first modern archaeological dig, supervised by the Italian Captain Giovanni Battista Caviglia, uncovered the Sphinx's chest completely. The entire Sphinx was finally excavated in 1925 to 1936, in digs led by Émile Baraize.

In 1931 engineers of the Egyptian government repaired the head of the Sphinx when part of its headdress fell off in 1926 due to erosion that had also cut deeply into its neck.^[31]

Panoramic view of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza

Missing nose and beard[link]

The Sphinx profile in 2010

Limestone fragments of the Sphinx's beard

The one-meter-wide nose on the face is missing. Examination of the Sphinx's face shows that long rods or chisels were hammered into the nose, one down from the bridge and one beneath the nostril, then used to pry the nose off towards the south.^[32]

The Egyptian Arab historian al-Maqrīzī, writing in the 15th century AD, attributes the loss of the nose to iconoclasm by Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, a Sufi Muslim from the khanqah of Sa'id al-Su'ada. In AD 1378, upon finding the Egyptian peasants making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope of increasing their harvest, Sa'im al-Dahr was so outraged that he destroyed the nose, and was hanged for vandalism. Al-Maqrīzī describes the Sphinx as the "talisman of the Nile" on which the locals believed the flood cycle depended.

There is also a story that the nose was broken off by a cannonball fired by Napoleon's soldiers, that still lives on today. Other variants indict British troops, the Mamluks, and others. However, sketches of the Sphinx by the Dane Frederic Louis Norden, made in 1737 and published in 1755, illustrate the Sphinx already without a nose.

In addition to the lost nose, a ceremonial pharaonic beard is thought to have been attached, although this may have been added in later periods after the original construction. Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev has suggested that had the beard been an original part of the Sphinx, it would have damaged the chin of the statue upon falling.^[16] The lack of visible damage supports his theory that the beard was a later addition.

Mythology[link]

Colin Reader has proposed that the Sphinx was probably the focus of solar worship in the Early Dynastic Period, before the Giza Plateau became a necropolis in the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2134 BC).^[33] He ties this in with his conclusions that the Sphinx, the Sphinx temple, the Causeway and the Khafra mortuary temple are all part of a complex which predates Dynasty IV (c. 2613–2494 BC). The lion has long been a symbol associated with the sun in ancient Near Eastern civilizations. Images depicting the Egyptian king in the form of a lion smiting his enemies date as far back as the Early Dynastic Period.

In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx became more specifically associated with the god Hor-em-akhet (Hellenized: Harmachis) or Horus at the Horizon, which represented the pharaoh in his role as the Shesep-ankh (English: Living Image) of the god Atum. Pharaoh Amenhotep II (1427–1401 or 1397 BC) built a temple to the north east of the Sphinx nearly 1000 years after its construction, and dedicated it to the cult of Hor-em-akhet.

Images over the centuries[link]

In the last 700 years there have been a proliferation of travellers and reports from Lower Egypt, unlike Upper Egypt, which was seldom reported from prior to the mid-18th century. Alexandria, Rosetta, Damietta, Cairo and the Giza Pyramids are described repeatedly, but not necessarily comprehensively. Many accounts, by no means all by people who had actually seen it, were published and widely read. These include those of George Sandys, André Thévet, Athanasius Kircher, Balthasar de Monconys, Jean de Thévenot, John Greaves, Johann Michael Vansleb, Benoît de Maillet, Cornelis de Bruijn, Paul Lucas, Richard Pococke, Frederic Louis Norden and others. But there is an even larger crowd of more anonymous people who wrote obscure and little-read works, sometimes only unpublished manuscripts in libraries or private collections, including Henry Castela, Hans Ludwig von Lichtenstein, Michael Heberer von Bretten, Wilhelm von Boldensele, Pierre Belon du Mans, Vincent Stochove, Christophe Harant, Gilles Fermanel, Robert Fauvel, Jean Palerne Foresien, Willian Lithgow, Joos van Ghistele, etc.

Over the centuries, writers and scholars have recorded their impressions and reactions upon seeing the Sphinx. The vast majority were concerned with a general description, often including a mixture of science, romance and mystique. A typical description of the Sphinx by tourists and leisure travelers throughout the 19th and 20th century was made by John Lawson Stoddard;

It is the antiquity of the Sphinx which thrills us as we look upon it, for in itself it has no charms. The desert's waves have risen to its breast, as if to wrap the monster in a winding-sheet of gold. The face and head have been mutilated by Moslem fanatics. The mouth, the beauty of whose lips was once admired, is now expressionless. Yet grand in its loneliness, – veiled in the mystery of unnamed ages, – the relic of Egyptian antiquity stands solemn and silent in the presence of the awful desert – symbol of eternity. Here it disputes with Time the empire of the past; forever gazing on and on into a future which will still be distant when we, like all who have preceded us and looked upon its face, have lived our little lives and disappeared. John L. Stoddard's Lectures (1898) 2, 111.

From the 16th century far into the 19th century, observers repeatedly noted that the Sphinx has the face, neck and breast of a woman. Examples included Johannes Helferich (1579), George Sandys (1615), Johann Michael Vansleb (1677), Benoît de Maillet (1735) and Elliot Warburton (1844).

Most early Western images were book illustrations in print form, elaborated by a professional engraver from either previous images available or some original drawing or sketch supplied by an author, and usually now lost. Seven years after visiting Giza, André Thévet (Cosmographie de Levant, 1556) described the Sphinx as "the head of a colossus, caused to be made by Isis, daughter of Inachus, then so beloved of Jupiter". He, or his artist and engraver, pictured it as a curly-haired monster with a grassy dog collar. Athanasius Kircher (who never visited Egypt) depicted the Sphinx as a Roman statue, reflecting his ability to conceptualize (Turris Babel, 1679). Johannes Helferich's (1579) Sphinx is a pinched-face, round-breasted woman with straight hair; the only edge over Thevet is that the hair suggests the flaring lappets of the headdress. George Sandys stated that the Sphinx was a harlot; Balthasar de Monconys interpreted the headdress as a kind of hairnet, while François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz's Sphinx had a rounded hairdo with bulky collar.

Richard Pococke's Sphinx was an adoption of Cornelis de Bruijn's drawing of 1698, featuring only minor changes, but is closer to the actual appearance of the Sphinx than anything previous. The print versions of Norden's careful drawings for his Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie, 1755 are the first to clearly show that the nose was missing. However from the time of the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt onwards, a number of accurate images were widely available in Europe, and copied by others.

The Disney film Aladdin attributes the Sphinx's broken nose to a stonemason who accidentally chipped it off after being distracted by Aladdin and Jasmine flying past on their magic carpet. In the cartoon book Asterix and Cleopatra, Obelix climbs up the face of the Sphinx and accidentally knocks the nose off.

In 2008, the film 10,000 BC showed a supposed original Sphinx with a lion's head. Before the film, the theory was presented on earlier documentary films about the origin of the Sphinx.

Gallery[link]

Popular documentaries[link]

• Mystery of The Sphinx, narrated by Charlton Heston, a biased documentary presenting the theories of John Anthony West, was shown as a NBC Special on 10 November 1993 (winning an Emmy award for Best Research). A 95 minute DVD, Mystery of the Sphinx: Expanded Edition was released in 2007.^[34]

• Age Of The Sphinx, a BBC Two Timewatch documentary presenting the theories of John Anthony West and critical to both sides of the argument, was shown on 27 November 1994.

See also[link]

• Giza
• Lion (heraldry)
• List of colossal sculpture in situ
• List of statues by height

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Great Sphinx of Giza

• Riddle of the Sphinx
• An academic article arguing the case for water erosion evidence
• Egyptian and Greek Sphinxes
• Egypt—The Lost Civilization Theory
• The Sphinx's Nose
• Sphinx photo gallery
• Al Maqrizi's account (Arabic)

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Coordinates: 29°58′31″N 31°08′16″E / 29.97528°N 31.13778°E / 29.97528; 31.13778

"Gizeh" redirects here. For the name of a German brand of cigarette rolling papers, see Mascotte (rolling papers).

"Jizah" redirects here. For the Wu-Tang Clan member and rapper, see GZA.

Giza الجيزة ⲅⲓⲍⲁ
Pyramid Street in Giza
Giza
Coordinates: 30°01′N 31°13′E / 30.017°N 31.217°E / 30.017; 31.217
Country	Egypt
Governorate	Giza
Population
• Total	2,681,863
Time zone	EST (UTC+2)

Giza (Coptic: ⲅⲓⲍⲁ Gee-zah, Arabic: الجيزة‎ Al-Ğīzah), sometimes spelt Gizah, is the third largest city in Egypt. It is located on the west bank of the Nile River, some 20 km (12.43 mi) southwest of central Cairo. Along with Shubra El-Kheima, Cairo and Helwan, the four cities form the Province of Greater Cairo metropolis. The city of Giza is the capital of the Giza Governorate, and is located near the northeast border of this governorate in coordinates. It is located right on the banks of the River Nile. The city's population was 2,681,863 in the 2006 national census, while the governorate had 6,272,571 at the same census. Its large population makes it the second largest suburb in the world, tied with Incheon, South Korea and Quezon City, Philippines, second only to Yokohama, Japan.

Giza is most famous as the location of the Giza Plateau: the site of some of the most impressive ancient monuments in the world, including a complex of ancient Egyptian royal mortuary and sacred structures, including the Great Sphinx, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and a number of other large pyramids and temples. The plateau and its monuments have been recorded in the Giza Plateau Mapping Project run by Ancient Egypt Research Associates, directed by Dr. Mark Lehner.^[1] AERA's 2009 field season was recorded in a blog.^[2]

The Great Pyramid of Giza at one time was advocated (1884) as the location for the Prime Meridian, a reference point used for determining a base longitude.^[3]

History[link]

"Mn Nefer" (Memphis, in Greek) - which means "the beautiful wall" in the ancient Egyptian language -, the capital city of the first unified Egyptian state since the days of Pharaoh King Narmer, lies nearly 20 km (12.43 mi) south of Giza. Giza's most famous archaeological site, the Giza Plateau, holds some of the most astonishing monuments in Egyptian history. Once thriving with the Nile that flowed right into the Giza Plateau, the pyramids of Giza were built overlooking the ancient Egyptian capital city of Memphis, which was near modern day Cairo.

The Giza Plateau is also home to many other ancient Egyptian monuments, including the tomb of Pharaoh Djet of the First Dynasty, as well as that of Pharaoh Ninetjer of the Second Dynasty.

Infrastructure[link]

Giza has seen many changes over time. Changes in infrastructure during the different occupations of Egypt by various rulers, including the British in the 18th and early 20th century, focused on the construction of roads, streets, and buildings in the area. Giza is a thriving centre of Egyptian culture and is quite heavily populated, with many facilities and buildings in the current area. Giza saw much attention in particular to its vast amount of ancient Egyptian monuments found on the Giza Plateau, and has astonished thousands of visitors and tourists over the years. Giza's infrastructure saw much attention from both the British government prior to the 1952 coup d'etat, as well as the current Egyptian government due to the city's importance in tourism.

The city hosts the first zoo on the entire African continent and one of the oldest in the Mediterranean region, the Giza Zoo. In addition, there are several parks, the most famous among them is Orman Park which means "Forest Park" in the Turkish language.

Health[link]

Giza has advanced level of medical care just like its elder twin Cairo.

A list of famous hospitals in Giza:

• Agooza in Agouza district.
• Al Salam in Mohandessin neighbourhood.
• Badran in Dokki district.
• El Safa.
• Haram Hospital in Haram.
• El Shoruk Hospital.
• Cairo Medical Lab

In addition to hospitals there are numerous medical facilities, private clinics, medical check laboratories, etc.

Transportation[link]

Transportation in Giza comprises an extensive road network, rail system, subway system, and maritime services. Road transport is facilitated by personal vehicles, taxi cabs, privately owned public buses, and microbuses.

Giza shares with Cairo a subway system, officially called the "Metro (مترو)", a fast and efficient way of getting around. An extensive road network connects Giza with 6th of October City, Cairo and other cities. There are flyovers and bridges such as the 15th of May bridge. Giza traffic is known to be overwhelming and overcrowded.

• Cairo Taxi
• Cairo Metro
• Cairo Yellow Cab
• Cairo Nile Ferry

A street in Giza with the Pyramid of Khafre in the background

Districts and neighbourhoods of Giza[link]

• Dokki District: 93,660 93,025
• Agouza District: 174,460 162,851
• Giza District: 180,568 246,325, Kism Al Jizah 238,567 248,897
• Bulaq ad Dakrur: 453,884 564,791
• Imbabah: 287,357 389,049, Kism Imbabah 523,265 597,160
• Haram District: 200,076 295,704
• Omrania
• Monib
• Kafr Tuhurmus

The centre of the city is Giza Square.

Climate[link]

Giza experiences an arid climate (Koeppen BWh), but often with high humidity due to the Nile River Valley's effects. Wind storms can be frequent, bringing Saharan dust into the city during the months of March and April. High temperatures in winter range from 12 °C (54 °F) to 17 °C (63 °F), while nighttime lows drop to below 7 °C (45 °F), often to 5°C; the lowest recorded temperature was 0.8 °C (33 °F). In summer, the highs rarely surpass 40 °C (104 °F), and the lows drop to about 20 °C (68 °F). Rainfall is sparse, but sudden showers do cause harsh flooding. Hail and sleet might take place.

Economy[link]

Industries here include movies, chemicals, machinery and cigarettes. In addition, Giza has many luxury apartment buildings along the Nile, making it a popular place to live.

International access[link]

Access to the city of Giza, which has its own governorate adjacent to the governorate of Cairo, is dependent on the Cairo International Airport. Another local airport is found in Giza, called the Imbaba Airport, but recently the Egyptian government has decided to shut down the area and turn it into a cultural or an athletic area. Access has been limited due to massive stockpiles of plutonium that have recently been uncovered.

Education[link]

Giza's learning institutions include the University of Cairo which was moved to Giza in 1924. The city is a hub of education and educational services not only for Egypt but also for the entire Mediterranean Region. Giza has numerous schools, kindergartens, and institutes of higher learning.

Sports[link]

The city hosts the second most successful club in Egypt and Africa, El Zamalek, which is located in the Meet Okba neighbourhood near the Mohandesin neighbourhood. Beside El Zamalek there are other clubs like El Tersana and Seid Shooting Club which is one of the elite clubs in Egypt.

Sister cities[link]

• Los Angeles, United States
• Rinkeby, Stockholm, Sweden
• Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam (since August 2, 2011)

See also[link]

• Giza Governorate
• Pyramids of Giza
• Great Sphinx
• List of Egyptian pyramids
• List of megalithic sites

Giza images gallery[link]

Notes and references[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Giza

• Giza Archives Project
• Giza on Wikitravel
• University of Pennsylvania Museum excavations at Giza

Coordinates: 30°01′N 31°13′E / 30.017°N 31.217°E / 30.017; 31.217

v t e Egypt's largest cities by population Cairo Alexandria Giza Shubra El-Kheima Port Said Suez El-Mahalla El-Kubra Luxor Asyut Mansoura Tanta Faiyum Zagazig Ismaïlia Kafr el-Dawwar Aswan Qena Damanhour Minya Sohag Beni Suef Shibin El Kom Banha Edfu Talkha Kafr el-Sheikh Mallawi Dikirnis Bilbeis Arish

v t e Ancient Egypt Outline Index Glossary List of major topics Agriculture Architecture Art Burial customs Chronology Cuisine Dynasties Geography History Literature Mathematics Medicine Military Music Philosophy Religion Pharaohs (list) People Language Sites Technology Trade Writing Egyptology Egyptologists Egyptian Museum Category Commons Portal WikiProject

Zahi Hawass زاهي حواس
Hawass in Paestum, November 2006
1st Minister of Antiquities
In office January 31, 2011 – March 3, 2011[1][2][3]
President	Hosni Mubarak
Prime Minister	Ahmed Shafik
Preceded by	Newly created post
In office April 5, 2011[4][5] – July 17, 2011[6]
Prime Minister	Essam Sharaf
Personal details
Born	(1947-05-28) May 28, 1947 (age 65) Damietta, Kingdom of Egypt
Nationality	Egyptian
Alma mater	University of Pennsylvania University of Cairo Alexandria University
Profession	Egyptologist
Religion	Islam
Website	drhawass.com

Zahi Hawass (Arabic: زاهي حواس‎; born May 28, 1947) is an Egyptian archaeologist, an Egyptologist, and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs.^[7][8] He has also worked at archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, the Western Desert, and the Upper Nile Valley.

Hawass has received widespread publicity internationally, and was the subject of a reality television series in the United States, Chasing Mummies. His views and links to business ventures and the Mubarak regime have engendered controversy. In connection with the awarding of a gift shop contract at the Egyptian Museum and alleged smuggling of antiquities, he was sentenced to a prison term, which was later lifted.

Life and career[link]

Hawass was born in Damietta, Egypt. He originally intended to become a lawyer, but then studied Greek and Roman archaeology at Alexandria University, where he obtained a B.Sc. degree. He obtained a diploma in Egyptology at the University of Cairo. In 1987 he received his PhD degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied as a Fulbright Fellow.^[9]

After 1988 Hawass taught Egyptian archaeology, history and culture, mostly at the American University in Cairo and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1993 he left his position as Chief Inspector of the Giza Pyramid Plateau. According to Hawass, he resigned.^[10] Others^[who?] claim, however, that he was fired because a valuable ancient "statue" under the custody of Hawass was stolen from Giza. He was reinstated as Chief Inspector in early 1994.^[11][12] In 1998 he was appointed as director of the Giza Plateau. In 2002 he was appointed Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.

When U.S. President Barack Obama was in Cairo in June 2009 Hawass gave him personal tours of the sites of ancient Egypt. At the end of 2009 he was promoted personally by President Hosni Mubarak to the post of Vice Minister of Culture.^[13]

In the midst of the 2011 Egyptian protests, Hawass arrived at the Egyptian Museum on January 29, 2011 to find that a number of cases had been broken into and a number of antiquities damaged. Police later secured the museum.^[8] Hawass was reported to have faxed a colleague that 13 cases were destroyed and to have said, "My heart is broken and my blood is boiling."^[14] Hawass later told the New York Times that thieves looking for gold broke 70 objects, including two sculptures of Tutankhamen, and took two skulls from a research lab before being stopped as they were leaving the museum.^[15]

Minister of Antiquities[link]

He was appointed Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, a newly created cabinet post, by Mubarak on January 31, 2011 as part of a cabinet shakeup during the 2011 Egyptian protests.^[14][15][16]

In a blog on his website it was reported that Hawass "will continue excavating, writing books, and representing his country." Hawass' blog said that archeological sites in Egypt were being safeguarded and that looted objects had been returned. Regarding the Egyptian Museum looting, he said that "The museum was dark and the nine robbers did not recognise the value of what was in the vitrines. They opened thirteen cases, threw the seventy objects on the ground and broke them, including one Tutankhamun case, from which they broke the statue of the king on a panther. However, the broken objects can all be restored, and we will begin the restoration process this week."^[16] Hawass rejected comparisons with the looting of antiquities in Iraq and Afghanistan.^[15]

On February 13 Hawass said that eighteen artifacts, including statues of King Tutankhamun, were stolen from the Egyptian Museum in January. Among them were eleven wooden shabti statuettes from Yuya, a gilded wooden statue of Tutankhamun carried by a goddess and a statue of Nefertiti.^[17]

Egyptian state television reported that Hawass called upon Egyptians not to believe the “lies and fabrications” of the Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya satellite television channels.^[18] Hawass later said “They should give us the opportunity to change things, and if nothing happens they can march again. But you can’t bring in a new president now, in this time. We need Mubarak to stay and make the transition.”^[15]

On March 3, 2011 he resigned after a list was posted on his personal website of dozens of sites across Egypt that were looted in the 2011 protests.^[19][20] On March 30, 2011 a tweet was posted stating that he was once again the Minister of Antiquities ("I am very happy to be the Minister of Antiquities once again!").^[21] He was reappointed by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf at that time,^[22] but resigned on July 17, 2011, after Sharaf informed him he would not be continuing in the position.^[6] According to other newspaper reports, he was sacked from his job.^[23]

Works[link]

Hawass has written and co-written many books relating to Egyptology, including King Tutankhamun: The Treasures from the Tomb,^[24] published to coincide with a major exhibition in the UK.^[25] He has also written an article on Tutankhamun in Ancient Egypt magazine, and has written several articles for this bi-monthly UK-based magazine in the past.

Hawass is a regular columnist for Egypt Today magazine^[26] and the online historical community, Heritage Key.^{[citation needed]} He has narrated several videos on Egyptology, including a series on Tutankhamun.^[27]

Appearances[link]

Zahi Hawass book signing in Mexico City, August 2003.

Hawass has appeared on television specials on channels such as the National Geographic Channel, The History Channel and Discovery Channel.^[28] Hawass has also appeared in several episodes of the U.S. television show Digging for the Truth, discussing mummies, the pyramids, Tutankhamun, Cleopatra, and Ramesses II. He also appeared on Unsolved Mysteries during a segment on the curse of Tutankhamun's tomb. Hawass is currently appearing on a reality-based television show on The History Channel called Chasing Mummies.^[29]

Hawass also worked alongside Egyptologist Otto Schaden during the opening of Tomb KV63 in February 2006 – the first intact tomb to be found in the Valley of the Kings since 1922.^[30]

In June 2007 Hawass announced that he and a team of experts may have identified^[31] the mummy of Hatshepsut in KV60, a small tomb in the Valley of the Kings.^[32] The opening of the sealed tomb was described in 2006 as "one of the most important events in the Valley of the Kings for almost a hundred years."^[33]

Hawass helped create and host the documentary Egypt's Ten Greatest Discoveries.

Views[link]

Return of artifacts to Egypt[link]

Zahi Hawass displays a Ptolemaic statue discovered at Taposiris Magna on May 8, 2010

Hawass spearheaded a movement to return many prominent unique and/or irregularly taken Ancient Egyptian artifacts, such as the Rosetta Stone, the bust of Nefertiti, the Dendera zodiac ceiling painting from the Dendera Temple, the bust of Ankhhaf (the architect of the Khafra Pyramid), the faces of Amenhotep III's tomb at the Louvre Museum, the Luxor Temple's obelisk at the Place de la Concorde and the statue of Hemiunu, nephew of the Pharaoh Khufu, builder of the largest pyramid, to Egypt from collections in various other countries. In July 2003 the Egyptians requested the return of the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum. Hawass, as Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo, told the press, "If the British want to be remembered, if they want to restore their reputation, they should volunteer to return the Rosetta Stone because it is the icon of our Egyptian identity."^[34][35] Referring to antiquities at the British Museum, Hawass said “These are Egyptian monuments. I will make life miserable for anyone who keeps them.” Britain has refused to return them.^[36]

The Wall Street Journal commented that the looting of antiquities during the 2011 civil unrest in Egypt made Hawass' quest to return Egyptian antiquities to Egypt "misguided or at least poorly timed."^[8]

Opposition to Afrocentrists[link]

He is opposed to the claims of Afrocentrists.^[37] According to Hawass, "Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilization as black has no element of truth to it."^[37][38]

DNA testing of Egyptian mummies[link]

Hawass is skeptical of DNA testing of Egyptian mummies. He stated that "From what I understand, it is not always accurate and it cannot always be done with complete success when dealing with mummies. Until we know for sure that it is accurate, we will not use it in our research".^[39] In December 2000 a joint team from Waseda University in Japan and Cairo's Ain Shams University tried to get permission for DNA testing of Egyptian mummies, but was denied by the Egyptian Government.^{[citation needed]} Hawass added that DNA analysis was out of the question because it would not lead to anything.^[40] In February 2010 Hawass and his team announced that they had analyzed the mummies of Tutankhamun and ten other mummies and said that the king may have died from a malaria infection that followed a leg fracture.^[41] This has been doubted by German researchers Christian Timmann and Christian Meyer who have suggested alternatives as Tutankhamun's cause of death; but they are unknown at this time.^{[citation needed]}

Statements about Israel and Jews[link]

Hawass has been a long-standing opponent of normalized relations between Israel and Egypt.^[42]

In January 2009 Hawass wrote in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that "The concept of killing women, children and elderly people ... seems to run in the blood of the Jews of Palestine" and that "the only thing that the Jews have learned from history is methods of tyranny and torment — so much so that they have become artists in this field." He explained that he was not referring to the Jews' "[original] faith" but rather "the faith that they forged and contaminated with their poison, which is aimed against all of mankind."^[43]

In an interview on Egyptian television in April 2009 Hawass stated that "although Jews are few in number, they control the entire world" and commented on the "control they have" of the American economy and the media.^[44][45][46] He later clarified that he was using rhetoric to explain political fragmentation among the Arabs and that he does not believe in a "Jewish conspiracy to control the world".^[47]

Controversies[link]

Hawass has been widely accused of domineering behaviour, forbidding archaeologists to announce their own findings, and courting the media for his own gain after they were denied access to archaeological sites because, according to Hawass, they were too amateurish.^[48] A few, however, have said in interviews that some of what Hawass has done for the field was long overdue.^[48] Hawass has typically ignored or dismissed his critics, and when asked about it he indicated that what he does is for the sake of Egypt and the preservation of its antiquities.^[49] Hawass helped to institute a systematic program for the preservation and restoration of historical monuments, while training Egyptians to improve their expertise on methods of excavation, retrieval and preservation.^[50]

Criticism of Hawass increased following the protests in Egypt in 2011. The New York Times reported in a front page story in July 2011 that he receives an honorarium each year "of as much as $200,000" from National Geographic to be an explorer-in-residence, "even as he controls access to the ancient sites it often features in its reports."^[51]

The Times also reported that he has relationships with two American companies that do business in Egypt.^[51]

On April 17, 2011, Hawass was sentenced to jail for one year for refusing to obey a court ruling^[52] relating to a contract for the gift shop at the Egyptian Museum to a company with links to Hawass.^[51] The ruling was appealed and this specific sentence was suspended pending appeal.^[52][53] On April 18, 2011, the National Council of Egypt’s Administrative Court issued a decree stopping the court ruling, specifying that he would not serve any jail time, and would remain in his position as Minister of Antiquities.^[51][54]

Association with former Egyptian President Mubarak[link]

Hawass has been closely associated with former President Hosni Mubarak's government. He was a member of the government as Minister of Antiquities during Mubarak's presidency. His resignation as Minister on March 3, 2011 and his re-appointment to the Ministry on March 30, 2011 have been seen as part of the overall events surrounding Mubarak's resignation. It has been reported that his appointment has angered numerous factions, who have opposed the appointment of any of the old guard under Mubarak to new positions in the government.^[55]

The 2011 Egyptian protests resulted in increased criticism of Hawass. Demonstrators called for his resignation, and the upheaval has increased attention on his relationship with the Mubarak family and the way in which he has increased his public profile in recent years.^[51]

Maimonides Synagogue incident[link]

In March 2010 Hawass canceled the official re-opening of the restored Maimonides Synagogue in Cairo. In his email cancellation message issued in Arabic he described the Jewish dedication ceremony on March 7, which included dancing and serving wine, as "provocation to the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims in Egypt and around the world". In an English-language statement issued a few hours later the remarks about "drinking and dancing" were removed.^[56] Hawass said that the decision was made at "a time when Muslim holy sites in occupied Palestine face assaults from Israeli occupation forces and settlers".^[56][57] He later also said that canceling the ceremony was a "strong slap in the face" to "the Zionist enemy"^[42] and that he would "not allow any Jew to pray in the temple, and would not allow any Israeli to pray in the temple.”^[58] A private dedication ceremony closed to media was held instead for approximately 150 European Jews with historical ties to Egypt in attendance.^{[citation needed]}

Clothing line[link]

Hawass has lent his name to a line of men's apparel, described by The New York Times as "a line of rugged khakis, denim shirts and carefully worn leather jackets that are meant, according to the catalog copy, to hark 'back to Egypt’s golden age of discovery in the early 20th century.'" The clothing was first sold at Harrods department store in London in April 2011.^[52]

Critics say the Hawass clothing commercializes Egyptian history and there were accusations, which proved incorrect, that models had sat on or scuffed ancient artifacts during a photo shoot for advertisements. Hawass already sells a line of hats similar to the ones he wears, which mimic the ones worn by Harrison Ford in the Indiana Jones movies.^[52]

References[link]

• A Case in Antiquities for ‘Finders Keepers’, John Tierney, The New York Times, 2009

Further reading[link]

Schulz, Matthias (May 28, 2010). "Egypt's Avenger of the Pharaohs". DER SPIEGEL. http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,697174,00.html. 

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Zahi Hawass

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Zahi Hawass

• Official website
• Zahi Hawass on Twitter
• Explorer in Residence at National Geographic Society
• Profile at Art Museum Journal
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Zahi Hawass on Charlie Rose
• Zahi Hawass at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Zahi Hawass in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Biography at the Minnesota State University
• The king of the pharaohs, Tim Radford, The Guardian, November 27, 2003
• Interview with Dr. Zahi Hawass, Director of the Pyramids, Pyramid on PBS NOVA
• The Secrets of Egypt research discussion at The Entertainment Gathering, December 2008
• Egypt's man from the past who insists he has a future, Jack Shenker in Cairo, The Guardian, May 19, 2011
• Why Dr. Hawass resigned

v t e Lists of Egyptian Ministers Current Ministries Prime Minister · Agriculture and Land Reclamation · Awqaf · Civil Aviation · Communications and Information Technology · Culture · Defence and Military Production · Education · Electricity and Energy · Finance · Foreign Affairs · Health · Housing, Utilities and Urban Development · Interior · Justice · Manpower and Migration · Petroleum and Metallurgical Wealth · Planning and International Cooperation · Scientific Research, Science and Technology · Social Solidarity and Justice · Tourism · Trade and Industry · Transportation · Water Resources and Irrigation Ministries of State Environmental Affairs · Local Development · Military Production Minister of State Antiquities Affairs

Mark Lehner is an American archaeologist with more than 30 years of experience excavating in Egypt. His approach, as director of Ancient Egypt Research Associates (AERA), is to conduct interdisciplinary archaeological investigation.^[1] Every excavated object is examined by specialists to create an overall picture of an archaeological site—from the buildings down to the pollen spores. His international team currently runs the Giza Plateau Mapping Project, excavating and mapping the ancient city of the builders of the Giza pyramid complex, which dates to the fourth dynasty of Egypt. He discovered that Pyramid G1-a, one of the subsidiary pyramids of the Great Pyramid, belonged to Hetepheres I; it was originally thought to belong to Queen Meritites I.

Education and career[link]

Sphinx at Giza Plateau in Egypt

Lehner first went to Egypt as a student in the 1970s. Intrigued by the mysteries of the 'Sleeping Prophet', Edgar Cayce, Lehner "found that [my] initial notions about the ancient civilization along the Nile could not stand up to the bedrock reality of the Giza Plateau".  He turned to the scientific method of discovery in order to understand the culture better, returning some years later to complete a doctorate degree at Yale University. Lehner's 1991 dissertation was titled Archaeology of an image: The Great Sphinx of Giza.

Lehner's team has more recently included parts of Menkaure's valley temple and the town attached to the monument of Queen Khentkawes in their excavations. AERA's 2009 field season was recorded in a blog.^[2] AERA has conducted a number of archaeological field schools for Egyptian antiquities inspectors under the auspices of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. The AERA team has run basic and advanced courses at Giza, as well as courses in salvage archaeology along the Avenue of Sphinxes north of Luxor Temple in the city of Luxor.

Among his other work in Egypt, Lehner has produced the only known scale maps of the Giza Sphinx.

Lehner's book, The Complete Pyramids (1997), is an exhaustive catalogue of Egypt's many pyramid sites. He has appeared in many television programs about Ancient Egypt. He is a visiting assistant professor of Egyptian archaeology at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Lehner took part in an American Association for the Advancement of Science debate centered around controversy surrounding the age of the Sphinx at Giza. [1]

Lehner has also starred and aided in the production of several documentaries about the pyramids which are regularly aired on the National Geographic Channel.

Personal life[link]

Lehner has two sons, Ramses and Luke Lehner. Their mother is Egyptian. Both sons graduated from the American University of Cairo and are theatrical actors and directors as well as musical producers.^[3]Mark remarried and has had two more children Eliza and Alexander Lehner.

Television credits[link]

Crew[link]

• Into the Great Pyramid (2002) (TV) (consultant: archeology)
• Mysteries of Egypt (1998) (scientific consultant)
• Saving the Sphinx (1998) (TV) (historical consultant)

Appearances[link]

• Riddles of the Sphinx [2] (2010) (TV)
• Heritage Key: Pyramid Builders (2009) (TV)
• Into the Great Pyramid (2002) (TV)
• Secrets of the Pharaohs: Lost City of the Pyramids (2001) (TV)
• Saving the Sphinx (1998) (TV)
• Egypt: Secrets of the Pharaohs (1997) (TV)
• Mummies: Tales from the Egyptian Crypts (1996) (TV)
• The Mystery of the Sphinx (1993) (TV)
• This Old Pyramid (1992) (TV)
• Mysteries of the Pyramids, LIVE (1988) (TV)

Books[link]

• The Complete Pyramids, London: Thames and Hudson (1997). ISBN 0-500-05084-8

References[link]

External links[link]

• AERA - includes links to Lehner videos at YouTube
• The Giza Plateau Mapping Project at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute
• Mark Lehner at the Internet Movie Database
• Scholars Dispute Claim That Sphinx Is Much Older

This biographical article about an Egyptologist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2009)

Graham Hancock
Born	(1950-08-02)August 2, 1950 (age 61) Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Nationality	British
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	Durham University
Occupation	Author
Known for	Author, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, The Message of the Sphinx

Graham Hancock (born 2 August 1950 in Edinburgh, Scotland) is a British writer and journalist. Hancock specialises in unconventional theories ^[1] involving ancient civilizations, stone monuments or megaliths, altered states of consciousness, ancient myths and astronomical/astrological data from the past. One of the main themes running through many of his books is the possible global connection with a "mother culture" from which he believes all ancient historical civilizations sprang.^[2]

Biography[link]

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Hancock's formative years were spent in India, where his father worked as a surgeon. Having returned to the UK, he graduated from Durham University in 1973, receiving a First Class Honours degree in Sociology.

As a journalist, Hancock worked for many British papers, such as The Times, The Sunday Times, The Independent, and The Guardian. He was co-editor of New Internationalist magazine from 1976–1979 and East Africa correspondent of The Economist from 1981-1983.

Works[link]

Hancock sees himself as a journalist who asks questions based upon observation and as someone who provides a counterbalance to what he perceives as the "unquestioned" acceptance and support given to orthodox views by the education system, the media, and by society at large.^[3] His books include Lords of Poverty, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis (released in the US as Message of the Sphinx), The Mars Mystery, Heaven's Mirror (with wife Santha Faiia), Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, and Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith (with co-author Robert Bauval). In 1996 he appeared in The Mysterious Origins of Man.^[4] He also wrote and presented the documentaries Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms of the Ice Age (2002) and Quest for the Lost Civilisation (1998) ^[5] shown on Channel 4. In Hancocks's book Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith,^[6] co-authored with Robert Bauval, the two put forward "a version of the old Jewish-Masonic plot so beloved by ultra-right-wing conspiracy theorists."^[7] They suggest a connection between the pillars of Solomon's Temple and the Twin Towers, and between the Star of David and The Pentagon.^[8]

Hancock's most recent non-fiction book, Supernatural: Meetings With the Ancient Teachers of Mankind, was published in the UK in October 2005 and in the US in 2006. In it, Hancock examines paleolithic cave art in the light of David Lewis-Williams' neuropsychological model, exploring its relation to the development of the fully modern human mind.

His first novel, Entangled: The Eater of Souls, the first in a fantasy series, was published in the UK in April 2010 and in the US in October 2010. The novel makes use of Hancock's prior research interests and as he has noted, "What was there to lose, I asked myself, when my critics already described my factual books as fiction?"

Although his books have sold more than five million copies worldwide and have been translated into twenty-seven languages, his methods and conclusions have found little support among academics, his work being labelled "pseudoarchaeology".^[1][9][10]

Orion Correlation Theory[link]

Representation of the central tenet of the OCT - the outline of the Giza pyramids superimposed over a photograph of the stars in Orion's Belt. To achieve this concordance the pyramids have been rotated and scaled to suit. The validity of this match has been called into question by Hancock's critics, as noted in the text.

One of the many recurring themes in several of Hancock's works has been an exposition on the "Orion Correlation Theory" (or OCT),^[11][12] first put forward by Belgian writer Robert Bauval and then further expounded in collaborative works with Hancock, as well as in their separate publications.

[edit] BBC Horizon controversy

BBC 2's Horizon TV series broadcast a programme, Atlantis Reborn, on 4 November 1999 that challenged the ideas presented by Hancock. It detailed one of Hancock's claims that the arrangement of an ancient temple complex was designed to mirror astronomical features and attempted to demonstrate that the same thing could be done with perhaps equal justification using famous landmarks in New York. It also alleged that Hancock had selectively moved or ignored the locations of some of the temples to fit his own theories (see below).^[13]

Hancock claimed he was misrepresented by the programme, and he and Robert Bauval made complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Commission against the way Horizon had portrayed them and their work. Eight points were raised by Hancock, two by Bauval (one of which duplicated a complaint of Hancock's).^[14] This included the complaint that:

The programme attempted to create the impression that he [Hancock] was an intellectual fraudster who had put forward half baked theories and ideas in bad faith, and that he was incompetent to defend his own arguments.^[15]

The BSC dismissed all but one of the complaints. Overall, the BSC concluded that "the programme makers acted in good faith in their examination of the theories of Mr Hancock and Mr Bauval".^[16] The complaint which was upheld was that

The programme unfairly omitted one of their arguments in rebuttal of a speaker who criticised the theory of a significant correlation between the Giza pyramids and the belt stars of the constellation Orion (the "correlation theory")

which the Commission did find to be unfair. That speaker was the astronomer Edwin Krupp. Krupp accused Bauval of fudging the maps of Orion and the Pyramids by placing them upside down in order to make the theory work.^[17] In interviews filmed in the later and modified Horizon documentary Atlantis Reborn Again shown on 14 December 2000, Hancock and Bauval provided detailed rebuttals to Krupp and argued that the ancient Egyptians had made the Pyramids correlate in the most obvious and intuitive manner with the three stars of Orion's Belt, that Orion could only be seen at the highest point in the sky by the Egyptians looking in a southward direction and a work of symbolic and religious art. A counter argument was provided on Atlantis Reborn Again to Bauval and Hancock's responses to Krupp's statements.

According to Graham Hancock, Krupp's criticism was rejected by two prominent British astronomers, Dr. Percy Seymour of Plymouth University and Dr. Archie Roy, professor Emeritus at Glasgow University.^[18]

Cultural references[link]

In 2009, Roland Emmerich released his blockbuster disaster movie 2012 citing Fingerprints of the Gods in the credits as an inspiration for the film,^[19] stating: "I always wanted to do a biblical flood movie, but I never felt I had the hook. I first read about the Earth's Crust Displacement Theory in Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods." ^[20] Also in 2009, author Geoff Stray released his best-selling book "Beyond 2012: Catastrophe or Awakening?" in which he cites Graham Hancock as one of his inspirations and as a guidepost to point others to do their own investigation into the wonder of ancient societies.^[21]

Books[link]

• Hancock, Graham (1985). Ethiopia: The Challenge of Hunger. London: V. Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-03680-X. 
• Hancock, Graham; Enver Carim (1986). AIDS: The Deadly Epidemic. London: V. Gollancz. ISBN 0-575-03837-3. 
• Hancock, Graham (1989). Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0-87113-253-2. 
• Hancock, Graham (1992). The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. New York: Crown. ISBN 0-517-57813-1. 
• Hancock, Graham (1995). Fingerprints of the Gods: The Evidence of Earth's Lost Civilization. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-59348-3. 
• Hancock, Graham; Robert Bauval (1996). The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-70503-6.  Published in the United Kingdom as Hancock, Graham; Robert Bauval (1996). Keeper of Genesis: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-00302-6. 
• Hancock, Graham (1998). The Mars Mystery: A Tale of the End of Two Worlds. London: Michael Joseph. ISBN 0-7181-4314-0. 
• Hancock, Graham; Santha Faiia (1998). Heaven's Mirror: Quest for the Lost Civilization. New York: Crown Publishers. ISBN 0-517-70811-6. 
• Hancock, Graham; Santha Faiia (2001). Fingerprints of the Gods: The Quest Continues (New Updated Edition). New York: Crown Century. ISBN 0-7126-7906-5. 
• Hancock, Graham (2002). Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization. New York: Crown. ISBN 1-4000-4612-2. 
• Hancock, Graham; Robert Bauval (2004). Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith. Tisbury: Element Books. ISBN 0-00-719036-0. 
• Hancock, Graham (2005). Supernatural: Meeting with the Ancient Teachers of Mankind. London: Century. ISBN 1-84413-681-7. 
• Hancock, Graham (2010). Entangled: The Eater of Souls. New York: The Disinformation Company. ISBN 978-1-934708-56-9. 

See also[link]

• Archaeoastronomy
• Erich von Däniken
• Mythology
• Zahi Hawass

References[link]