The Great Sphinx - A Gift of Geology

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Rewriting the History of The Great Sphinx
Published by Archaeopress on 16 January 2026, my second book is the product of nearly 30 years of research into the archaeology and geology of The Great Sphinx of Giza.

The Great Sphinx has guarded the Giza Plateau in Egypt for many thousands of years. Conventionally Egyptologists consider this monument to be about 4500 years old, built at the same time as Giza’s great pyramids. There is however, very little direct evidence to support this date, and there are a range of other important questions, such as what the concept of the human-headed lion meant for the people who built it, that currently remain largely unanswered.

This book challenges the established history of the Giza Necropolis to present the only comprehensive, evidence-led account of the history and original meaning of The Great Sphinx that has been published to date. After examining both the archaeological and geological evidence, the book concludes that The Great Sphinx and a number of other monuments at Giza, were built early in the Pharaonic Era, in the period before Egypt’s first pyramids. Perhaps more surprisingly, the book also concludes that The Great Sphinx was not the first ritual monument to be built at Giza, with evidence for activity that extends the history of the site back into the period before the first pharaohs.

Rewriting the History of the Great Sphinx is available from Archaeopress (paperpback with free PDF download) and from Amazon (paperback).


Copyright Colin D Reader, 2025

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