As I was walking towards the entrance, the temple revealed its magnificent structure before my eyes. I was captivated by the Pylons and the time that had past by. I will never know if it was the wind or a subtle voice from within, that made me turn my head, but I did.
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| Picture taken by Karima |
There stood an Anubis sphinx, which I had never seen before. I have been many times to these ancient parts, and never had I seen this statue before.
As I was walking towards the tourist entrance, I could not see any statue, everything blended together in a light sand colour. But walking into the temple area and turning my head, I was suddenly surprised by a beautiful statue of Anubis upon his shrine.
I remember reading an article on Graham Hancock's website a while back about the Sphinx at Giza once being an Anubis…but later reshaped to look like it does today.
Dear Jeff,
I was not aware that Graham Hancock had made the suggestion about the Sphinx being Anubis. I know of other peoples theory about the Sphinx being created as a Cat first then changed into what we see today.
My personal opinion on this would be that I cannot agree with Mr. Hancock, because of the archeological facts.
If you look closely upon the picture in this post, then you will notice that the Jackal (Anubis) has its tail straight down (like it is just hanging there – I hope you know what I mean), this was the common way of portraying 'Anubis upon his shrine'. If you look at Tut-ankh-amun's tomb objects, more precise the Anubis Shrine, then you will see that it has the same tail (hanging straight down), but you will also find the same exact illustration in the papyrus scrolls. If you look closely at the Sphinx, you should notice that the tail curls around the back end of the body, the ancient Egyptians normally put the curly tail on the lion or the cat like creature.
This is a short article I wrote some time ago, about Anubis, which I think fits pretty well here, it should bring some more light upon the Anubis Shrine.
From theopencrypt.com
http://theopencrypt.com/2009/08/01/the-secret-of-anubis/
This statue looks amazing, how big is it? It is difficult to guage the size from the photo.
Well it actually wasn't an article by Graham Hancock, it was just posted on his website. The article was written by someone named Robert Temple. Here is a link to it if you care to read it:
http://www.grahamhancock.com/forum/TempleR1.php
Dear Hazel,
Yes, doesn't it!
Yes I am deeply sorry that I couldn't go any closer or have some measure point, so one could easily see how big it is. It is not enormous by any means, but taller than a man, as fare as I could figure out, from where I was standing. But you can see a small ladder in front of the shrine, I believe when a grown man stand on top of it, he can probably reach the ears, but I am guessing here.
Dear Jeff,
I know who Robert Temple is, and I have tried to read one of his books which I own. Off course he offers great new theories which are worth looking more into, I like his ideas on the Dongo people, but I thought he was lacking in Egyptian history, so I quickly ran into some basic problems. I also like the work of Graham Hancock, but I do not agree with him, its the same with Robert Temple, but he brings light upon a culture which I knew nothing about.
in which Temple this statue ?
The anubis sphinx can be found in Luxor, you have to visit the temple of death for Ramesses 2 on the other side of the Nile. The ramusseum (spelled completely wrong) 🙂 but I think you might know which temple that I am referring to 🙂
Sincerely
Karima
@Windblower – The tail that we see today is completely comprised of restoration blocks, it does not contain any carved bedrock stone at all. It can be argued that whoever restored the Sphinx centuries or millennia ago was using their interpretation of what the original design looked like (in this case a lion or cat)