I have solved riddle of the Sphinx, says Frenchman
By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 14/12/2004)

Archaeologists, who are able to tell us who built the pyramids of

Egypt, have puzzled over the riddle of the Sphinx for generations.

The identity of the ruler who ordered the building of the 65ft

limestone half-human statue that has guarded the Giza Plateau for

has been lost in the sands of time.


Workers on the Sphinx in a television reconstruction
Now, following a 20-year re-examination of historical records and

new evidence, Vassil Dobrev, a French Egyptologist, claims to have

the largest single stone statue on Earth is the work of a forgotten

The most popular theory of the origins of the Sphinx is that it was

by Khafre, a king of the Fourth Dynasty whose pyramid sits behind

However, in Secrets of the Sphinx, a documentary to be broadcast

Channel Five, Dr Dobrev says it was created by Djedefre, Khafre's

and a son of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid.

Dr Dobrev, of the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo, said:

incredible. The most important image in Egypt, the Sphinx, and we

it was with certainty.

"This is the first time it has been proposed that the Sphinx has

after the death of Khufu by his son Djedefre who succeeded him."

Khafre, the builder of the nearby second pyramid at Giza who ruled

2532 BC, has traditionally been credited with creating the Sphinx.

He is referred to in the Dream Stella, a stone tablet that tells of

prince who dreamed that the Sphinx promised to make him king if he

sand from its paws. He built both the pyramid behind the Sphinx and

in front of it.

However Dr Dobrev noticed that the causeway connecting Khafre's

temples was built around the Sphinx - meaning it was already in

All known statues of Khafre show him with a beard - but the Sphinx

Dobrev says fragments of a giant beard found beneath the sphinx

Cairo Museum were a later addition.

Several years ago Rainer Stadelmann, the former director of the

Institute of Archaeology in Cairo, suggested an alternative theory,

Khafre's father Khufu - the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza -

Sphinx.

A small statuette of Khufu, the only commonly acknowledged image of

pharaoh, shows him to have a very square chin, like the Sphinx.

Dr Dobrev says he has uncovered other images of Khufu, none of

beards, and that this proves the sphinx represents Khufu.

The nemes, the sphinx's headdress, has markings representing two

and one large. Khufu is shown with a similar nemes in at least one

statue.

Dr Dobrev says the Sphinx was built by Djedefre in the image of his

Khufu, identifying him with the sun god Ra in order to restore

their dynasty.

George Reisner, a respected American archaeologist in the 1930s,

Djedefre as a plotter whose tomb was built away from Giza because

murder his brother Kawab. Dr Dobrev says Reisner's theory is

He asks why a carved stone list of donations made to Kawab's

have an emblem of Djedefre on it if he was her father's murderer.

Djedefre was a visionary builder who built a sun temple at Abu

from Giza, a structure so far believed by archaeologists to be a

Dr Dobrev re-examined graffiti carved by workers at a site called

el-Aryan and believes this shows he has uncovered Djedefre's

Dr Nigel Strudwick, of the British Museum, said: "It is not

would need more explanation, such as why he thinks the pyramid at

a sun temple, something I'm sceptical about. I have never heard

that the name in the graffiti at Zawiyet el-Aryan mentions

"I remain more convinced by the traditional argument of it being

more recent theory of it being Khufu."