The riddle of the Sphinx has confounded generations of tourists and
experts alike. Who built it, why, and what does it mean? Now a
leading Egyptologist believes that he has pieced together the puzzle.

After researching the pyramids of the Giza Plateau and their
imposing half-human, half-animal guardian for 20 years, Vassil
Dobrev of the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo has concluded
that the Sphinx was the work of a forgotten pharaoh.

For many years, it has been held that Khafre, a king of the Fourth
Dynasty whose pyramid sits behind the Sphinx, built the monument in
his own likeness.

But Mr Dobrev believes the Sphinx was in fact created more than four
and a half thousand years ago by Djedefre, Khafre's half brother and
the son of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza.

When Khufu died, the people of ancient Egypt were weary, having
spent decades building pyramids, says Mr Dobrev. He argues that
Djedefre, who succeeded Khufu as pharaoh, built the monument in the
image of his father, identifying him with the sun god Ra, as a piece
of propaganda to restore respect for the dynasty.

In a documentary for television channel Five, Secrets of the Sphinx,
to be shown next Tuesday, Mr Dobrev challenges the accepted version
of the origins of the Sphinx and the reign of Djedefre, who came
close to being written out of ancient history. "This is the first
time it has been proposed that the Sphinx has been built after the
death of Khufu by his son Djedefre," said Mr Dobrev.

While Khufu and Khafre constructed towering pyramids at Giza,
Djedefre built a smaller pyramid several kilometres away at Abu
Roash.

This led the American archaeologist, George Reisner, who excavated
the Giza Plateau in the 1930s and wrote the definitive book about
the site, to portray Djedefre as an outcast who murdered his elder
brother, the heir to the throne. "We have absolutely no evidence to
support this, but it was written in a very famous book - and slowly
it became the rule," Mr Dobrev said.

Unlike modern-day tourists, who approach the Giza Plateau from the
east, from Cairo, ancient Egyptians would have come to the site from
the south from Memphis, the capital of the old kingdom, Mr Dobrev
argues. From this direction, it is seen in profile, with Khufu's
Great Pyramid behind it.

Djedefre was the first pharaoh to insert the name of the sun god Ra
in his own cartouche, supporting the theory that he built the Sphinx
to represent his father as the deity. Mr Dobrev also believes that
the discovery in 1955 of two dismantled wooden boats, buried beside
the Great Pyramid beneath stones bearing Djedefre's name, show that
he was an important and long-lived ruler who wished to ease his
father's passage through the afterlife.

"I think some scholars will have mixed reactions," Mr Dobrev
said. "People will be surprised that we can still have something new
to say about Djedefre. His reign has to be completely reviewed. It
was a longer reign and a more important reign than we thought."

Robert Partridge, the editor of Ancient Egypt magazine and a
lecturer at Manchester University, believes that while Mr Dobrev
puts forward a logical argument, there is insufficient evidence to
prove his theory.

quote:

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geologist Colin Reader, who argues that the Sphinx was built before the Great Pyramid and therefore could not be
the work of Khufu, Khafre or Djedefre.

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I don't really know what Reeder's theories are. I just heard of him today when I read this article. He is a geologist and not an Egyptologist,and we know that Schoch suggested that the Sphinx[Her-ma-akhet] was older than the Old Kingdom period. Will have to keep you posted on more.