Can't possibly reply to every comment so I'll just address the most common themes here. 1 - I know I have a stupid smug smile, unfortunately I was born with it. I look like that in all my videos, I look like that all day everyday. 2 - "Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence". Totally agree. However, Schoch's theory doesn't just lack evidence, in my opinion it is ignoring it. It is ignoring the abundance of Egyptian archaeology, from towns, to writing, to burials around the Giza plateau. It is also ignoring the evidence we already have of human activity in the time periods he thinks it may have been built in, from the paleolithic fishermen on the Nile, down to Egypt's first farmers and predynastic Egypt. 3 - "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". Again I agree with you, but I do not think mainstream archaeology's claims are extraordinary. To throw out our entire understanding of the history of mankind based solely on the erosion of 3 walls would be extraordinary. Especially considering many geologists and climatologists disagree with Schoch. To prove his theory further he needs to produce more research on the process of erosion and the ancient Egyptian climate AND subject it to peer review. As a professor at a university he is well placed to do that and it is a shame he has not. 4 - Gobekli Tepe is a fascinating site and one which hopefully I will cover one day. It is at the moment the earliest monumental architecture anywhere on the planet. However, it is much smaller in scale than the pyramids. I do believe it was possible that a farming community, however recently they started farming, could produce such a site. There have also been discoveries of more sites nearby with that distinctive T-shaped sculpture. So it is not an archaeological site that has appeared out of nowhere, there is a community around it. The same dating techniques applied to Gobekli Tepe (radio carbon dating) have been applied to artifacts found in association with the pyramid and the sphinx. The results put it in the range of the Old Kingdom, not earlier. Thanks for watching.
@fullswing Dr. Robert Schoch is a tenured and respected geologist at Boston Uni. Don't worry, his peers are paying close attention to his 35 years or so research. We can't rewrite history...but we can discover new history.
I would add to your points about lack of evidence of prior civilisations: Regardless of whether the people lived on a coastline, now submerged, building the Pyramids and Sphinx required 1000s of people. Were they bussed in and out every day? If so, where is the evidence of the highway? It would have been impossible to construct such large edifices and leave no trace. Damn, I forgot, they might have been beamed down from the mother ship.
You're as cute as a blibbety blobbety button! Look closely at the Narmer palette - it shows the Sphinx, with a different style of head and headdress/buttered hair/wig, partially buried even then, but no pyramids - it shows mastaba-like buildings that may have been extended into pyramids later. I think the causeways were originally small, raised canals with lock gates, that could effortlessly raise the stones to the base of the pyramids, the water required to operate the causeway, and the counterbalanced hoists for raising stones, was provided by the subterranean ram pump system, that is evident in the foundations of the stone pyramids.
@fullswing Any grade-school child could look at the eroded walls of the Sphinx enclosure and recognize immediately the tell-tale signs of extensive water erosion. One can be a moron and deny the evidence of their own eyes, but that doesn't change the fact that water erosion is water erosion and no amount of PHDs are needed to recognize the very obvious. So who ya gonna believe? The "experts" or yer own lyin' eyes??? Once you wake up from your establishment-induced hallucination you need to get around to figuring out just when it was that such a volume of water was present on the Giza plateau. Let us know what you come up with.
True true but some believers of these types of theories are big racists , like some if you check out their profiles or whatnot in facebook/twitter/reddit ,they would give to credit aliens and gods in building those ancient cities/structures than giving credit to people of that region "the people/civilization of this are is not that intelligent at that time to do this kind of feat" - every conspiracy tv show hosts ever
@@snoot6629 ah yes, all people who like having creative thoughts about the world around them and how everything humanity has made came to be are rampant racists. Thank you for that insight. Grow up.
@@ToffeeJim19 i did not said that , i said " some believers " often times want to credit aliens and other supernatural stuffs instead of actually acknowledging the people who built those impressive feats of architecture , hence "the people/civilization of this area is not that intelligent at that time to do this kind of feat"
@@ToffeeJim19 Creative thoughts= " Must have been done by a civilization we've never heard of ", or " they couldn't have moved those huge stones ", or " This level of precision is unattainable even with today's technology ". Are those the kind of creative thoughts you're speaking of? How is it that the alt history crowd always seem to have the same " creative thoughts "? And they have been having these same creative thoughts for better than 70 years. This ain't nothing new. Check out " Worlds in Collision " 1950, Emmanuel Velikovsky. The racist part is refusing to accept that Indians built Tikal or Machu Pichu. Or that indigenous hunter gatherers entered the Nile valley around 17,000 YBP, progressed through the neolithic to pastoral, herding lifestyle, to then agriculture and settled farming communities that eventually lead to one of the greatest civilizations mankind has produced, past or present.
@@russellmillar7132 ‘they couldn’t have moved those huge stones’ is just a testament to someone’s fascination with how the pyramids could possibly be constructed by a civilisation without sophisticated metal tools and machinery... how is that anything to do with racism? It’s really difficult to explain how an ancient culture could build such a massive monument without the right equipment especially considering the bricks used to create the pyramids were actually not particularly local to where they were built
I was part of a documentary film crew in the late 90s that went to the Giza plateau to look for “ mysteries of the sphinx. The “ Pyramidiots” we’re all surprised that not only did it rain but it also hailed while we were there.
@@hebisty4163 Yeah, that's why koptic christians are black, or wait no they aren't. There also are no evidence for large displacements of egyptians during islamic expansion or mass settlement of arabs in egypt.
Maybe you are the idiot for not being open to new evidence that contradicts the current thinking. In whatever field of endeavor that might be. The weathering inside the Sphinx enclosure attributed to rain by Schoch hasn't appeared over the whole Giza Plateau. The pyramids and the sphinx's head should show the same level of ware. [And I think you meant were]. "We're" sounds like you are including yourself as a "pyramidiot". I won't argue.
@@WuTangChopstick Bright Insight is one of the least credible people I've yet come across on RUclips. He substantiates precisely none of what he claims, makes wild leaps of reasoning and starts with conclusions and then tries to work backwards from there. He seems like an intelligent enough guy to know much of what he's spewing is utter nonsense, which makes him even worse in my opinion. He's a charlatan and nothing more. I suggest you stay away from that particular brand of over-hyped pseudo-archaeology and actually start doing some reading for yourself. Once you do you'll quickly start realizing the whole "lost ancient civilizations" thing is a house built on a foundation of sand.
A question that pops into my mind about the hypothesis that these pyramids were made by a previous advanced civilization is - why? If Egypt couldn't have done it because there had to be some other bunch making it, then why not also assume this earlier civilization couldn't do it either? The whole hypothesis is just moving the beginning backwards for no reason.
The idea is that there was a civilization that was almost as advanced as modern humans but some sort of catastrophic event occurred that caused large parts of humanity to die off and we regressed technology-wise to the just before the bronze age and that most of the bronze age myths were us trying to remember the world before
The biggest complaint I have about "outsiders" opinions about ancient cultures is that that 99% of the time they're not interested in finding truth and uncovering mysteries. Their goal is almost always to validate their own misconceptions and prejudices.
And they brought alien space rations with then so they didnt need earth food! They also built the pyramids, the sphinx, and the dendera temple in like a couple hours because they had space lasers and and tractor beams to life the stones.
Thank you for making this video! These days there seems to be an abundance of opinions all over the internet of lost ancient civilizations ranging from "aliens did it" to relatively reasonable sounding to a layperson, and i have to admit i have kinda fallen down this particular rabbit hole. Lets be honest here, the Joe Rogan podcasts with Graham Hancock are really convincing and Michael Shermer didnt do a particularly good job of defending the skeptical position. Long story short, i love it that someone is making accessible videos that counterbalance the lots of wishful thinking.
@fullswing, come now, that's a bit harsh. The only reason a scam artist exists is because they're really good at introducing curious people into nonsense.
Try to be more sceptical and keep learning from multiple, reputable sources, official science journals or Wikipedia for that matter. The more you know, the less vulnerable you are to BS.
More worship of the recent. The Nile has been there for Millenia. So have humans. So why not have repeated civilization cycles. Interrupted by solar outbursts floods and ciimate catastr
@@wernerretief4569 Because in order to have civilizations, humans had to evolve their technology from stone tools and being hunter/gatherers to discovering metal tools and learning agriculture/domestication of animals. Also while they were doing that they had to leave behind evidence of their existence and how they lived. The earliest evidence of the arrival of civilizations forming was 5000-6000 years ago in Mesopotamia. We have archaeological evidence of humans from over 100,000 years ago and we know about when humans made these technological leaps. It's fine if you want to assert that civilizations sprang up sooner, but you have to support it with hard evidence.
@jimralston4789 Civilization=/= Oldest known permanent cities constructed. Not to argue with your point to the comment above you, more to say it's potentially a quagmire of BS to get into when using civilization to be synonymous with oldest known stone town ruins. People like Hancock will happily play into this misconception and conflate 'civilization' and 'intellectually capable' and try putting it against his idea of more nomadic hunter gatherer people prior to the "sudden" appearance of these massive constructions evidencing their "sudden" switch to civilization and "sudden" ability and intellect to technologically engineer "more advanced" structures. Like, boom, outta nowhere!
It was never discovered. The coptics and Arabs in Cairo always knew it was there. And it was not completely covered. The head was above the sand. Why do people spread so much misinformation online?
That's what I was thinking... so morning dew, in my opinion, can't be the main cause of the erosion. Maybe a bit in the years since the excavation but what declares the signs of water erosion when the sphinx was excavated wich is to be seen on the photos taken during it.
Going through this back catalogue of Stefan Milo vids after watching your recent ones - man the production quality is amazing on your new stuff. And it's hilarious to see you welcoming 500 subs haha.
@@dj_koen1265 you need to grow a brain. We know troy existed because there is huge archeological evidence for it. Atlantis has none and is said to exist 10000 years earlier
History / his story.. Like how all those fishtailed gods share common phonemes for mother and water, starting in West Africa to Egypt India Asia Europe and the Americas. YaMAya, NomMOs, MAtsya, MAnannán, Melusine. There's a lot more of them. Even Jesus is a fish, right? Weird how all those fishtailed gods coincide with symbols of fascism. Double headed axes and spears.. What about fake language like pig-latin? Yeshua = joshua Iesous = heil Zeus (like Spanish jesús) Jesus = Greek ge + Latin sus = EarthPig /jesus. Church comes from circe. Circe was a witch that turned Odysseus's men into pigs (way before the invention of Abraham or them turning Akhenaten and Sargon into Moses..). Jesus turned the legion into pigs at Gerasene. Legion + Gerasene = a garrison / a military (that's indoctrinated to support the fasces). Pig-latin is funny because everyone worships piggy-banks and we're all born in barns like Jesus and pigs. A manger is a trough. (pennies » fishtails, plebes consume the least valuable portions. Paradise / eden = a penned in place to domesticate cattle. Pastor comes from pastoralism = the domestication of cattle. ..For sure, abrahamic religions are poorly plagiarized from a dozen older religions and there's no archeological evidence of a place called Israel or a people called Hebrews until Rome invented them in the common era. #historyisfake
@@moodist1er There is mention of the isrealites in egypt in a chronicle of their conquerer, but everything else is bullshit. I hate abrahamic religions and that faltities they have been writing in the stake their last stand.
I have heard a different version of this theory. That is only the Sphinx that is older and was originally a lion statue. It was during Khufu's reign that it was turned into a sphinx. This explains why the head is in so much better condition than the body.
@@Horse2021 and if the Sphinx was built some 10-12 thousand years ago, at least before the time Egypt was wet, it would have faced Leo in the sky. The physical evidence, motive, all point to an earlier build date.
thanks for debunking some of the ridiculous stuff..as an Egyptian, listening to others turning our history into B side sci fi drama can be a bit irritating Edit: to the Afro-centrists who have hijacked this, yes you are the original settlers of America, you built the pyramids, etc. well done. I would also like to dedicate to you Black by Pearl Jam. Eddie Vedder stole it from the original black person who discovered pearls, and jam!
If your "egpytian" then most likely youre arab..... which has nothing to do with the people who lived and made those momuments.. and if you cared so much about your culture youd know that. ... so dont try that
@@oltch. although you’re rude I’ll humour you. here’s a question for you..where are the descendants of ancient Egyptians? Wiped out? Immigrated? What’s your theory?
@@koozdorah look it up. Its been done thru , at least taking mummies and getting their genetics. Look up king tuts genome. But even the slaves were semetic peoples. Arabs came to eygpt later. Much later , and took it over and populated it. This is common knowledge just look it up .
@@oltch. good words in a nice order which do not answer my question. You’re making a claim and asking me to google for you. Fine, since you mentioned Semitic slaves, it’s incorrect (www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.haaretz.com/amp/jewish/were-jews-ever-really-slaves-in-egypt-1.5208519). As to the claim that Egypt is mostly arab, that’s incorrect (egyptindependent.com/dna-analysis-proves-egyptians-are-not-arabs/). And if you want something more anecdotal (www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/dd6xp0/are_modern_egyptians_related_to_the_ancient/) I have no interest in continuing this conversation and will not be responding. You sir, are a bigot. Do not go around educating people about their identity which you know nothing about.
Not for the idiot who started this by telling me “don’t try that”, but for other people who might be interested...btw Egyptian Christians and Muslims both carry Egyptian blood, both mixed with Arabs and other ethnicities, but Muslims have mixed more with Arabs. Essentially in most cases we can’t tell a Christian Egyptian from a Muslim Egyptian by looks, they look identical. That’s because Arabs did not replace the Egyptian population, yes there were huge Arab migrations, but still the islamisation of Egypt happened mostly through conversion of Christians (unfortunately probably forced) mainly in the 9th and 14th centuries. Egyptians today are a mix of many things but those things do include (surprise surprise) Egyptian.
The best theory i heard to explain away the inconsistent water erosion was that for quite some time the sphinx was a structure inside of a decorative pool of water which i like to imagine looked really nice. I think the Egyptians could move water. It's not that hard compared to building a freaken 50 foot statue
Follow the white rabbit: 1 - limestone is naturally porous. 2 - the Sphinx was carved from the limestone bedrock = ergo it is still attached to it. 3 - below the Giza necropolis sits the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System = ergo there is groundwater a mere 4-5 meters below the Sphinx. You can coincidentally see videos here on YT of Egyptologists and geohydrologists drilling below the Sphinx to hit groundwater. 4 - so groundwater naturally upwells through the porous limestone bedrock to the surface. There is reacts with the calcium in the limestone to form salt precipitates which denudes to surface of the limestone causing it to flake away to touch. This process is called = "efflorescence". 5 - finally limestone as a "sedimentary rock" forms in layers of varying densities. As such the Sphinx which was carved from the bedrock is "softer" in some areas and harder in others. It was formed from the Mokkatum Formation which has 3 main density layers. Thus the upper face/head is medium hard - the neck and upper back is the softest part - while the bottom of the body is the hardest stone. This means that the structure erodes at different rates in different areas based upon its relative density there. Moral of the story: the Sphinx was buried for centuries up to its head in sand. Thus how could rainfall erode was what buried under meters of accumulated sand??? Meanwhile the exposed head and upper back as the softest parts of the structure were also the most badly eroded as a result of efflorescence from groundwater evaporation from below. They were exposed and accordingly blowing sand basically etched away the already crumbling surface of the limestone it was carved from. Consequently French engineers in the 1920's reinforced the Sphinx using concrete and steel rebar to buildup the neck and headdress area as well as fill in a large crack in the back and a hole in the top of the head. On a side note. A few years ago the Egyptian Dept. of Antiquities via a USAID grant hired a US water systems company to install underground water pumps around the plateau to lower the water table and divert it away from the necropolis to slow the erosion which is destroying the Sphinx even now. It requires constant maintenance to try to preserve it. So forget about rainfall. Something new to think about.
@@varyolla435the theory is obviously that it wasn't buried in sand last time there was rain fall 😂 I can't believe you wrote that whole essay and couldn't comprehend that.
@@pierer91 Sorry if reading is difficult for you - let alone understanding what you read. Fortunately you can take classes to address this apparent problem.........
The entire Giza plateau used to be covered in water, historical records report it being very calm shallow water that would create a reflection, effectively doubling the pyramids, visually.
Interesting video. Egypt has a desert morphology so you don't need to postulate a wetter climatic period to cause water damage to a structure. All you need is one major downpour every couple of centuries to cause sufficient water damage. Case in point is KV5 in the Valley of Kings. Chock full of debris from a flood when it was discovered. The tomb was built by Ramses II. The Sadd El Kafara is another example. This ancient dam was built in the 3rd millennium BC and is just south of Cairo. Under construction for about 10 years, the dam was destroyed by a heavy rainfall and never repaired. Limestone and shales are porous rocks that hold water, so they easily flake and peel.
@@travisaitch9963 I understand your premise. In general there are dissolved minerals and salts that come from various water sources, it could be that the apparent water erosion has come at different time frames with different mineral salt strengths, I know that will confuse many, but it might explain differences in erosion levels. Atmospheric levels of water may also have other dissolved salts as well. Salt has a very corrosive effect on many materials. Whether buried or not it still happens.
I’m guessing they were introduced to the majesty of space microwave technology and were like, “Yo we outta here” *points to pyramids as they enter radiation cube* “Those are yours now, we out.”
@@StefanMilo the can tell rain erosion from the Death of Gullies running down the side as well as the Seciment. And. Were is the Salts And how do you even know it Kafre who made had that Dranage cannal . Why was was there even a Drainage cannal. And how can they Built such huge Trases without leaving a Trase. Can you hear how contradictory that is. And look life after humans. Can such a civilian that built the Hover Damb or Rushmore . Leave no trase of Houses. Or anything
@@osmosisjones4912 yo, are you okay? He'd have to build the drainage canal because rain, explaining erosion. I may have myinclination about watchers, but to just assert this nonsense will get is nowhere closer to the truth
Ya know I think Stephan makes some important points and has caused me to reexamine the Sphinx's history, although there is quite a bit of counter-evidence that I feel he glanced over. It was quite popular for a new Pharaoh to imprint his identity on existing monuments such and rededicate them to himself. We also have considerable evidence that the Sphinxes head was found and recarved in Khafre's likeness, a trend that can be noted with many statues around Egypt. Furthermore, for much of the sphinx's existence, we are aware that it was covered with sand up to its head which serves as an excellent preservation method. The Sphinx has had to be dugout multiple times throughout its history, most famously by Thutmose IV. How come the head shows minimal erosion compared to the rest of the body? If it has been exposed the longest shouldn't it be in the worst condition? There is much more data supporting the rainwater hypothesis to particular for this silly comment. I think every hypothesis should be put under extreme scrutiny, I just think this video has left out most arguments that contradict his point.
Like all his debunking videos. Follows the same totally unscientific approach and is totally biased towards his own political, egotistical or religious beliefs. Science should follow proper scientific method not fit the line of whatever you believe in and ignore facts.
The head is a different type of stone which is much harder and tougher so it resists erosion better. Just google "sphinx rock layers" and look at the image results and you should get a whole load of results which shows the different layers.
@@dukenails7745 I didn't hear one political or religious argument. He listed proper scientific evidence: climatological evidence that the Sahara was wetter 5000 years ago, no trace of archaeological evidence of a civilization capable of building the Sphinx 15000 years ago, no bronze tools as it hadn't been discovered yet, there are many other sources of erosion including groundwater, dew, hail. He listed proper scientific explanations, it's people who have formed an intractable opinion that won't consider them.
6:18 Dude that's massive! You just glossed over that lol but that's huge. So you're saying that Egypt used to be wet and green. So those erosion makes could have totally come from rain but not only that, it totally changes how we should depict Ancient Egypt. That's pretty awesome
The Sahara goes through cycles of being intense desert and grassy forested land. The last time the Sahara was a lush location was around 5000 years ago, allowing for a vast opportunity for habitation and advancement of technology through northern Africa. The entirety of the Sahara covers part of a continent therefore the potential for hundreds of microclimates existed during these lush years.
What he doesn’t mention is Giza gets around half an inch a year in rainfall currently. So that’s around 1.5 inches of rainfall a year, and the largest estimate I could find is 5 inches for desert areas such as Giza. Absolutely outstanding.
I , too , as born with one of those faces. I have had random strangers decide they don't like me , because of my face. This could lead to trouble in my youth. I am dead serious. Now, at 63 , I could'nt care less whether someone like's me or not. Great videos, by the way. Keep them coming .
Why do inscriptions date items? Shouldn't it only set a min age and not a max? We know that the graffiti on Stonehenge doesn't indicate its age. So why do we interpret the inscription as being from the items origin?
Indeed, a mistake often made by even so called experts within the field. But I only need to drive on the road in my country to see that most people have great problems with the meaning of min and the meaning of max. We have a max speed we are allowed to drive, and most car drivers here treat it as a min speed instead. I don't see how when they enter their office they all of a sudden understand these concepts proporly and then forget all about them the moment they step into a car again.
@@BlacksmithTWD driving is completely different. Most people want to go faster than the maximum limit. Do you live in the United States? Do you not exceed the speed limit almost all the time? I drive a little slower now that I'm in my 40s, but I still exceed the speed limit generally speaking. If only by 5 or 10 mph.
@@jamisojo No I happen to live in the Netherlands and no I happen to obey the speed limit almost all the time, never had a ticked for speeding my entire life at least (also in my 40s now). I happen to have a friend who doesn't like me driving as I'm driving 'too slow' according to him, as he is used to exceeding the speed limit by about 10 km/h and in practice treats the max speed as a min speed (so I don't like traveling with him driving either), where I tend to drive 5 km/h below max speed up to max speed (especially when driving with a small trailer as he seems to forget that when driving with a trailer the speed limit is 90 km/h instead of 130 km/h). Though I get an idea of what you are trying to get at, and to some extend I don't disagree, however, seeing the number of people who ignore the speed limit and then when I drive the speed limit they pretend I'm the one who's breaking the traffic laws, I think you are mistaken at least about that group. Contrary to them you are willing to admit it when you choose to break the traffic rules, and as such at least you still seem to know the difference, unlike my friend or the guy who was asked what his main traffic frustration was and answered : "people who drive below the minimum speed", while where I live there is no minimum speed, here there only are maximum speeds in the traffic rules (though we do have a rule against unneccesary obstruction of ongoing traffic, never got a ticket for that either). Though probably driving in the Netherlands is more complicated as driving in the US as we happen to be more densly populated and as such have more different speed limits per driven kilometer/mile. Also depending on the time in the day the speed limit differs. Obeying traffic rules has gotten worse over the years as our government decided on increasing penalties while lowering traffic rule enforcement (about the same number of police officers for traffic rules as 30 years ago while the number of drivers more than doubled), though traffic safety has been increasing (except the last 5 years, after raising the maximum speed from 120km/h to 130 km/h, while for trucks it remained 80 km/h), but this is mostly caused by improved infrastructure.
Old kingdom, when pyramids and sphinx were built, ended when circa 2200 bc, a climate change toward drought took place and ended several civilisations in the Middle East and Asia. So it definitely rained more during Old Kingdom than in the following times.
A Nice reply on the alternative Sphinx theorie Stefan! Well done.. Some examples of the sources you mantioned deffinly are a strong argument against the water/rain erosion on the Sphinx. The only thing I am not so sure about is if Zahi Hawass is a reliable source of information haha 😁 but the rest is pretty solid and definitely gave me enough reason to be critical about the water/rain erosion theorie.. Regardless it's a pretty cool kitty cat (kochek) that they built ✌️
Good solid case you made. As an MA in Egyptian archaeology we deal with too many pyramidiots. Before the pyramids at Giza, the Egyptians had several tries before they got it right. See Meidum and the Bent at Dahsur.
"Pyramidiots" = are a niche industry now I'm afraid. For far too long academia ignored them. Subsequently this is what we now see = a diverse online and cable television based industry whose presence is actively undermining academic conclusions. Academia needs to become more proactive in challenging this shite. Such as the late Carl Sagan as an example wrote and spoke about the pervasive nature of "pseudoscience/history" as far back as the 1970's - but few paid attention. 🤷
You're a very modest man, Stefan........ not many content creators (or people in general actually) are man enough to expose criticism that they have had so I applaud you mate. You have always listed all reference points in your videos and you've also always said, in every single video, "If you have found an issue and/or mistake in my content then please let me know and I'll sort it." You don't hear that very often, I can tell you, so well done. Anyway....... fantastic video and fantastic content as usual mate, fantastic job!!
The way I always saw it, is that If you can't see the water damage... You must not know what water damage looks like. c: Also, you have to factor in the sand, and the current, and the salt within that water; and not just water. You may not know this, but there is also something called minerals in the water. and rain, it rains in the desert all at once sometimes.
Very good. It's so nice to see a good and logical examination of the evidence to dispute or support popular theories about ancient Egypt. I too was beguiled by the water theory and I am glad to see that their is no consensus for the cause of the weathering of the rock face. The temple that is associated with the Sphinx is very interesting though, you should do a follow up on that temple. The design and huge beams of rock with faceless smooth surfaces is thought to be unique, and the level of the ground floor, so much lower than the level of the present day are questions I like you to answer, please.
One problem. The Sphinx Enclosure tends to fill up with sand fairly quickly. This limits the time available for the the erosion you mention. There is the same type of erosion on the bedrock of the Giza Platue (so) Look I'm not saying that the Pyramids were built in 10k BCE. Or that the Sphinx was carved then. At the same time there are a lot of things that do not make sense in Egypt given the level of technology the Egyptians are credited with having. In terms of proximity evidence that s pretty damning. At the same time proximity has been used to equate structures that are close to one another. Perhaps the best example of this is the Osirion and the Funeral Complex of Seti I. Besides being close to one another what proof is there that they are the product of the same project.
yes it does fill up with sand very quickly but one can assume that the monument has been kept up with until Christianity took over as with other monuments this is over 2,000 years of possible weathering
@@shadymerchant1198 The Egyptians record having to occasionally rediscover and dig out the thing. The Sphinx was buried entirely when Thutmoses had his dream and ordered it uncovered.
There are, at minimum, 2 distinctly different levels of technology employed on and around the plateau. The highest quality craftsmanship is predynastic followed by a much more mundane and somewhat perocial technology. Something seen in ancient megalithic structures around the world. Quite starkly, in S. America. The evidence, unequivocal now in my opinion, of a worldwide cataclysm that caused the extinction of vast numbers of Pleistocene creatures also brought humanity to its knees, along with the accumulated knowlege of 10s of thousands of years. Trying to shoehorn civilization into a single linear timeline is foolish.
@@6point8esspcee68 you are an idiot if human civilization existed long before it is currently believed to have existed and it was far more advanced then us there would be some trace left behind mass graves synthetic materials stainless steel is effective eternal not to mention a genetic legacy there is none of this Shoehorning civilization into a linear timeline may be foolish but it is far more foolish to say I don't understand how the ancients did something so it must be a ancient super advanced society that mysteriously vanished only leaving behind a few piles of rock
Thanks for making this video, Stefan. Your dedication and passion is inspiring, and it is good to have a voice like yours making this content. Conspiracy theories are a tough subject and, as a history teacher, I am surprised how pervasive some of them are. I am glad there are those out there like you answering such questions on RUclips. Keep up the great work!
And for decades the US government claimed UFOs were a farce and invented the phrase conspiracy theorist. Ha a few months ago we couldn't get "scientists" to agree on masks being a good idea.
PhD Geologist and University Professor here. Although I have not personally seen the Sphynx, I have followed the dispute carefully. In my opinion, the "erosion" proponents seem to confuse the difference between erosion and weathering (chemical + physical). What appears to be "grooves" caused by flowing water is more likely weathering attacking pre-existing fractures and compositional zones of weakness. Yes, rain is involved, but solely as a source of the water which, because of its acidity, is attacking the calcite in the limestone rock. The evidence for "older age" is just not there.
The Sphinx suffers from = efflorescence - still does by the way. There is a video here from a few years back which shows Egyptologists/hydrologists drilling beneath the Sphinx to strike a moisture level a mere 4-5 meters down. This is because = the Giza Plateau rests atop the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System with the Nile running just to the east. So while atmospheric moisture from rain and condensation from the heating/cooling of the porous limestone bedrock accounts from some of the denudation of the structure a lot is a result of underground moisture upwelling from the aquifers below = in other words the structure "sweats". Consequently several years back via a USAID grant the Egyptian government contracted a US water systems company to install underground pumps around the plateau to lower the water table and divert it away from the necropolis. The Sphinx itself requires constant maintenance being coated with a neutralizing agent to mitigate the calcium-acid precipitate which forms from said moisture transit. p.s. - the sad irony here is that in the last century when the Sphinx was fully uncovered it has = eroded even faster - its' entire body surface now being exposed to blowing sand. When it was buried efflorescence still occurred of course but the buried parts were protected from said abrasion. Today it is basically being "sandblasted".
Well said. I am shocked to see everywhere fringe theories that require logic flips or worldwide conspiracies to legitimize. It upsets me and there are tons of people wasting time to argue the least likely hypotheses with zero evidence or often contradict the existing evidence and don't even pass simple scrutiny.
Over 280 geologist agreed with Dr Robert Schoch and even they couldn't convince 1 Egyptologist in 1992. So I am unsurprised that you disagree. That said we need sceptic's to keep the debate going so while I disagree with your findings I thank you for sharing and look forward to future views you may have on a "Lost Civilization".
Few points to respond. Disclaimer I'm not a geologist. 1. You say there is there is no geological consensus that water erosion occured as Dr. Robert Schoch proclaims. While that's technically true theres a lot of debate on the matter, your use of words is misleading, insinuating that only Dr. Robert Schoch has made this claim. Yet there are many geologist who have observed his findings and have come to the same conclusion. 2. In regards to the "expansion", Dr. Schoch has gone on many times to say there are multiple types of erosion. Wind, Sand, Water, AND precipitation. The other signs of water erosion do not necessarily mean precipitation erosion, as the Nile may have flooded the enclosure, as many geologist, to include Dr. Schoch has said. 3. In the claim that studying Ancient Egypt, the climate was 3x wetter (doesn't seem like a scientifically based definition or terminology), that may be true, but that type of climate does not produce HEAVY rain fall as Dr. Schoch proclaims. Having lived in both a desert and a wetland, I will tell you, you cannot even compare the two or any zone in-between. A desert rain is like a water gun you get from the dollar store and a wetland rain is like every fire department in the state came together and blasted you with all of their fire hose. 4. This is more of a complaint to the entire archaeological community, but I really hate the argument that, "there no tools or trash so that means there's no evidence". Whole there is no terrestrial evidence of any of these things I don't think it's wise to say, "we haven't found it so there's no evidence." IF, and this is a big IF, because it may very well turn out that your position is right and Dr. Schoch and his constituents are wrong, there was a civilization capable of doing this 12,000 years ago, what leads us to assume those primitive tools would have even survived that long? In modern example, if our civilization was forgotten and technology advanced and that civilization found the white house, there wouldn't be any of the tools used to build it on the site, because the tools used to build that site aren't there today. Lastly, the archaeological findings are my biggest issue with this. I love archaeology and I read up on it as much as I can. But archaeology around ancient Egypt is extremely political and not heavily based in science. There's an extremely grueling process that archaeologist have to go through to even study the area as it's maintained by Egyptologist, who are Art Majors, not Archaeologist. Not to mention the scandalous Egyptologist who have been caught selling artifact findings for personal profit. This is a great stain on ancient studies as our best evidence, for possibly either side of this topic, may have been sold, soiled, and destroyed, ruining a great chance at studying our past. I don't post this to hate, I actually thoroughly enjoy your channel and the content you produce. I even agree with you on some points in this video, mainly pertaining to Dr. Schoch using a newer tablet to claim the Pharaoh didn't build the pyramids. I just think we are too easily dismissive of possible human history.
By hunter gatherers who are on the cusp of developing agriculture maybe even already are early agricultural communities. The scale of the two monuments, their style, and the technology required is hardly comparable.
You are brushing the controversy under the rug. It doesn't fit the current understanding of anthropology. www.google.com/search?q=gobekli+tepe&rlz=1C1GGGE___US623US623&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_yp2NhO7gAhUC_4MKHfY4AS4Q_AUIDigB&biw=1536&bih=760#imgrc=pGQejBaSsfEciM: This predates the pyramids by 4500 years
@@StefanMilo Well, I came in to point out how biased and unscientific your contentions are, and then I found this equally clueless comment, if not more. If you had any experience in archeology, as I do, you'd realize what a bonehead comment it is to contend that the Sphinx and Gobleki Tepi are not on par regarding scale and scope. Gobleki Tepi is only 10% excavated. The stoneworking skill necessary to not only quarry, shape, and place the stones but to carve the reliefs does not happen while wandering the savanna hunting antelope. Those skills must evolve over generations, if not centuries or millennia. Likely you were attempting to pass off GT as the work of a nascent settlement. No, this was the work of a highly organized society, which already existed 12,000 years ago.
@Nick Nack What's your evidence? Mine is experience, and a degree anthropology, studying what it takes to for civilizations to evolve from hunter-gatherers to an organized civilization.
@Nick Nack I already know what the literature says. And, having been in Academia, I have witnessed firsthand how skewed the results get on an archaeological project. Yes, feet are held to the fire to not skew the results, but the results get skewed for purposes of perpetuating one's career by fitting facts into previous conclusions. For example, what is the oldest date of human habitation in North America? The Clovis level, right? You and I both know that is b******* and that there is an emerging preponderance of evidence that blows right through the Clovis level. You also know that less than 10% of Goblecki Tepe has been excavated. It is much too soon to draw conclusions about any lack of pottery or other signs a settlement. In addition, there are indications that there are sites adjacent to Gobleki Tepe. Let's take a look at the recent discovery of a void in the Great Pyramid. Zahi hawass says it isn't there. Why? Because he doesn't believe in radar. The ministry of Antiquities goes to Great Lengths to ignore anything that doesn't fit in with their notion of Egyptian antiquity. For example, the Great Pyramid is the tomb of Khufu. More b*******. None of the pyramids were tombs unless the Builder is just got a wild hair and decided not to do anything that they had done previously and afterwards to create a tomb. Khufu simply rework was already existing. Same with the Sphinx. Go ahead, try and tell me that isn't water erosion. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Exactly. So, pardon me for being crass, but put your head back up your ass and go write another paper. Make sure you don't say anything that someone else hasn't already said.
"His majesty sent me to dig five canals in Upper Egypt, and to build three barges and four tow boats of acacia wood purchased from Wawat. The foreign chiefs of Irtjet, Wawat, Yam, and Medja (Nubian tribes) cut them into timber for us. All was completed at my behest within the year. Once we had them floating, they were loaded with very large blocks for the pyramid "Merenere the Splendid". I saved a lot of money for the palace with these five canals." -Weni the Elder, 6th Dynasty judge, general, engineer, and governor during the reigns of pharaohs Pepi I Meryre and Nemtyemsaf I. But then I'm sure they are right. That whole summer, probably the hardest of his life was spent in commune with aliens. And when he said acacia wood barges what he really meant was anti-gravity devices.
I live in southern Spain. When it rains here, which isn't that often as its a semi desert environment, it can come down in torrents. On my patio i had about 6 inches of water in just half an hour of rainfall. Incredible how destructive the rains in desert regions can be.. Roofs collapse and walls are washed away... 3 hours later it can look like it never rained at all... I don't have too much of a problem with the ancient Egyptians building the pyramids but I question the narrative of the step pyramid, followed by the bent pyramid, followed by the red pyramid, followed by the great pyramid. It all seems a little to convenient for my liking. The reality is even the accepted story is a theory. The face of the sphinx is supposed to be a representation of Kufu made by his son Djedefre. this is based on a resemblence to a tiny statue of Kufu. Not enough.. When your looking at a civilisation that spanned 3500 years, many monuments would have been restored or reused. The sphinx is a natural outcrop of rock not uncommon in the region so the only way to date it is by the enclosure which is man made..
The head dressing carved in the Sphinx can only be from the middle kingdom(or I suppose later). One of best candidates that I've seen for the Sphinx head is Amenemhat II. He was a pretty cool king. This doesn't mean Amenemhat carved the Sphinx; just that he, or someone later than him had his face carved onto whatever it was before.
You might be interested in watching ted talks how to green the worlds deserts and reverse climate change. It covers what you are describing with rain, and how they have managed to reverse the problems with the water loss. The before and afters at the end are amazing
Ive always been jealous of that kind of rain, i live in western Washington (just south west of Seattle) and in an average year we get 60-70 inches (150-180mm) of rain a year and between 160-180 rainy days a year. I kind of wish the rain would just dump and the clouds would go away for awhile. At the same time i do love living here because there's one of the worlds few temperate rain forests (Hoh Rain Forest) about a 4 hour drive from my house. That place can get crazy though, there's a section that gets 200+ inches of rain a year.
@@arthas640 I did not realise there is a rainforest 4 hours drive from Wahington, I feel rather silly. Thank you for adding some information to my day, I'm going to educate myself about it.
@@somniumisdreaming its gorgeous, google "the hall of moss, washington" (it's the name of a park, not an actual hall) or "the Hoh rainforest" for some nice pictures. Forkes Washington, where Twilight is set, is an old logging town in the rainforest
I fully admit that I was convinced by Robert schoch, but only because the current egyptologists always just say its debunked and and don't give a ton of info like this. Thanks for going into detail. I will read the sources.
Unfair to make a definite answer without the two having a debate on the topic. Maybe Schoch has an explanation to his points or maybe can debunk them. He wouldn’t be doing this for 35 years if there was this much disproving evidence. Not saying Mr Schoch was right or anything but I’m saying it’s not entirely impossible
@qoizr7505 Nope. Despite what you may have been led to believe, debates are not how one demonstrates the validity of their claims. "Winning" a debate doesn't equal demonstrating your claim is true or factual. "He wouldn't be doing this for 35 years if there was this much disproving evidence." A couple of things about this idea. 1) Mark Sargent & other grifters have been presenting flat earth conspiracies for about 7 or 8 years. 2) Formerly doctor, Andrew Wakefield, has been lying about vaccines for about 25 years now. With 1) there is literally all of known physics to refute it. Children of about 7/8 years old, using nothing but their eyes and understanding of 3D shapes can refute it. It's a conspiracy first and foremost, evidence the earth isn't flat, is not at all an issue for most believers, it's the nefarious "they" that "hide" the "facts" that you debunk to help people out of that level of insane conspiracy. Reality, sight and a 7 year old's grasp of geometry refutes flat earth, yet Sargent and others make a pretty penny lying to people about it. With 2) Wakefield is a fraudulent POS. He has purposefully used natural fear of parents against them. His paper that he started the current anti vax movement with was not only thoroughly ripped to shreds by peer review, but there have been literally hundreds of studies and experiments, from researchers in a variety of relevant fields, presented in papers. These papers have been peer reviewed, and accepted, and not one has found any evidence of the BS Wakefield claimed in his debunked paper. He lost his license, his original motivation (his patent for his own measles vaccine) and BS study data results, were thoroughly exposed by a dedicated investigative journalist, (fun fact, a bunch of the stuff that proved just how much Wakefield was a lying POS, was obtained because Wakefield tried to sue the journalist investigating him, who was able to get copies of Wakefield's "research" work as part of the case discovery process. ) Yet Wakefield makes a fortune (albeit Stateside now) to this day. Lying about vaccines. And, the most important point is... It is not up to legitimate scientists, researchers, historians and what have you, to "debate" or debunk these dickheads when they just assert random BS and pretend "unanswered questions" is somehow evidence of their randomly asserted BS. It is up to these dickheads to evidence their case and have it stand up through peer reviewed research papers. The question that should be asked at this point is not "Is it more likely this person is wrong, or that literally thousands of researchers, with expertise in a number of different fields, from countries all over the world, are wrong, or part of a global conspiracy to deny such an obvious truth?" Although that is a good one.. The question to ask is: Why do these people _always_ misrepresent the "other side's" consensus / claim / ideas / data so consistently in their "work" ? And, why do they _never_ stop doing that when they have been told, repeatedly had it made clear, that what they are telling people the "mainstream" expert opinions are, is a false narrative? I assert it's because they're liars, obviously they're liars; they just keep on lying even when it's easy for them to google what it is that the experts _actually_ say about whatever subject.
When I was in Cairo I noticed that the erosion patterns on the Sphinx and the Cairo Citadel (the foundations) are practically the same. Any explanation for that?
"Language and art can't help but evolve". 8:02 Could you explain how the egyptians started at the highest technological level and degraded drastically over time in terms of their architecture? That seems like devolving rather than evolving.
Thanks for your video. I love watching weird, science-fiction sounding theories on RUclips and then watching a debunking video presenting the scientific consensus. I don't know why I like to do that. It's just fun :D. Generally, the wild theories are made compelling by purposeful deception. Anyone sincerely looking at all the evidence for the truth would never conclude anything about ancient aliens, hyper advanced ancient civilizations, flat earth, etc. However, they don't let that get in the way of a good story! What I understand less is the the psychology of the people who will believe the story despite being exposed to overwhelming edidence that it is false. That's just maladaptive, guys. Maybe it makes you feel good to believe this story, but being a gullible sucker in general is not going to serve you well in life. PS--I like the stupid smile, too. You look genuinely amused/happy to me.
Good on you, sir! I personally enjoy watching conspiracy videos from time to time, but I always find the debunking more clever anyhow. Have a good time with your conspiracy videos!
Let me start by saying I don't believe what you call conspiracy theories. I do believe in this video he overlooked some evidence though. Why was the Sphinx carved in the shape of a lioness, with its face later remodeled to look like Khufu? How is all this erosion possible when we know for a fact the Sphinx was buried completely understand for a lot of recent history? Crystals forming does not explain why the erosion looks to be runs of water, it wouldn't just randomly form like that from condensation from dew. As far as some of the objects inside the pyramids, perfectly square corners in granite? Sarcophagi that aren't even disconnected from the lid, but just carved completely out inside with a few inches gap? Polished hieroglyphs that to this day have not lost their luster? Strange chambers that aren't really explained, with copper rods at the end of them? And underground chamber similar to the warden Cliff towers Tesla designed meant to create free wireless electricity? It seems too simple to discard all of these facts along the guys of conspiracy. I hope one day we will have enough knowledge to reasonably explain everything without simply ignoring one side or the other
I have no problem with a large lion statue being carved out of an existing rock outcropping 10 thousand years ago. The amount of carve stone at Gobekli Tepi indicates people at that time could do this. It does not mean they were any where near advanced as the old kingdom Egyptians. The site could easily have been sacred for a long period perhaps as a seasonal meeting place of nomadic herders from the Sahara grass plains. The underground springs in the area could have been a focus with the first pyramid being built over one. The first farmers could have had a knowledge base accumulated over a very long time by their nomadic ancestors. It is us who assume such people were completely ignorant but Gobekli seemingly disproves that assertion. The original sphinx idol may be another scrap from that period. A site where at a certain time of year nomads moved their herds to the Nile. There they carried out social and religious events. Part of which was slowly carving with stone granite hammers a rough idol to some lion godess. It may have taken a long time with work being a religious offering. The later Egyptian work s actually follow the earlier edge of the pit not the other wat round. At least all we can say is they line up not why. It is not unusual to for later work over the top of very much older structures. In Florence the Roman arena is completely lost but the outline is preserved in the street line of buildings built more than a thousand years later. So it is not unthinkable that a line from an earlier structure is repeated in something much later. Even in modern England neolithic boundaries are preserved in the modern landscape. That's over 5000 years even in the mass populated period of the last two centuries. What could have remained in a sparse stone age Egypt till the time of the pyramids. The East West alignment is about the easiest line to drawn. Particularly in a sunny country. It could be drawn in a single day. Sunrise and sunset viewed from a single spot and marked with a couple of sticks.
I disagree, goebkli tepe is a HUGE site if I am not misstaken only 10% has been escavated and the site is way larger than what we have to work with. How could a nomadic people of hunter gatherers ever carve and haul these huge stones if they didn't have an advanced civilization with the ability of agriculture, science, and mathematics. The precision in these stones are amazing and the worksmanship is incredible.
Robert shock doesn't even consider the possibility that the sphinx enclosure could have been cut before the sphinx was made, or before it was finished. So even if it is water erosion, that doesn't certainly date the sphinx.
Yet study of the blocks which make up Khafre's valley temple when compared to the Sphinx pit walls = show the same stratification/composition. So as they removed stone from around the Sphinx to form the pit it rests in they used that to build Khafre's valley temple - ergo their creation was simultaneous. As to the rest no it would not take forever to use flint tools to care limestone as limestone is not that hard. Granite would take longer - but granite is only used sparingly in the Old Kingdom generally. Limestone given its ubiquity and ease of working was the primary building stone until centuries later when sandstone came into vogue for a time.
@@varyolla435 didn't know that stratification is in another place, thanks. Someone has demonstrated that people can shape granite with flint. Although I want to see where this was done by possibly finding a place with lots of worn flint in the soil.
@@Benjamin-mh8ei While it possible the main stones used for working granite were harder ones. Here is an excerpt about Egyptian stone tools from a professor of geology working in the US: "Perhaps the heaviest used and least glamerous stone employed by the ancient Egyptians is chert, which is also commonly referred to as flint. From Predynastic times onward it was used for tools (awls; adzes, knife and sickle blades; axe and pick heads; choppers; drill bits; and scrapers) and weapons (dagger blades, and spear and arrow points). Even when metals (copper, bronze and later iron) became commonplace for these applications, chert was still a popular low-cost alternative. For tools and weapons requiring the sharpest edges, imported obsidian was employed. A wide variety of stones, especially hard ornamental ones, were used for the heads of maces, a club-like weapon. From Late Predynastic times into the Late Period, the quarrying and much of the carving of ornamental stones was done with hard, fracture-resistant stone tools known as pounders and mauls. These were primarily of dolerite, but siliceous sandstone, anorthosite gneiss and fine-grained granite were also occasionally used. These same rocks were also employed as grinding stones for smoothing rough, carved stone surfaces. The actual polishing of these surfaces was probably done with ordinary, quartz-rich sand of which Egypt abounds. For the softer sandstone and limestone, picks of chert (as well as metal tools) were employed." So while people tend to focus upon metal tools analysis shows that flint was actually the most ubiquitous tool used by the dynastic Egyptians while as noted above other more specialized stones were also used for certain applications. In surveying the Aswan quarry Egyptologists found thousands of dolerite pounders. Some even had the name of the craftsmen they belonged to painted on them in red ochre paint. So it appears they initially had more jagged stones so as to have more of a pointed cutting surface to chip away at the bedrock. Upon the stone becoming "rounded out" they would be discarded. Since metal tools required smelting the ore and casting the tool that made them expensive to produce and maintain. So using stone tools like flint was exponentially cheaper = hence their ubiquity. Enjoy your day. 🤨
Every time someone makes an argument that the Egyptians didn’t build the pyramids. Replace pyramids with Catholic cathedrals. And replace Egyptians with medieval people and see how ridiculous it sounds.
You do not even need to do that. Simply asked them = "then who did???" Invariably they can not answer - at least not intelligently. It will always be allusions to some supposed "lost civilization" for which coincidentally nary a pottery shard exists to show it was actually real. Such unsubstantiated speculation coincidentally is known as "argumentum ad ignorantiam". Ironic in that the pyramids or Sphinx survived whereas nothing else about them did. lol!
Love this video!! I was worried this was going to be one of those wacky ancient alien videos when you said this was not a typical history channel and I was delighted to hear such a rational and fact based argument! Subscribing right now!
I don't think even the History Channel is all that factual, scientific or evidence based anymore. So, being not typical History Channel as it is now is a good thing.
Dang I loved this wacky archaeology theory. I still don't buy that the rock wasn't eroded by rain, but the Sahara being less dry in the old kingdom makes a lot of sense.
In all the cases we are aware of, less technological people always want to trade for metal weapons and tools, something that looked almost magical to someone who had never seen metal objects before. Those objects and the metals themselves would have been valued trade items. Ceramics and metal cooking utensils would have been important trade items with a paleolithic people who came in contact with such things. If there are remains of paleolithic people who lived in that area, and their are, such items should have been found, IF they had lived along side a technologically superior culture.
i like your vids.. i like the style.. very chill and intellectual.. please never edit edit edit.. words are hard and sometimes fumbled.. i like how you just go with it.. cheers!
thank you, i couldnt rally debunk this with my limited knowledge on the subject, so i was somewhat intrigued by the water erosion hypothesis. you cleared that up for me, thank you
How is it possible that the Sphinx enclosure has water erosion, but the blocks removed from the Sphinx enclosure used to build the Sphinx temple don't show it?
Im not a conspiracy theorist. I just think we still have so much to learn from how humanity evolved over how long. One thing about the Giza pyramid though... If it was allegedly built in 10 years as Herodotus was told and has about 2,3 million blocks, each waying 15 tons in average, they would have to move 630,13 blocks a day from the quarry to the pyramid. Not to mention the time to transport the granite about 600 km... If they did they at least deserve the agnolishment of being way more intelligent and structured than most give them credit for. Great channel btw, love that you look at both sides!
Love how the article you link admits in no uncertain terms that the technology required to saw the stkne blocks was way more advanced then is currently purported: "If the procedure just hypothesized is accurate then the following can be concluded: 1) The invention of the swinging drag saw can be traced back more than two thousand years beyond its previous date. 2) The degree of mechanization indicated by this operation is somewhat more advanced than general views of the pyramid builders' technology level now hold. 3) The sawing done in this place represents a sophisti- cated operation of a mature industry." (Evidence for Use of a Stone-Cutting Drag Saw by the Fourth Dynasty Egyptians Author(s): Robert G. Moores Jr. Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 28 (1991))
Moreover, the dating of the stone blocks in the article you referenced is based in the current assumption that they are part of the east side of the Khufu's pyramid and therefore date to the 4th dynasty, not upon any direct dating done on the blocks themselves.
Yes - it however is nothing new. The advent of "pseudoscience" as a business has been a problem for academia for decades. Such as the late Carl Sagan as an example wrote about it as far back as the 1970's. Since the advent of the internet and entertainment television via "niche cable channels" however what was once limited to fringe print media and the occasional television program - which appropriate disclaimers - has largely spread to the internet where anyone can claim anything absent any real pushback. Moral of the story: channels like this have become a necessity. Just as a virus can continuously spread if measures are not taking to mitigate that spread = so ignorance begets ignorance ad infinitum unless the cycle is broken by more credible information and facilitating understanding. Sunlight continues to be the best disinfectant. The problem of pseudoscience/history stems from the entertainment genre via movies and televisions. It is maintained however in large part owing to = a failed educational system which does not teach people how to recognize such trash so as to realize it is more Hollywood than actual history. So Schoch et al = are "bottom feeders" who are exploiting the ignorance and gullibility of their minions to monetize the response. 🤔 _"A sucker is born every minute"_
I ve got so many ''archeological'' books about ancient civ. which are full of contradictions and wishful thinking. For example read the book '' The making of civilization'' written by Rutten Whitehouse and John Wilkins, the way they write is super arrogant and they re stating all their theories as facts which makes everything very narrow minded, it''s a theory ffs. Well, that book was written in 1986 and needs a repress, because like at least 80% of the content is overtaken by time due to recent discoveries. Talking about selling books to the gullible and pseudoscience, Archaeology itself IS almost like a pseudoscience the way many archaeologists practise it, self preservation. Quite recently a wall few meters high and km''s long was found just off the coast in the Baltic Sea...... archeology; ehmmmm hunter gatherers, that wall is build for trapping deer and wildlife. Archeologists speculate just as much......if deemed handy for themselves. If you open books and actually read them, please keep thinking for yourself.
My cheeks hurt from smiling, I smiled through the hole video. I really did have my mind made up before seeing your video on what Robert said and truly believed it all. A lesson was learned to dig a little deeper before forming a conclusion, I thank you for that Well I'm about to go down the rabbit hole of RUclips on this one. 😉
A lot of these theories about how the Egyptians didn't create this work starts with the assumption that they are not capable of doing it. They didn't have the tools they didn't have the organization. They didn't have the intelligence. Anthropologist would tell you that the ancient people the homosapiens were just as intelligent as we are today. They started basically from scratch and built the foundation of where we are. None of this stuff arrived by accident or by aliens or by glaciers or rainwater. It was made by intelligent people to meet their felt needs. Certain people are attracted to the stuff and it sells. It's pop archeology.
6:35 "3 times wetter" stil means dry. Get it? So if it rains 5 days a year.... incresed 300% its 15 days.. still not much. What you really are looking for is a period we call "the neolithic subpluvial" .. Look it up.
@@kabkab8441 Thats not how sand erodes. Sand only erodoes whats its on for the first hours... then its covered by the sand and protected until the sand is removed.
Frosty CryptoShark You wrote: "Sand only erodes whats its on for the first hours... then its covered by the sand and protected until the sand is removed." So by this thinking the Egyptians built this structure only to be covered up in a couple of hours. Is that right? There are many possibilities here that would allow the erosion by sand.
@@kabkab8441 i was exaggerating.. it likely takes days to cover. As deserts move by the wind its more a protector than a wrecker. The only parts that are exposed to erosion by sand blowing is parts sticking out of the terrain. As sand covers things up they are also protected from the elements. The sand beneath the top layer is not moving.
Frosty CryptoShark Your statement is common knowledge. Ancient Egyptians were experts with sand. If the area was going to fill up with sand, they would have thought of that. Also, although the area does fill with sand in modern times, that MAY not be the situation in ancient times. In much of the same manner as rivers flowing freely at one time may become clogged or filled in other times. The Romans and Greeks both have modified the Sphinx in attempts to preserve it - proof of the fact that it wasn't simply covered up shortly after it's construction.
Hey just wondering if you can expand on this and maybe talk about Graham Hancock's theories about Ice Age civilizations and Randall Carlson's theories that line up really, really well with his about the idea that a giant global flood really happened as proven by several geographic features found in North America and Siberia as well as the massive amounts of megafauna from 11,600 years ago found dead with their legs broken and all in one area as if they had been hit by a mega tsunami and floated to one area together. Would love to hear more on it as it is one of the few "conspiracy" theories I genuinely 100% believe. Thanks for doing great work man. As a video essayist creator I appreciate big levels of research going into videos
Well, the floodings in north america and sibria, where not 1 event, but the evidence clearly shows that they flooded a couple of times, wich doesnt work with this hypotheses. And could you give me a source to the claim of mega Fauna with broken legs ?
I'd take Hancock more seriously if he didn't attack 'science' so often for not embracing the theories he likes. I enjoy his books as entertainment and his TV programmes posed some interesting questions at times. He's undoubtedly a clever man with considerable knowledge but he chooses to use that knowledge to sell books rather than engage in original research that could then be verified by the scientific community and absorbed into the body of knowledge. His theory that an advanced global civilisation existed prior to the end of the last glaciation and were all but wiped out by rapid sea level rise is an interesting one but his evidence comes up short. In the end his argument seems to be that there are a few pieces of potentially anomalous evidence, that a coastal civilisation *could* have existed in areas now hundreds of feet under water and that the scientific community is too conservative to take such a concept seriously. As Carl Sagan is quoted as saying "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". Graham Hancock is very good at the first part of that but rather poor at the second.
@fullswing Do you mean pseudoscience from Hawass too, he was exactly about that reproach accused, and two more points. He shows the public a false picture of the dynasty Egypt's, Hollywood like. And itself he is close at The Edgar Cayce Foundation and is still looking as member of his circle or lodge for the hall of records. read up at Smithsonian. To make it clear i don't agree with all this conclusions from all Autors Hancock Collins .... include the Tomb Theory. but all that researchers did a excellent investigation work.
@fullswing Hawass isn't the devil at all. if you talk to him you just learn he is utterly smart. But it is time to fix that Egypt picture in the world. nobody can serve two lords for ever. We all knows about his hobby "looking for the hall of records" why he do it not in the public ? I don't like Hancock personalty. he is into drugs. You are wrong about his education he graduated from Durham University in 1973, receiving a First Class Honours degree in sociology. worked as Journalist. worked for many British papers. But about his work. he is reading in public such famous texts "The Lament of Hermes" or "The book of the Gates / Dead, and of the Rebirth". "The Pyramid Texts". Andrew Collins is a engineer working into stonemason technics. he is research the whole technical subject. Tool marks. processing stonemason technology. And there a lot others Civil engineers. Stonemasons which are into that subject. You can't put all them experience turn down, call into question. Who are you?
there was this dynamic couple who are obsessed on prehistoric civilization though prehistory may change soon. I assume you have heard both of them, Graham Hancock and Randall Carlson and they have presented their case very well against a skeptical blogger, Michael Shermer. I think that these 4 reasons you have given are all well founded and evidence you've provided in the description section is extensive but there are no good reason to fully deny the chamber of the sphinx water erosion hypothesis. I believe we need more study on this and denying this hypothesis at every turn slows down the progress which is fine,all sciences are like that but we're on an online forum, would you research and present evidence which supports the sphinx being older than the pyramids (the exact year being 10,500 BC)? I think that video will pull in a lot of views for you and I certainly would watch. Fantastic video,I'm a new subscriber and I'm liking what I'm seeing.
I generally think you get things right, but I'd like to point out that one of your points is refuted by the existence of Gobekli Tepe. As I'm sure you're aware, Gobekli Tepe is a megalithic structure, and there is no known culture is associated with its creation. We know there must have been a culture in the area only because of the existence of Gobekli Tepe. Cultures can in fact built with megaliths and not leave any other trace. I agree that the Sphinx was contemporary with the pyramids, regardless of this point. Also, the mass of the Sphinx far outstrips the mass of Gobekli Tepe, as does the technical mastery. So it is more unlikely that the culture that built it could have been insubstantial enough to leave no other trace. But it is theoretically possible.
There are lots of pieces of evidence with Gobekli Tepe though. It's obvious that people were living and working around there when it was built, there are artifacts and trash, etc., that are contemporary with the building site. Plus, GT is not as nearly as sophisticated as something like the Sphinx.
@@420JackG the sphinx is not that sophisticated... Do you know what Göbekli Tepe is? it is in alignment with true north, it's more sophisticated than you know.
It should be mandatory for anyone who wants to attend archeology university to cut 20 tonnes granite block in a half with copper saw before he/she can be accepted.
still think the evidence for an older civilization is compelling but you make a good video, no ego or anything just your straight thoughts on the issue.
If the Sphinx were partially submerged in water long enough to erode it enough to notice, then wouldn't the lines of erosion be level with gravity? Because I've seen the Sphinx and they aren't even close to that. The different sedimentary layers erode at different rates, as they would under water, but equally throughout if it's wind erosion. If it were water erosion, there would be tons of erosion below a line level with water. If you boat down the Colorado River in Utah you can see the layers of sandstone erode differently, but at water level they ALL erode faster together. Sphinx looks nothing like that.
If I had to re write Shakespeare's stuff today: ... And when Romeo touched Juliet's spaghetti, Juliet said "You're already dead".. To which Romeo replied relax I've got some sunshine in ma bag... Good grief
Firstly I love your videos, and want to see loads more. I hope it's okay to point out some counter arguments though. 4:20 In saying that Khafre extended, or built around the Sphinx, I don't think Schoch means that Khafre actually cut the south wall. That wouldn't make sense at all. I don't think he's that goofy. 6:10 "Three times wetter than it is now." Google on rainfall in Egypt: "South to Cairo, the average drops to nearly 0 millimetres." Three times nearly 0, is still pretty close to zero. That's a lot of weathering. 9:23 They left nothing behind, except the Sphinx? You mention there's evidence of paleolithic groups relatively nearby. Paleolithic groups were able to build Gobekli Tepe, why not the Sphinx? I'm not saying you're wrong at all, I'm just saying the evidence that exists is usually presented as if it is conclusive, but it really isn't conclusive. Anyway, would love to see more videos like this. Great work, and loving your channel!
Almost every temple in Egypt is built under much older foundations, early dynastic egyptians reused column bases as altars, it means that there were already very ancient temples there, and later a new population came and took over. Many researchers and egyptologists come to this same conclusion, that the egyptians were emulating what came before. It's also written in their mythology. There are the famous 40k-50k vases such as those found at Saqqara, and all the traces of advanced machining and tool marks, even mainstream archeology admits that pre-dynastic and early dynastic egyptian stone work was more advanced than later stone work. Just visit any Egyptian museum to see it with your own eyes. Look at Ben Van Kerkwyk's "A tale of two industries". The evidence is literally everywhere, in every temple or major archaeological site in Egypt, it's in every egyptian museum, it's written in their mythology too, meaning the egyptians themselves say it, the only ones who say something different are the mainstream archeologists, who can't even agree on a timeline
🥱 There is nothing under the Sphinx save for = bedrock......... - it being carved from the same. So you are proverbially "pounding square pegs into round holes" trying to rationalize what you want to believe. If you cannot directly correlate evidence to the Sphinx itself = you are _"grasping for straws"_ then by making supposed "connections" which only exist in your imagination. p.s. - stone can be rather "heavy" you know........ Hence heavy things like large temples and pyramids etc. were by necessity built in areas where the ground could support that weight. They also had to be accessible and hence needed to be in areas accessible to the Nile which could support the inevitable population of priests etc. who serviced such places. Moral: the Near East if you have ever been there is limited as far as places which can support human habitation. Consequently those areas have seen repeated habitation over millennia as a result = rendering your "observation" moot. Produce a non-Egyptian origin pottery shard if you can reflecting a supposed civilization which predated dynastic Egypt and was capable of creating what dynastic Egypt did....... - good luck with that.
Sphynx was covered up to its head in sand,preserving all nooks and crannies until 1820,only recently has it been actually acknowledged the water erosion
one argument from the anti-traditional theorists is this: how did the egyptian culture rise and the very first construction of them is the most incredible, biggest and complex structure ever? its like they came into history with the greatest bang and from then on their architectual skill reduced? i am not saying i believe the conspiracy theorists but what about a rise to perfection? you know the saying rome wasnt built in a day. its like the old romans built the colloseum the year rome was founded instead of late into the empires history. why is the first thing the egyptions came up with the greatest thing ever without them having a decent history in architectual design beforehand? the only other building before the great pyramid was a stepped pyramid of djoser according to my reasearch, a mere 30 years before the great pyramid. i would like to hear your take on this argument against the great pyramid origins.
There are many earlier examples of egyptian architecture, the great pyramid was not built in a day. There are a lot of more ancient tombs that lead to it, from mastabas to the pyramid of Djoser, to the three pyramids of Snofru and finally to Khufu's great pyramid. Also, they obviously had architectural plans, most probably drawn on papyri which do not survive very easily and were possibly also considered sacred or something and maybe destroyed? I don't understand why this looks so incredible to all conspiracy theorists, it is a big building that would have required a lot of raw material and workforce but it does not need that many technological skills or equipment, just a lot of money, sweat and time. Also why is everyone focused on Egypt and not the near easter ziqqurats lol. i think you are the mainstream conspiracists here ahhaha If you really want to solve your doubts, get a degree in archaeology and go excavate it yourself
@Sf Ski alright, so then it is aliens. Of course we will never know for sure how they did it, they are dead! But they didn't create anything otherworldly, they were very good architects and had a lot of resources that's it. I don't get why if we can't say for sure HOW Egyptians built their ramps, then it means they didn't built it. Jesus we don't know how Romans made their bread, does that mean that the bread we find in Pompei it's not Roman? If a pyramid is slathered in egyptian writing, frescoes and allover culture, if there are earlier examples of an evolution of the pyramid shaped tombs and if the pyramids are surrounded by Egyptian contex and fit well whitin it (mythology and all), then why is it so unbelievable that they could create impressive structures??? But no it must be aliens or some kind of older civilization that had superior technical skills but of which there is absolutely NO PROOF of existence. I really really don't understand why it is so difficult to believe.
@Sf Ski alright then i give up. Go on with your research and good luck solving the pyramid mystery. Just one last note: you can't find three articles that prove YOUR theory and call it a day, you should read also all the ones that contradict it and only then make up your mind. Also maybe ask yourself why the people who built the pyramids didn't leave any other trace beside them, and why it is ok for them to appear out of the blue and have a perfectly evoleved technology, but not for the egyptians. Bye bye
4:30 That makes no sense ... Its just as plausible to say Khafre built his shit around the re-discovered Sphinx. Actually... its more plausble considering the EGYPTIAN story of the Sphinx.
Gobekli Tepe if you are ever in Turkey is completely completely worth a visit and the town that it is close to called San urfa super untraveled and very awesome.
Not expecting a reply, and I don't have any sources (I used to but haven't gone in this direction for many years). Also, I'm a new watcher, and this is the first video I've seen about this topic. I like to address things as I see them. If I was younger and my memory better, I'd withhold commentary until I saw both videos ( you hint there is another video). It was discussed in an archeology text that the erosion process around the sphinx is layered. This is partially because there have been build ups of sand drifts around the sphinx (similar to snow drifts) over the thousands of years of it's existence. Purportedly, when the French "found" the sphinx, it was buried in sand up to the shoulders, such that only the head was visible. When the sand was piled high, water erosion would rise higher and affect larger areas. When the sand was piled lower, smaller areas would be effected. This is partly to explain why the erosion is "layered." Another reason to explain the layering effect of erosion, is that the sphinx was fashioned partly from a natural outcropping of rock, and rock is not homogeneous, especially if the rock is sedimentary. The trouble is, the sphinx was made from limestone, and as such, very susceptible to water damage. Unlike modern contemporaries that like to keep something antique in "original condition" to prove it's antiquity, the locals back then have tried to repair the sphinx several times (three sticks out as a number). This was largely because when times were good, they would send people out to polish up the old temples, and effigies and when times were not, temples and effigies would lie fallow (which explains why sand drifts would bury the sphinx). You have to remember, water doesn't just flow over sand, there are underground "rivers" which move in a periodic way. Especially in a desert where you typically have a inundation and recessive period. In ancient times, they actually would paint the rock, the statuaries were made from. Unfortunately, they didn't have good, long-lasting, paints from Home Depot like we do nowadays, so each year, the sphinx would get a fresh coat. Accordingly, and I believe this was said by Mr. Hawass, there are structures in the desert which are molded from the sand. Sand storms flow in a particular direction, normally, and therefore "shape" a stone outcropping into a shape roughly similar to the Sphinx (commonly). In other words, this might explain it's creative origin, and why some of the structure is natural stone, and some of it is brick and why some accounts say the structure was there before the pyramids, while some tests conclude the structure was "built" at a set time.
It's a non-debunkable, debunk-proof, because there's always a possibility that artifacts of extreme antiquity just haven't been dug up. I mean, basically the thesis demands that more archaeology needs to be done. There's no way to make a case that less archaeology should be done! Or I suppose you could attack the individual proponents of "forbidden archaeology", which would simply justify their paranoia. Maybe accept that these those people aren't really enemies of archaeology. You can say they're wrong and criticize their PR techniques, but the minute you make them an enemy, they've basically won the argument. The only response is to do more, better science.
@@squirlmy So they can propose any ludicrous theory they imagine and we can't criticise because technically it's not 100% impossible that in future we find some evidence for it? By, that logic you cannot criticise anyone's theories no matter how ridiculous they sound.
Could there have been a reflection pool around the 'island' sphinx, with pumped...???...fountains--of acidic pond water- eroding the stone ? It would be beautiful.
idk if there's any evidence of that but it seems possible at least! not sure how long water would be able to last in a reflection pool there though; even if that area was once wetter, the water would still evaporate after a while, and i'm not sure how much sense it would make to continuously refill it
As to the Sphinx, in profile the current head of the Pharaoh seems to be small in scale, compared to the size of the lion's body. There is some conjecture that it originally was a lion sculpture, and someone decided to re-carve it into the shape we see now. A vanity project perhaps.
I really enjoy the alternate theories because they are fascinating, but on some level I know they are BS, but don't have the background to refute the claims. Thanks for producing this, it's very interesting and undoes the straw man arguments.
Can't possibly reply to every comment so I'll just address the most common themes here.
1 - I know I have a stupid smug smile, unfortunately I was born with it. I look like that in all my videos, I look like that all day everyday.
2 - "Absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence". Totally agree. However, Schoch's theory doesn't just lack evidence, in my opinion it is ignoring it. It is ignoring the abundance of Egyptian archaeology, from towns, to writing, to burials around the Giza plateau. It is also ignoring the evidence we already have of human activity in the time periods he thinks it may have been built in, from the paleolithic fishermen on the Nile, down to Egypt's first farmers and predynastic Egypt.
3 - "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". Again I agree with you, but I do not think mainstream archaeology's claims are extraordinary. To throw out our entire understanding of the history of mankind based solely on the erosion of 3 walls would be extraordinary. Especially considering many geologists and climatologists disagree with Schoch. To prove his theory further he needs to produce more research on the process of erosion and the ancient Egyptian climate AND subject it to peer review. As a professor at a university he is well placed to do that and it is a shame he has not.
4 - Gobekli Tepe is a fascinating site and one which hopefully I will cover one day. It is at the moment the earliest monumental architecture anywhere on the planet. However, it is much smaller in scale than the pyramids. I do believe it was possible that a farming community, however recently they started farming, could produce such a site. There have also been discoveries of more sites nearby with that distinctive T-shaped sculpture. So it is not an archaeological site that has appeared out of nowhere, there is a community around it. The same dating techniques applied to Gobekli Tepe (radio carbon dating) have been applied to artifacts found in association with the pyramid and the sphinx. The results put it in the range of the Old Kingdom, not earlier.
Thanks for watching.
@fullswing Dr. Robert Schoch is a tenured and respected geologist at Boston Uni. Don't worry, his peers are paying close attention to his 35 years or so research. We can't rewrite history...but we can discover new history.
Saying something is nonsense is surely rebuttal?
I would add to your points about lack of evidence of prior civilisations:
Regardless of whether the people lived on a coastline, now submerged, building the Pyramids and Sphinx required 1000s of people. Were they bussed in and out every day? If so, where is the evidence of the highway?
It would have been impossible to construct such large edifices and leave no trace.
Damn, I forgot, they might have been beamed down from the mother ship.
You're as cute as a blibbety blobbety button! Look closely at the Narmer palette - it shows the Sphinx, with a different style of head and headdress/buttered hair/wig, partially buried even then, but no pyramids - it shows mastaba-like buildings that may have been extended into pyramids later. I think the causeways were originally small, raised canals with lock gates, that could effortlessly raise the stones to the base of the pyramids, the water required to operate the causeway, and the counterbalanced hoists for raising stones, was provided by the subterranean ram pump system, that is evident in the foundations of the stone pyramids.
@fullswing Any grade-school child could look at the eroded walls of the Sphinx enclosure and recognize immediately the tell-tale signs of extensive water erosion. One can be a moron and deny the evidence of their own eyes, but that doesn't change the fact that water erosion is water erosion and no amount of PHDs are needed to recognize the very obvious.
So who ya gonna believe? The "experts" or yer own lyin' eyes???
Once you wake up from your establishment-induced hallucination you need to get around to figuring out just when it was that such a volume of water was present on the Giza plateau. Let us know what you come up with.
The pyramids give free granaries in all cities.
uh, no 2 workers appear in your capital and they now are 15% more efficient
@@Kanoshe you are using a different version of the Pyramids
@@Kanoshe Uhh no, still wrong friend! The pyramid unlocks all forms of government, until someone else discovers monarchy.
I agree with everyone.
Nah, the pyramids give you a free builder and a free builder charge for every builder. Easily an S tier wonder
A lot of times, conspiracies are more exciting than the truth and I think that's why some people gravitate towards them.
True true but some believers of these types of theories are big racists , like some if you check out their profiles or whatnot in facebook/twitter/reddit
,they would give to credit aliens and gods in building those ancient cities/structures than giving credit to people of that region
"the people/civilization of this are is not that intelligent at that time to do this kind of feat" - every conspiracy tv show hosts ever
@@snoot6629 ah yes, all people who like having creative thoughts about the world around them and how everything humanity has made came to be are rampant racists. Thank you for that insight.
Grow up.
@@ToffeeJim19 i did not said that , i said " some believers " often times want to credit aliens and other supernatural stuffs instead of actually acknowledging the people who built those impressive feats of architecture
, hence "the people/civilization of this area is not that intelligent at that time to do this kind of feat"
@@ToffeeJim19 Creative thoughts= " Must have been done by a civilization we've never heard of ", or " they couldn't have moved those huge stones ", or " This level of precision is unattainable even with today's technology ". Are those the kind of creative thoughts you're speaking of? How is it that the alt history crowd always seem to have the same " creative thoughts "? And they have been having these same creative thoughts for better than 70 years. This ain't nothing new. Check out " Worlds in Collision " 1950, Emmanuel Velikovsky.
The racist part is refusing to accept that Indians built Tikal or Machu Pichu. Or that indigenous hunter gatherers entered the Nile valley around 17,000 YBP, progressed through the neolithic to pastoral, herding lifestyle, to then agriculture and settled farming communities that eventually lead to one of the greatest civilizations mankind has produced, past or present.
@@russellmillar7132 ‘they couldn’t have moved those huge stones’ is just a testament to someone’s fascination with how the pyramids could possibly be constructed by a civilisation without sophisticated metal tools and machinery... how is that anything to do with racism? It’s really difficult to explain how an ancient culture could build such a massive monument without the right equipment especially considering the bricks used to create the pyramids were actually not particularly local to where they were built
The pyramids were built by the Goa'uld, obviously.
TAURI KREE
Jaffa!
The pyramids are autonomous.
They built themselves.
Please show respect.
@@letyvasquez2025 Shol'va
@@BadyTheProgram Rock the Ca’shba
I was part of a documentary film crew in the late 90s that went to the Giza plateau to look for “ mysteries of the sphinx. The “ Pyramidiots” we’re all surprised that not only did it rain but it also hailed while we were there.
We? i hope your a black man of nubian/kushite origin... cos these pyramids defo werent built after the islamic invasion in the 7th century
@@hebisty4163 Yeah, that's why koptic christians are black, or wait no they aren't. There also are no evidence for large displacements of egyptians during islamic expansion or mass settlement of arabs in egypt.
Nobody said it hasnt rained in 12 thousand years.
@@ciamciaramcia99 Yes there is, but you're eurocentric view won't allow to be open to the evidence...
Maybe you are the idiot for not being open to new evidence that contradicts the current thinking. In whatever field of endeavor that might be. The weathering inside the Sphinx enclosure attributed to rain by Schoch hasn't appeared over the whole Giza Plateau. The pyramids and the sphinx's head should show the same level of ware. [And I think you meant were]. "We're" sounds like you are including yourself as a "pyramidiot". I won't argue.
It's refreshing to hear someone clarify an issue rather than "muddy the waters". Excellent video thanks. I'm definetly subscribing to your channel.
Was that a pun?
@@brendananderson9102 two of them
The only guy using commonsense and logic when talking ancient Egypt on youtube. I for one appreciate it. Thank you.
Thank you!
You have to check out Bright Insight then.
Google Search Robert Schoch, PhD
You'll recognize - his credibility.
@@WuTangChopstick Bright Insight is one of the least credible people I've yet come across on RUclips. He substantiates precisely none of what he claims, makes wild leaps of reasoning and starts with conclusions and then tries to work backwards from there. He seems like an intelligent enough guy to know much of what he's spewing is utter nonsense, which makes him even worse in my opinion. He's a charlatan and nothing more. I suggest you stay away from that particular brand of over-hyped pseudo-archaeology and actually start doing some reading for yourself. Once you do you'll quickly start realizing the whole "lost ancient civilizations" thing is a house built on a foundation of sand.
@@rfwhyte Hahahha sure, now get back to Smithsonian kitchen.
A question that pops into my mind about the hypothesis that these pyramids were made by a previous advanced civilization is - why? If Egypt couldn't have done it because there had to be some other bunch making it, then why not also assume this earlier civilization couldn't do it either? The whole hypothesis is just moving the beginning backwards for no reason.
You should check out Randall Carlson and Graham Hancock podcasts, and also Cosmic patterns and cycles of catastrophes (by Randall Carlson) ;)
So why are the pyramids made by later dynasties so much smaller and less "professional"?
The idea is that there was a civilization that was almost as advanced as modern humans but some sort of catastrophic event occurred that caused large parts of humanity to die off and we regressed technology-wise to the just before the bronze age and that most of the bronze age myths were us trying to remember the world before
@@desperatelyseekingrealnews Why isn't Rome building new aqueducts all over Europe anymore?
@@homebrewedthoughts2033 this is laughable af, there would be evidence left behind of all their constructions and their effects on the environment
The biggest complaint I have about "outsiders" opinions about ancient cultures is that that 99% of the time they're not interested in finding truth and uncovering mysteries.
Their goal is almost always to validate their own misconceptions and prejudices.
Nailed it
Translation: They just wanna proof their wild fantasies, instead of finding out what objectively happened.
@Cool stat You determine the validity of research and evidence based in wehter it's been conducted and found by Europeans?
Or just to get attention and funding...
Wrong, it is the absolute bias of the insiders that we are all complaining about
The aliens slept in their spaceships in the sky silly...
And they brought alien space rations with then so they didnt need earth food! They also built the pyramids, the sphinx, and the dendera temple in like a couple hours because they had space lasers and and tractor beams to life the stones.
Thank you for making this video!
These days there seems to be an abundance of opinions all over the internet of lost ancient civilizations ranging from "aliens did it" to relatively reasonable sounding to a layperson, and i have to admit i have kinda fallen down this particular rabbit hole. Lets be honest here, the Joe Rogan podcasts with Graham Hancock are really convincing and Michael Shermer didnt do a particularly good job of defending the skeptical position. Long story short, i love it that someone is making accessible videos that counterbalance the lots of wishful thinking.
@fullswing, come now, that's a bit harsh. The only reason a scam artist exists is because they're really good at introducing curious people into nonsense.
Try to be more sceptical and keep learning from multiple, reputable sources, official science journals or Wikipedia for that matter. The more you know, the less vulnerable you are to BS.
More worship of the recent. The Nile has been there for Millenia. So have humans. So why not have repeated civilization cycles. Interrupted by solar outbursts floods and ciimate catastr
@@wernerretief4569 Because in order to have civilizations, humans had to evolve their technology from stone tools and being hunter/gatherers to discovering metal tools and learning agriculture/domestication of animals. Also while they were doing that they had to leave behind evidence of their existence and how they lived. The earliest evidence of the arrival of civilizations forming was 5000-6000 years ago in Mesopotamia. We have archaeological evidence of humans from over 100,000 years ago and we know about when humans made these technological leaps. It's fine if you want to assert that civilizations sprang up sooner, but you have to support it with hard evidence.
@jimralston4789
Civilization=/= Oldest known permanent cities constructed.
Not to argue with your point to the comment above you, more to say it's potentially a quagmire of BS to get into when using civilization to be synonymous with oldest known stone town ruins.
People like Hancock will happily play into this misconception and conflate 'civilization' and 'intellectually capable' and try putting it against his idea of more nomadic hunter gatherer people prior to the "sudden" appearance of these massive constructions evidencing their "sudden" switch to civilization and "sudden" ability and intellect to technologically engineer "more advanced" structures. Like, boom, outta nowhere!
Egypt was once moister.
thats hot
The location Egypt is at was a rainforest many thousands of years ago
good old green sahara
That's what she said
When the Sphinx was discovered it was completely covered with sand.
It was never discovered. The coptics and Arabs in Cairo always knew it was there.
And it was not completely covered. The head was above the sand.
Why do people spread so much misinformation online?
That's what I was thinking... so morning dew, in my opinion, can't be the main cause of the erosion. Maybe a bit in the years since the excavation but what declares the signs of water erosion when the sphinx was excavated wich is to be seen on the photos taken during it.
Going through this back catalogue of Stefan Milo vids after watching your recent ones - man the production quality is amazing on your new stuff. And it's hilarious to see you welcoming 500 subs haha.
When people make such an effort to compile and analyze evidence, those are the people I listen to.
Yes.
Yes like Graham Hancock
@@Byronic19134 doesn’t he believe in Atlantis?
It is reasonable to believe atlantis once existed
Similar to how it is reasonable to assume troy actually existed in some form or another
@@dj_koen1265 you need to grow a brain. We know troy existed because there is huge archeological evidence for it. Atlantis has none and is said to exist 10000 years earlier
#historyisfake
Next multi channel collab should definitely be debunking 'favourite' conspiracy theories
History / his story..
Like how all those fishtailed gods share common phonemes for mother and water, starting in West Africa to Egypt India Asia Europe and the Americas.
YaMAya, NomMOs, MAtsya, MAnannán, Melusine. There's a lot more of them. Even Jesus is a fish, right? Weird how all those fishtailed gods coincide with symbols of fascism. Double headed axes and spears..
What about fake language like pig-latin?
Yeshua = joshua
Iesous = heil Zeus (like Spanish jesús)
Jesus = Greek ge + Latin sus = EarthPig /jesus.
Church comes from circe.
Circe was a witch that turned Odysseus's men into pigs (way before the invention of Abraham or them turning Akhenaten and Sargon into Moses..).
Jesus turned the legion into pigs at Gerasene. Legion + Gerasene = a garrison / a military (that's indoctrinated to support the fasces).
Pig-latin is funny because everyone worships piggy-banks and we're all born in barns like Jesus and pigs. A manger is a trough. (pennies » fishtails, plebes consume the least valuable portions.
Paradise / eden = a penned in place to domesticate cattle.
Pastor comes from pastoralism = the domestication of cattle.
..For sure, abrahamic religions are poorly plagiarized from a dozen older religions and there's no archeological evidence of a place called Israel or a people called Hebrews until Rome invented them in the common era.
#historyisfake
Can you please give me your dealer's number because whatever you're smoking is STRONG.
@@moodist1er No. Your processor is burnt out.
@@moodist1er There is mention of the isrealites in egypt in a chronicle of their conquerer, but everything else is bullshit. I hate abrahamic religions and that faltities they have been writing in the stake their last stand.
I have heard a different version of this theory. That is only the Sphinx that is older and was originally a lion statue. It was during Khufu's reign that it was turned into a sphinx. This explains why the head is in so much better condition than the body.
Ratraccoon you're speaking logic! Stop it! Lol
Yeah, seeing is believing. Forget about the water erosion debate. The disproportionate figure may be more of a compelling case.
There is the theory of the sphinx was first constructed in the age of Leo, which is why it was originally in the form of a lion.
@@Horse2021 and if the Sphinx was built some 10-12 thousand years ago, at least before the time Egypt was wet, it would have faced Leo in the sky. The physical evidence, motive, all point to an earlier build date.
So let's abandon all opposing evidence because of the heads shape and three eroded walls?
thanks for debunking some of the ridiculous stuff..as an Egyptian, listening to others turning our history into B side sci fi drama can be a bit irritating
Edit: to the Afro-centrists who have hijacked this, yes you are the original settlers of America, you built the pyramids, etc. well done. I would also like to dedicate to you Black by Pearl Jam. Eddie Vedder stole it from the original black person who discovered pearls, and jam!
If your "egpytian" then most likely youre arab..... which has nothing to do with the people who lived and made those momuments.. and if you cared so much about your culture youd know that. ... so dont try that
@@oltch. although you’re rude I’ll humour you. here’s a question for you..where are the descendants of ancient Egyptians? Wiped out? Immigrated? What’s your theory?
@@koozdorah look it up. Its been done thru , at least taking mummies and getting their genetics. Look up king tuts genome. But even the slaves were semetic peoples. Arabs came to eygpt later. Much later , and took it over and populated it. This is common knowledge just look it up .
@@oltch. good words in a nice order which do not answer my question. You’re making a claim and asking me to google for you. Fine, since you mentioned Semitic slaves, it’s incorrect (www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.haaretz.com/amp/jewish/were-jews-ever-really-slaves-in-egypt-1.5208519). As to the claim that Egypt is mostly arab, that’s incorrect (egyptindependent.com/dna-analysis-proves-egyptians-are-not-arabs/). And if you want something more anecdotal (www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/dd6xp0/are_modern_egyptians_related_to_the_ancient/)
I have no interest in continuing this conversation and will not be responding.
You sir, are a bigot. Do not go around educating people about their identity which you know nothing about.
Not for the idiot who started this by telling me “don’t try that”, but for other people who might be interested...btw Egyptian Christians and Muslims both carry Egyptian blood, both mixed with Arabs and other ethnicities, but Muslims have mixed more with Arabs. Essentially in most cases we can’t tell a Christian Egyptian from a Muslim Egyptian by looks, they look identical. That’s because Arabs did not replace the Egyptian population, yes there were huge Arab migrations, but still the islamisation of Egypt happened mostly through conversion of Christians (unfortunately probably forced) mainly in the 9th and 14th centuries. Egyptians today are a mix of many things but those things do include (surprise surprise) Egyptian.
The best theory i heard to explain away the inconsistent water erosion was that for quite some time the sphinx was a structure inside of a decorative pool of water which i like to imagine looked really nice. I think the Egyptians could move water. It's not that hard compared to building a freaken 50 foot statue
Follow the white rabbit:
1 - limestone is naturally porous.
2 - the Sphinx was carved from the limestone bedrock = ergo it is still attached to it.
3 - below the Giza necropolis sits the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System = ergo there is groundwater a mere 4-5 meters below the Sphinx. You can coincidentally see videos here on YT of Egyptologists and geohydrologists drilling below the Sphinx to hit groundwater.
4 - so groundwater naturally upwells through the porous limestone bedrock to the surface. There is reacts with the calcium in the limestone to form salt precipitates which denudes to surface of the limestone causing it to flake away to touch. This process is called = "efflorescence".
5 - finally limestone as a "sedimentary rock" forms in layers of varying densities. As such the Sphinx which was carved from the bedrock is "softer" in some areas and harder in others. It was formed from the Mokkatum Formation which has 3 main density layers. Thus the upper face/head is medium hard - the neck and upper back is the softest part - while the bottom of the body is the hardest stone. This means that the structure erodes at different rates in different areas based upon its relative density there.
Moral of the story: the Sphinx was buried for centuries up to its head in sand. Thus how could rainfall erode was what buried under meters of accumulated sand??? Meanwhile the exposed head and upper back as the softest parts of the structure were also the most badly eroded as a result of efflorescence from groundwater evaporation from below. They were exposed and accordingly blowing sand basically etched away the already crumbling surface of the limestone it was carved from. Consequently French engineers in the 1920's reinforced the Sphinx using concrete and steel rebar to buildup the neck and headdress area as well as fill in a large crack in the back and a hole in the top of the head.
On a side note. A few years ago the Egyptian Dept. of Antiquities via a USAID grant hired a US water systems company to install underground water pumps around the plateau to lower the water table and divert it away from the necropolis to slow the erosion which is destroying the Sphinx even now. It requires constant maintenance to try to preserve it. So forget about rainfall. Something new to think about.
@@varyolla435the theory is obviously that it wasn't buried in sand last time there was rain fall 😂 I can't believe you wrote that whole essay and couldn't comprehend that.
@@pierer91 Sorry if reading is difficult for you - let alone understanding what you read. Fortunately you can take classes to address this apparent problem.........
@@varyolla435I love it when illiterates call a very short text “an essay.”
The entire Giza plateau used to be covered in water, historical records report it being very calm shallow water that would create a reflection, effectively doubling the pyramids, visually.
So where are these supposed historical records then........
Interesting video. Egypt has a desert morphology so you don't need to postulate a wetter climatic period to cause water damage to a structure. All you need is one major downpour every couple of centuries to cause sufficient water damage. Case in point is KV5 in the Valley of Kings. Chock full of debris from a flood when it was discovered. The tomb was built by Ramses II. The Sadd El Kafara is another example. This ancient dam was built in the 3rd millennium BC and is just south of Cairo. Under construction for about 10 years, the dam was destroyed by a heavy rainfall and never repaired. Limestone and shales are porous rocks that hold water, so they easily flake and peel.
@karinschulyz5409 got’em.
Then why would these features only be on the Sphinx and not on surrounding structures? Also the Sphinx was buried under sand
@@travisaitch9963 I understand your premise. In general there are dissolved minerals and salts that come from various water sources, it could be that the apparent water erosion has come at different time frames with different mineral salt strengths, I know that will confuse many, but it might explain differences in erosion levels. Atmospheric levels of water may also have other dissolved salts as well. Salt has a very corrosive effect on many materials. Whether buried or not it still happens.
I’m guessing they were introduced to the majesty of space microwave technology and were like,
“Yo we outta here”
*points to pyramids as they enter radiation cube*
“Those are yours now, we out.”
The only theory that makes sense!
@@StefanMilo the can tell rain erosion from the Death of Gullies running down the side as well as the Seciment.
And. Were is the Salts
And how do you even know it Kafre who made had that Dranage cannal .
Why was was there even a Drainage cannal.
And how can they Built such huge Trases without leaving a Trase.
Can you hear how contradictory that is.
And look life after humans.
Can such a civilian that built the Hover Damb or Rushmore . Leave no trase of Houses.
Or anything
@@osmosisjones4912 yo, are you okay? He'd have to build the drainage canal because rain, explaining erosion. I may have myinclination about watchers, but to just assert this nonsense will get is nowhere closer to the truth
@@janecasper846 but hadn't heavily rained there for over ten thousand years.
@@osmosisjones4912 Did you watch the video? It was wet in Kaffus time.
Ya know I think Stephan makes some important points and has caused me to reexamine the Sphinx's history, although there is quite a bit of counter-evidence that I feel he glanced over. It was quite popular for a new Pharaoh to imprint his identity on existing monuments such and rededicate them to himself. We also have considerable evidence that the Sphinxes head was found and recarved in Khafre's likeness, a trend that can be noted with many statues around Egypt. Furthermore, for much of the sphinx's existence, we are aware that it was covered with sand up to its head which serves as an excellent preservation method. The Sphinx has had to be dugout multiple times throughout its history, most famously by Thutmose IV. How come the head shows minimal erosion compared to the rest of the body? If it has been exposed the longest shouldn't it be in the worst condition? There is much more data supporting the rainwater hypothesis to particular for this silly comment. I think every hypothesis should be put under extreme scrutiny, I just think this video has left out most arguments that contradict his point.
Like all his debunking videos. Follows the same totally unscientific approach and is totally biased towards his own political, egotistical or religious beliefs. Science should follow proper scientific method not fit the line of whatever you believe in and ignore facts.
The head is a different type of stone which is much harder and tougher so it resists erosion better. Just google "sphinx rock layers" and look at the image results and you should get a whole load of results which shows the different layers.
@@dukenails7745 For example?
@@dukenails7745 I didn't hear one political or religious argument. He listed proper scientific evidence: climatological evidence that the Sahara was wetter 5000 years ago, no trace of archaeological evidence of a civilization capable of building the Sphinx 15000 years ago, no bronze tools as it hadn't been discovered yet, there are many other sources of erosion including groundwater, dew, hail. He listed proper scientific explanations, it's people who have formed an intractable opinion that won't consider them.
Indeed.
6:18 Dude that's massive! You just glossed over that lol but that's huge. So you're saying that Egypt used to be wet and green. So those erosion makes could have totally come from rain but not only that, it totally changes how we should depict Ancient Egypt. That's pretty awesome
The Sahara goes through cycles of being intense desert and grassy forested land. The last time the Sahara was a lush location was around 5000 years ago, allowing for a vast opportunity for habitation and advancement of technology through northern Africa. The entirety of the Sahara covers part of a continent therefore the potential for hundreds of microclimates existed during these lush years.
Easter island used to be full of trees now theres not a single one
What he doesn’t mention is Giza gets around half an inch a year in rainfall currently. So that’s around 1.5 inches of rainfall a year, and the largest estimate I could find is 5 inches for desert areas such as Giza. Absolutely outstanding.
@@jujubucks12 yeah and that’s actually due to the native islanders who chopped down all the trees
@@kabedonovan5555yeah i noticed that haha. Claiming there was 3 times more as if 3 times next to nothing is a lot 😂
I , too , as born with one of those faces. I have had random strangers decide they don't like me , because of my face. This could lead to trouble in my youth. I am dead serious. Now, at 63 , I could'nt care less whether someone like's me or not. Great videos, by the way. Keep them coming .
Why do inscriptions date items? Shouldn't it only set a min age and not a max? We know that the graffiti on Stonehenge doesn't indicate its age. So why do we interpret the inscription as being from the items origin?
Indeed, a mistake often made by even so called experts within the field. But I only need to drive on the road in my country to see that most people have great problems with the meaning of min and the meaning of max. We have a max speed we are allowed to drive, and most car drivers here treat it as a min speed instead. I don't see how when they enter their office they all of a sudden understand these concepts proporly and then forget all about them the moment they step into a car again.
@@BlacksmithTWD driving is completely different.
Most people want to go faster than the maximum limit.
Do you live in the United States? Do you not exceed the speed limit almost all the time?
I drive a little slower now that I'm in my 40s, but I still exceed the speed limit generally speaking. If only by 5 or 10 mph.
@@jamisojo
No I happen to live in the Netherlands and no I happen to obey the speed limit almost all the time, never had a ticked for speeding my entire life at least (also in my 40s now). I happen to have a friend who doesn't like me driving as I'm driving 'too slow' according to him, as he is used to exceeding the speed limit by about 10 km/h and in practice treats the max speed as a min speed (so I don't like traveling with him driving either), where I tend to drive 5 km/h below max speed up to max speed (especially when driving with a small trailer as he seems to forget that when driving with a trailer the speed limit is 90 km/h instead of 130 km/h).
Though I get an idea of what you are trying to get at, and to some extend I don't disagree, however, seeing the number of people who ignore the speed limit and then when I drive the speed limit they pretend I'm the one who's breaking the traffic laws, I think you are mistaken at least about that group. Contrary to them you are willing to admit it when you choose to break the traffic rules, and as such at least you still seem to know the difference, unlike my friend or the guy who was asked what his main traffic frustration was and answered : "people who drive below the minimum speed", while where I live there is no minimum speed, here there only are maximum speeds in the traffic rules (though we do have a rule against unneccesary obstruction of ongoing traffic, never got a ticket for that either).
Though probably driving in the Netherlands is more complicated as driving in the US as we happen to be more densly populated and as such have more different speed limits per driven kilometer/mile. Also depending on the time in the day the speed limit differs. Obeying traffic rules has gotten worse over the years as our government decided on increasing penalties while lowering traffic rule enforcement (about the same number of police officers for traffic rules as 30 years ago while the number of drivers more than doubled), though traffic safety has been increasing (except the last 5 years, after raising the maximum speed from 120km/h to 130 km/h, while for trucks it remained 80 km/h), but this is mostly caused by improved infrastructure.
Old kingdom, when pyramids and sphinx were built, ended when circa 2200 bc, a climate change toward drought took place and ended several civilisations in the Middle East and Asia. So it definitely rained more during Old Kingdom than in the following times.
they have more trees back then.... we are destroying the planet earth
A Nice reply on the alternative Sphinx theorie Stefan! Well done.. Some examples of the sources you mantioned deffinly are a strong argument against the water/rain erosion on the Sphinx. The only thing I am not so sure about is if Zahi Hawass is a reliable source of information haha 😁 but the rest is pretty solid and definitely gave me enough reason to be critical about the water/rain erosion theorie.. Regardless it's a pretty cool kitty cat (kochek) that they built ✌️
Good solid case you made. As an MA in Egyptian archaeology we deal with too many pyramidiots. Before the pyramids at Giza, the Egyptians had several tries before they got it right. See Meidum and the Bent at Dahsur.
"Pyramidiots" = are a niche industry now I'm afraid. For far too long academia ignored them. Subsequently this is what we now see = a diverse online and cable television based industry whose presence is actively undermining academic conclusions. Academia needs to become more proactive in challenging this shite.
Such as the late Carl Sagan as an example wrote and spoke about the pervasive nature of "pseudoscience/history" as far back as the 1970's - but few paid attention. 🤷
You're a very modest man, Stefan........ not many content creators (or people in general actually) are man enough to expose criticism that they have had so I applaud you mate. You have always listed all reference points in your videos and you've also always said, in every single video, "If you have found an issue and/or mistake in my content then please let me know and I'll sort it." You don't hear that very often, I can tell you, so well done.
Anyway....... fantastic video and fantastic content as usual mate, fantastic job!!
The way I always saw it, is that If you can't see the water damage... You must not know what water damage looks like. c:
Also, you have to factor in the sand, and the current, and the salt within that water; and not just water.
You may not know this, but there is also something called minerals in the water.
and rain, it rains in the desert all at once sometimes.
Very good. It's so nice to see a good and logical examination of the evidence to dispute or support popular theories about ancient Egypt. I too was beguiled by the water theory and I am glad to see that their is no consensus for the cause of the weathering of the rock face. The temple that is associated with the Sphinx is very interesting though, you should do a follow up on that temple. The design and huge beams of rock with faceless smooth surfaces is thought to be unique, and the level of the ground floor, so much lower than the level of the present day are questions I like you to answer, please.
One problem. The Sphinx Enclosure tends to fill up with sand fairly quickly. This limits the time available for the the erosion you mention. There is the same type of erosion on the bedrock of the Giza Platue (so) Look I'm not saying that the Pyramids were built in 10k BCE. Or that the Sphinx was carved then. At the same time there are a lot of things that do not make sense in Egypt given the level of technology the Egyptians are credited with having. In terms of proximity evidence that s pretty damning. At the same time proximity has been used to equate structures that are close to one another. Perhaps the best example of this is the Osirion and the Funeral Complex of Seti I. Besides being close to one another what proof is there that they are the product of the same project.
yes it does fill up with sand very quickly but one can assume that the monument has been kept up with until Christianity took over as with other monuments this is over 2,000 years of possible weathering
@@shadymerchant1198 The Egyptians record having to occasionally rediscover and dig out the thing. The Sphinx was buried entirely when Thutmoses had his dream and ordered it uncovered.
There are, at minimum, 2 distinctly different levels of technology employed on and around the plateau. The highest quality craftsmanship is predynastic followed by a much more mundane and somewhat perocial technology. Something seen in ancient megalithic structures around the world. Quite starkly, in S. America.
The evidence, unequivocal now in my opinion, of a worldwide cataclysm that caused the extinction of vast numbers of Pleistocene creatures also brought humanity to its knees, along with the accumulated knowlege of 10s of thousands of years.
Trying to shoehorn civilization into a single linear timeline is foolish.
@@shadymerchant1198 if we talk of extraordinary evidence required, your point is good but not evidence
@@6point8esspcee68 you are an idiot if human civilization existed long before it is currently believed to have existed and it was far more advanced then us there would be some trace left behind mass graves synthetic materials stainless steel is effective eternal not to mention a genetic legacy there is none of this
Shoehorning civilization into a linear timeline may be foolish but it is far more foolish to say I don't understand how the ancients did something so it must be a ancient super advanced society that mysteriously vanished only leaving behind a few piles of rock
Damn I found a Stefan video I haven't seen yet this is gonna be a great day
I love your videos. Pls make them longer.
Smoking gun. The enclosure is cut along the causeway. And it’s eroded like the other walls. Case closed for me.
Thanks for making this video, Stefan. Your dedication and passion is inspiring, and it is good to have a voice like yours making this content. Conspiracy theories are a tough subject and, as a history teacher, I am surprised how pervasive some of them are. I am glad there are those out there like you answering such questions on RUclips. Keep up the great work!
@Alex V preach.
And for decades the US government claimed UFOs were a farce and invented the phrase conspiracy theorist. Ha a few months ago we couldn't get "scientists" to agree on masks being a good idea.
@@johnmaccallum7935 .... Still haven't seen any UFOs.
.... Still haven't seen any government proof of aliens.
@@jamisojo and you're not going to as of course you can believe in everything your government tells you or doesn't tell you.
@@johnmaccallum7935FOs were a farce tho. Also the phrase ‘conspiracy theorist’ dates back to the 1850s.
Thank you for injecting this careful, good-natured-yet-firm bit of professional insight into an area in need of more light and less heat.
PhD Geologist and University Professor here. Although I have not personally seen the Sphynx, I have followed the dispute carefully. In my opinion, the "erosion" proponents seem to confuse the difference between erosion and weathering (chemical + physical). What appears to be "grooves" caused by flowing water is more likely weathering attacking pre-existing fractures and compositional zones of weakness. Yes, rain is involved, but solely as a source of the water which, because of its acidity, is attacking the calcite in the limestone rock. The evidence for "older age" is just not there.
The Sphinx suffers from = efflorescence - still does by the way. There is a video here from a few years back which shows Egyptologists/hydrologists drilling beneath the Sphinx to strike a moisture level a mere 4-5 meters down. This is because = the Giza Plateau rests atop the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System with the Nile running just to the east.
So while atmospheric moisture from rain and condensation from the heating/cooling of the porous limestone bedrock accounts from some of the denudation of the structure a lot is a result of underground moisture upwelling from the aquifers below = in other words the structure "sweats".
Consequently several years back via a USAID grant the Egyptian government contracted a US water systems company to install underground pumps around the plateau to lower the water table and divert it away from the necropolis. The Sphinx itself requires constant maintenance being coated with a neutralizing agent to mitigate the calcium-acid precipitate which forms from said moisture transit.
p.s. - the sad irony here is that in the last century when the Sphinx was fully uncovered it has = eroded even faster - its' entire body surface now being exposed to blowing sand. When it was buried efflorescence still occurred of course but the buried parts were protected from said abrasion. Today it is basically being "sandblasted".
Thank goodness. A reasonable, measured viewpoint of Egyptian pyramids/sphinx. Minus the multitude of logical fallacies and unsubstantiated assertions.
Well said. I am shocked to see everywhere fringe theories that require logic flips or worldwide conspiracies to legitimize. It upsets me and there are tons of people wasting time to argue the least likely hypotheses with zero evidence or often contradict the existing evidence and don't even pass simple scrutiny.
@@pavel9652 Blame Ancient Aliens.
Skiddly doo 😂
Skiddly ploppity ding dang doo
That’s not where the carts go
Over 280 geologist agreed with Dr Robert Schoch and even they couldn't convince 1 Egyptologist in 1992. So I am unsurprised that you disagree. That said we need sceptic's to keep the debate going so while I disagree with your findings I thank you for sharing and look forward to future views you may have on a "Lost Civilization".
Actual archaeologist chiming in just to say I learned something from this video. From your other videos, too. Keep up the good work!
Any scientist should have an open mind and if this guy is teaching you anything you have to be a very poor archaeologist.
Oh your an Egyptologist? Hahahah
Probably not. Right?
It’s unwise to assume your knowledge extends to areas you know almost nothing about.
Bluederrick1 oh, and you're a geologist???
@Sf Ski & he seems to have ( i saw it on ancient aliens ) level of understanding of schochs theory
Few points to respond. Disclaimer I'm not a geologist.
1. You say there is there is no geological consensus that water erosion occured as Dr. Robert Schoch proclaims. While that's technically true theres a lot of debate on the matter, your use of words is misleading, insinuating that only Dr. Robert Schoch has made this claim. Yet there are many geologist who have observed his findings and have come to the same conclusion.
2. In regards to the "expansion", Dr. Schoch has gone on many times to say there are multiple types of erosion. Wind, Sand, Water, AND precipitation. The other signs of water erosion do not necessarily mean precipitation erosion, as the Nile may have flooded the enclosure, as many geologist, to include Dr. Schoch has said.
3. In the claim that studying Ancient Egypt, the climate was 3x wetter (doesn't seem like a scientifically based definition or terminology), that may be true, but that type of climate does not produce HEAVY rain fall as Dr. Schoch proclaims. Having lived in both a desert and a wetland, I will tell you, you cannot even compare the two or any zone in-between. A desert rain is like a water gun you get from the dollar store and a wetland rain is like every fire department in the state came together and blasted you with all of their fire hose.
4. This is more of a complaint to the entire archaeological community, but I really hate the argument that, "there no tools or trash so that means there's no evidence". Whole there is no terrestrial evidence of any of these things I don't think it's wise to say, "we haven't found it so there's no evidence." IF, and this is a big IF, because it may very well turn out that your position is right and Dr. Schoch and his constituents are wrong, there was a civilization capable of doing this 12,000 years ago, what leads us to assume those primitive tools would have even survived that long? In modern example, if our civilization was forgotten and technology advanced and that civilization found the white house, there wouldn't be any of the tools used to build it on the site, because the tools used to build that site aren't there today.
Lastly, the archaeological findings are my biggest issue with this. I love archaeology and I read up on it as much as I can. But archaeology around ancient Egypt is extremely political and not heavily based in science. There's an extremely grueling process that archaeologist have to go through to even study the area as it's maintained by Egyptologist, who are Art Majors, not Archaeologist. Not to mention the scandalous Egyptologist who have been caught selling artifact findings for personal profit. This is a great stain on ancient studies as our best evidence, for possibly either side of this topic, may have been sold, soiled, and destroyed, ruining a great chance at studying our past.
I don't post this to hate, I actually thoroughly enjoy your channel and the content you produce. I even agree with you on some points in this video, mainly pertaining to Dr. Schoch using a newer tablet to claim the Pharaoh didn't build the pyramids. I just think we are too easily dismissive of possible human history.
I love archeology and geology. Great content. Glad I found the channel. Thanks for sharing.
The Pyramids were built by Moses , Conan the Barbarian and a big bunch of Picts 4 million years ago.
Who built Gobekli Tepe? If there were only hunter gatherers around how did that get built?
By hunter gatherers who are on the cusp of developing agriculture maybe even already are early agricultural communities. The scale of the two monuments, their style, and the technology required is hardly comparable.
You are brushing the controversy under the rug. It doesn't fit the current understanding of anthropology.
www.google.com/search?q=gobekli+tepe&rlz=1C1GGGE___US623US623&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_yp2NhO7gAhUC_4MKHfY4AS4Q_AUIDigB&biw=1536&bih=760#imgrc=pGQejBaSsfEciM:
This predates the pyramids by 4500 years
@@StefanMilo Well, I came in to point out how biased and unscientific your contentions are, and then I found this equally clueless comment, if not more. If you had any experience in archeology, as I do, you'd realize what a bonehead comment it is to contend that the Sphinx and Gobleki Tepi are not on par regarding scale and scope. Gobleki Tepi is only 10% excavated. The stoneworking skill necessary to not only quarry, shape, and place the stones but to carve the reliefs does not happen while wandering the savanna hunting antelope. Those skills must evolve over generations, if not centuries or millennia. Likely you were attempting to pass off GT as the work of a nascent settlement. No, this was the work of a highly organized society, which already existed 12,000 years ago.
@Nick Nack What's your evidence? Mine is experience, and a degree anthropology, studying what it takes to for civilizations to evolve from hunter-gatherers to an organized civilization.
@Nick Nack I already know what the literature says. And, having been in Academia, I have witnessed firsthand how skewed the results get on an archaeological project. Yes, feet are held to the fire to not skew the results, but the results get skewed for purposes of perpetuating one's career by fitting facts into previous conclusions. For example, what is the oldest date of human habitation in North America? The Clovis level, right? You and I both know that is b******* and that there is an emerging preponderance of evidence that blows right through the Clovis level. You also know that less than 10% of Goblecki Tepe has been excavated. It is much too soon to draw conclusions about any lack of pottery or other signs a settlement. In addition, there are indications that there are sites adjacent to Gobleki Tepe.
Let's take a look at the recent discovery of a void in the Great Pyramid. Zahi hawass says it isn't there. Why? Because he doesn't believe in radar. The ministry of Antiquities goes to Great Lengths to ignore anything that doesn't fit in with their notion of Egyptian antiquity. For example, the Great Pyramid is the tomb of Khufu. More b*******. None of the pyramids were tombs unless the Builder is just got a wild hair and decided not to do anything that they had done previously and afterwards to create a tomb. Khufu simply rework was already existing. Same with the Sphinx. Go ahead, try and tell me that isn't water erosion. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Exactly. So, pardon me for being crass, but put your head back up your ass and go write another paper. Make sure you don't say anything that someone else hasn't already said.
I can't wait keep the videos coming!
"His majesty sent me to dig five canals in Upper Egypt, and to build three barges and four tow boats of acacia wood purchased from Wawat. The foreign chiefs of Irtjet, Wawat, Yam, and Medja (Nubian tribes) cut them into timber for us. All was completed at my behest within the year. Once we had them floating, they were loaded with very large blocks for the pyramid "Merenere the Splendid". I saved a lot of money for the palace with these five canals." -Weni the Elder, 6th Dynasty judge, general, engineer, and governor during the reigns of pharaohs Pepi I Meryre and Nemtyemsaf I.
But then I'm sure they are right. That whole summer, probably the hardest of his life was spent in commune with aliens. And when he said acacia wood barges what he really meant was anti-gravity devices.
One of the best archeology podcasts! Thanks for this! 👍🏽
I live in southern Spain. When it rains here, which isn't that often as its a semi desert environment, it can come down in torrents. On my patio i had about 6 inches of water in just half an hour of rainfall. Incredible how destructive the rains in desert regions can be.. Roofs collapse and walls are washed away... 3 hours later it can look like it never rained at all...
I don't have too much of a problem with the ancient Egyptians building the pyramids but I question the narrative of the step pyramid, followed by the bent pyramid, followed by the red pyramid, followed by the great pyramid. It all seems a little to convenient for my liking. The reality is even the accepted story is a theory. The face of the sphinx is supposed to be a representation of Kufu made by his son Djedefre. this is based on a resemblence to a tiny statue of Kufu. Not enough.. When your looking at a civilisation that spanned 3500 years, many monuments would have been restored or reused. The sphinx is a natural outcrop of rock not uncommon in the region so the only way to date it is by the enclosure which is man made..
The head dressing carved in the Sphinx can only be from the middle kingdom(or I suppose later). One of best candidates that I've seen for the Sphinx head is Amenemhat II. He was a pretty cool king.
This doesn't mean Amenemhat carved the Sphinx; just that he, or someone later than him had his face carved onto whatever it was before.
You might be interested in watching ted talks how to green the worlds deserts and reverse climate change. It covers what you are describing with rain, and how they have managed to reverse the problems with the water loss. The before and afters at the end are amazing
Ive always been jealous of that kind of rain, i live in western Washington (just south west of Seattle) and in an average year we get 60-70 inches (150-180mm) of rain a year and between 160-180 rainy days a year. I kind of wish the rain would just dump and the clouds would go away for awhile. At the same time i do love living here because there's one of the worlds few temperate rain forests (Hoh Rain Forest) about a 4 hour drive from my house. That place can get crazy though, there's a section that gets 200+ inches of rain a year.
@@arthas640 I did not realise there is a rainforest 4 hours drive from Wahington, I feel rather silly. Thank you for adding some information to my day, I'm going to educate myself about it.
@@somniumisdreaming its gorgeous, google "the hall of moss, washington" (it's the name of a park, not an actual hall) or "the Hoh rainforest" for some nice pictures. Forkes Washington, where Twilight is set, is an old logging town in the rainforest
I fully admit that I was convinced by Robert schoch, but only because the current egyptologists always just say its debunked and and don't give a ton of info like this. Thanks for going into detail. I will read the sources.
Unfair to make a definite answer without the two having a debate on the topic. Maybe Schoch has an explanation to his points or maybe can debunk them. He wouldn’t be doing this for 35 years if there was this much disproving evidence. Not saying Mr Schoch was right or anything but I’m saying it’s not entirely impossible
@qoizr7505
Nope.
Despite what you may have been led to believe, debates are not how one demonstrates the validity of their claims. "Winning" a debate doesn't equal demonstrating your claim is true or factual.
"He wouldn't be doing this for 35 years if there was this much disproving evidence."
A couple of things about this idea.
1) Mark Sargent & other grifters have been presenting flat earth conspiracies for about 7 or 8 years.
2) Formerly doctor, Andrew Wakefield, has been lying about vaccines for about 25 years now.
With 1) there is literally all of known physics to refute it. Children of about 7/8 years old, using nothing but their eyes and understanding of 3D shapes can refute it.
It's a conspiracy first and foremost, evidence the earth isn't flat, is not at all an issue for most believers, it's the nefarious "they" that "hide" the "facts" that you debunk to help people out of that level of insane conspiracy.
Reality, sight and a 7 year old's grasp of geometry refutes flat earth, yet Sargent and others make a pretty penny lying to people about it.
With 2) Wakefield is a fraudulent POS. He has purposefully used natural fear of parents against them. His paper that he started the current anti vax movement with was not only thoroughly ripped to shreds by peer review, but there have been literally hundreds of studies and experiments, from researchers in a variety of relevant fields, presented in papers.
These papers have been peer reviewed, and accepted, and not one has found any evidence of the BS Wakefield claimed in his debunked paper. He lost his license, his original motivation (his patent for his own measles vaccine) and BS study data results, were thoroughly exposed by a dedicated investigative journalist, (fun fact, a bunch of the stuff that proved just how much Wakefield was a lying POS, was obtained because Wakefield tried to sue the journalist investigating him, who was able to get copies of Wakefield's "research" work as part of the case discovery process. )
Yet Wakefield makes a fortune (albeit Stateside now) to this day. Lying about vaccines.
And, the most important point is... It is not up to legitimate scientists, researchers, historians and what have you, to "debate" or debunk these dickheads when they just assert random BS and pretend "unanswered questions" is somehow evidence of their randomly asserted BS.
It is up to these dickheads to evidence their case and have it stand up through peer reviewed research papers.
The question that should be asked at this point is not
"Is it more likely this person is wrong, or that literally thousands of researchers, with expertise in a number of different fields, from countries all over the world, are wrong, or part of a global conspiracy to deny such an obvious truth?"
Although that is a good one..
The question to ask is:
Why do these people _always_ misrepresent the "other side's" consensus / claim / ideas / data so consistently in their "work" ? And, why do they _never_ stop doing that when they have been told, repeatedly had it made clear, that what they are telling people the "mainstream" expert opinions are, is a false narrative?
I assert it's because they're liars, obviously they're liars; they just keep on lying even when it's easy for them to google what it is that the experts _actually_ say about whatever subject.
When I was in Cairo I noticed that the erosion patterns on the Sphinx and the Cairo Citadel (the foundations) are practically the same. Any explanation for that?
(the foundations) a man can only piss so high.
So entertaining (and useful) to have someone directly address the nonsense theories that fill the 'history' segment of RUclips.
@FilthyDank Wasteman the 11th oh god I've gotten that reply so many times...
"Language and art can't help but evolve". 8:02 Could you explain how the egyptians started at the highest technological level and degraded drastically over time in terms of their architecture? That seems like devolving rather than evolving.
Thanks for your video. I love watching weird, science-fiction sounding theories on RUclips and then watching a debunking video presenting the scientific consensus. I don't know why I like to do that. It's just fun :D. Generally, the wild theories are made compelling by purposeful deception. Anyone sincerely looking at all the evidence for the truth would never conclude anything about ancient aliens, hyper advanced ancient civilizations, flat earth, etc. However, they don't let that get in the way of a good story! What I understand less is the the psychology of the people who will believe the story despite being exposed to overwhelming edidence that it is false. That's just maladaptive, guys. Maybe it makes you feel good to believe this story, but being a gullible sucker in general is not going to serve you well in life. PS--I like the stupid smile, too. You look genuinely amused/happy to me.
Good on you, sir! I personally enjoy watching conspiracy videos from time to time, but I always find the debunking more clever anyhow.
Have a good time with your conspiracy videos!
Let me start by saying I don't believe what you call conspiracy theories. I do believe in this video he overlooked some evidence though. Why was the Sphinx carved in the shape of a lioness, with its face later remodeled to look like Khufu? How is all this erosion possible when we know for a fact the Sphinx was buried completely understand for a lot of recent history? Crystals forming does not explain why the erosion looks to be runs of water, it wouldn't just randomly form like that from condensation from dew. As far as some of the objects inside the pyramids, perfectly square corners in granite? Sarcophagi that aren't even disconnected from the lid, but just carved completely out inside with a few inches gap? Polished hieroglyphs that to this day have not lost their luster? Strange chambers that aren't really explained, with copper rods at the end of them? And underground chamber similar to the warden Cliff towers Tesla designed meant to create free wireless electricity? It seems too simple to discard all of these facts along the guys of conspiracy. I hope one day we will have enough knowledge to reasonably explain everything without simply ignoring one side or the other
I have no problem with a large lion statue being carved out of an existing rock outcropping 10 thousand years ago. The amount of carve stone at Gobekli Tepi indicates people at that time could do this. It does not mean they were any where near advanced as the old kingdom Egyptians. The site could easily have been sacred for a long period perhaps as a seasonal meeting place of nomadic herders from the Sahara grass plains. The underground springs in the area could have been a focus with the first pyramid being built over one.
The first farmers could have had a knowledge base accumulated over a very long time by their nomadic ancestors. It is us who assume such people were completely ignorant but Gobekli seemingly disproves that assertion. The original sphinx idol may be another scrap from that period. A site where at a certain time of year nomads moved their herds to the Nile. There they carried out social and religious events. Part of which was slowly carving with stone granite hammers a rough idol to some lion godess. It may have taken a long time with work being a religious offering.
The later Egyptian work s actually follow the earlier edge of the pit not the other wat round. At least all we can say is they line up not why. It is not unusual to for later work over the top of very much older structures. In Florence the Roman arena is completely lost but the outline is preserved in the street line of buildings built more than a thousand years later. So it is not unthinkable that a line from an earlier structure is repeated in something much later. Even in modern England neolithic boundaries are preserved in the modern landscape. That's over 5000 years even in the mass populated period of the last two centuries. What could have remained in a sparse stone age Egypt till the time of the pyramids.
The East West alignment is about the easiest line to drawn. Particularly in a sunny country. It could be drawn in a single day. Sunrise and sunset viewed from a single spot and marked with a couple of sticks.
I disagree, goebkli tepe is a HUGE site if I am not misstaken only 10% has been escavated and the site is way larger than what we have to work with. How could a nomadic people of hunter gatherers ever carve and haul these huge stones if they didn't have an advanced civilization with the ability of agriculture, science, and mathematics. The precision in these stones are amazing and the worksmanship is incredible.
Do you think that when the Sphinx was modern, it was painted?
Robert shock doesn't even consider the possibility that the sphinx enclosure could have been cut before the sphinx was made, or before it was finished.
So even if it is water erosion, that doesn't certainly date the sphinx.
Yet study of the blocks which make up Khafre's valley temple when compared to the Sphinx pit walls = show the same stratification/composition. So as they removed stone from around the Sphinx to form the pit it rests in they used that to build Khafre's valley temple - ergo their creation was simultaneous.
As to the rest no it would not take forever to use flint tools to care limestone as limestone is not that hard. Granite would take longer - but granite is only used sparingly in the Old Kingdom generally. Limestone given its ubiquity and ease of working was the primary building stone until centuries later when sandstone came into vogue for a time.
@@varyolla435 didn't know that stratification is in another place, thanks.
Someone has demonstrated that people can shape granite with flint. Although I want to see where this was done by possibly finding a place with lots of worn flint in the soil.
@@Benjamin-mh8ei While it possible the main stones used for working granite were harder ones. Here is an excerpt about Egyptian stone tools from a professor of geology working in the US:
"Perhaps the heaviest used and least glamerous stone employed by the ancient Egyptians is chert, which is also commonly referred to as flint. From Predynastic times onward it was used for tools (awls; adzes, knife and sickle blades; axe and pick heads; choppers; drill bits; and scrapers) and weapons (dagger blades, and spear and arrow points). Even when metals (copper, bronze and later iron) became commonplace for these applications, chert was still a popular low-cost alternative. For tools and weapons requiring the sharpest edges, imported obsidian was employed. A wide variety of stones, especially hard ornamental ones, were used for the heads of maces, a club-like weapon.
From Late Predynastic times into the Late Period, the quarrying and much of the carving of ornamental stones was done with hard, fracture-resistant stone tools known as pounders and mauls. These were primarily of dolerite, but siliceous sandstone, anorthosite gneiss and fine-grained granite were also occasionally used. These same rocks were also employed as grinding stones for smoothing rough, carved stone surfaces. The actual polishing of these surfaces was probably done with ordinary, quartz-rich sand of which Egypt abounds. For the softer sandstone and limestone, picks of chert (as well as metal tools) were employed."
So while people tend to focus upon metal tools analysis shows that flint was actually the most ubiquitous tool used by the dynastic Egyptians while as noted above other more specialized stones were also used for certain applications. In surveying the Aswan quarry Egyptologists found thousands of dolerite pounders. Some even had the name of the craftsmen they belonged to painted on them in red ochre paint.
So it appears they initially had more jagged stones so as to have more of a pointed cutting surface to chip away at the bedrock. Upon the stone becoming "rounded out" they would be discarded. Since metal tools required smelting the ore and casting the tool that made them expensive to produce and maintain. So using stone tools like flint was exponentially cheaper = hence their ubiquity. Enjoy your day. 🤨
Every time someone makes an argument that the Egyptians didn’t build the pyramids. Replace pyramids with Catholic cathedrals. And replace Egyptians with medieval people and see how ridiculous it sounds.
You do not even need to do that. Simply asked them = "then who did???" Invariably they can not answer - at least not intelligently. It will always be allusions to some supposed "lost civilization" for which coincidentally nary a pottery shard exists to show it was actually real. Such unsubstantiated speculation coincidentally is known as "argumentum ad ignorantiam". Ironic in that the pyramids or Sphinx survived whereas nothing else about them did. lol!
I completely agree with you here. In some cases, we even have the workmen's settlements, tools, and the workmen's bodies.
Allegedly
@@desperatelyseekingrealnews Yeah like 99.9999% allegedly.
Love this video!! I was worried this was going to be one of those wacky ancient alien videos when you said this was not a typical history channel and I was delighted to hear such a rational and fact based argument! Subscribing right now!
I don't think even the History Channel is all that factual, scientific or evidence based anymore. So, being not typical History Channel as it is now is a good thing.
Dang I loved this wacky archaeology theory. I still don't buy that the rock wasn't eroded by rain, but the Sahara being less dry in the old kingdom makes a lot of sense.
In all the cases we are aware of, less technological people always want to trade for metal weapons and tools, something that looked almost magical to someone who had never seen metal objects before. Those objects and the metals themselves would have been valued trade items. Ceramics and metal cooking utensils would have been important trade items with a paleolithic people who came in contact with such things.
If there are remains of paleolithic people who lived in that area, and their are, such items should have been found, IF they had lived along side a technologically superior culture.
i like your vids.. i like the style.. very chill and intellectual.. please never edit edit edit.. words are hard and sometimes fumbled.. i like how you just go with it.. cheers!
thank you, i couldnt rally debunk this with my limited knowledge on the subject, so i was somewhat intrigued by the water erosion hypothesis. you cleared that up for me, thank you
Thought you said it was caused by the Jew in the morning 😂😂
conspiracy confirmed after all! 😂
check the closed captions... 🤣😂
How is it possible that the Sphinx enclosure has water erosion, but the blocks removed from the Sphinx enclosure used to build the Sphinx temple don't show it?
Im not a conspiracy theorist. I just think we still have so much to learn from how humanity evolved over how long. One thing about the Giza pyramid though... If it was allegedly built in 10 years as Herodotus was told and has about 2,3 million blocks, each waying 15 tons in average, they would have to move 630,13 blocks a day from the quarry to the pyramid. Not to mention the time to transport the granite about 600 km... If they did they at least deserve the agnolishment of being way more intelligent and structured than most give them credit for. Great channel btw, love that you look at both sides!
Herodotus makes a lot of claims and admitted to telling the most fantastical of them it probably didn't take only 10 years
Most blocks used in the pyramids weigh nothing close to 15t.
A voice of reason and logic! Thank you!
Love how the article you link admits in no uncertain terms that the technology required to saw the stkne blocks was way more advanced then is currently purported: "If the procedure just hypothesized is accurate
then the following can be concluded: 1) The
invention of the swinging drag saw can be traced
back more than two thousand years beyond its
previous date. 2) The degree of mechanization
indicated by this operation is somewhat more
advanced than general views of the pyramid
builders' technology level now hold. 3) The
sawing done in this place represents a sophisti-
cated operation of a mature industry." (Evidence for Use of a Stone-Cutting Drag Saw by the Fourth Dynasty Egyptians
Author(s): Robert G. Moores Jr.
Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 28 (1991))
Moreover, the dating of the stone blocks in the article you referenced is based in the current assumption that they are part of the east side of the Khufu's pyramid and therefore date to the 4th dynasty, not upon any direct dating done on the blocks themselves.
@@jonathanrodrigues6454 direct dating blocks is hard, yes?
great quote and citation!!
It's a shame that real archaeologists have to waste time debunking grifters who want to sell books to the gullible.
Yes - it however is nothing new. The advent of "pseudoscience" as a business has been a problem for academia for decades. Such as the late Carl Sagan as an example wrote about it as far back as the 1970's. Since the advent of the internet and entertainment television via "niche cable channels" however what was once limited to fringe print media and the occasional television program - which appropriate disclaimers - has largely spread to the internet where anyone can claim anything absent any real pushback.
Moral of the story: channels like this have become a necessity. Just as a virus can continuously spread if measures are not taking to mitigate that spread = so ignorance begets ignorance ad infinitum unless the cycle is broken by more credible information and facilitating understanding. Sunlight continues to be the best disinfectant.
The problem of pseudoscience/history stems from the entertainment genre via movies and televisions. It is maintained however in large part owing to = a failed educational system which does not teach people how to recognize such trash so as to realize it is more Hollywood than actual history. So Schoch et al = are "bottom feeders" who are exploiting the ignorance and gullibility of their minions to monetize the response. 🤔
_"A sucker is born every minute"_
Open your mind.
@@Shibnibby Open a book
I ve got so many ''archeological'' books about ancient civ. which are full of contradictions and wishful thinking. For example read the book '' The making of civilization'' written by Rutten Whitehouse and John Wilkins, the way they write is super arrogant and they re stating all their theories as facts which makes everything very narrow minded, it''s a theory ffs. Well, that book was written in 1986 and needs a repress, because like at least 80% of the content is overtaken by time due to recent discoveries. Talking about selling books to the gullible and pseudoscience, Archaeology itself IS almost like a pseudoscience the way many archaeologists practise it, self preservation.
Quite recently a wall few meters high and km''s long was found just off the coast in the Baltic Sea...... archeology; ehmmmm hunter gatherers, that wall is build for trapping deer and wildlife. Archeologists speculate just as much......if deemed handy for themselves.
If you open books and actually read them, please keep thinking for yourself.
My cheeks hurt from smiling, I smiled through the hole video.
I really did have my mind made up before seeing your video on what Robert said and truly believed it all. A lesson was learned to dig a little deeper before forming a conclusion, I thank you for that
Well I'm about to go down the rabbit hole of RUclips on this one. 😉
Numpty
A lot of these theories about how the Egyptians didn't create this work starts with the assumption that they are not capable of doing it. They didn't have the tools they didn't have the organization. They didn't have the intelligence. Anthropologist would tell you that the ancient people the homosapiens were just as intelligent as we are today. They started basically from scratch and built the foundation of where we are. None of this stuff arrived by accident or by aliens or by glaciers or rainwater. It was made by intelligent people to meet their felt needs.
Certain people are attracted to the stuff and it sells. It's pop archeology.
Man I love your baritone voice.
6:35 "3 times wetter" stil means dry. Get it? So if it rains 5 days a year.... incresed 300% its 15 days.. still not much.
What you really are looking for is a period we call "the neolithic subpluvial" .. Look it up.
Frosty CryptoShark
Maybe it's thousands of tons of SAND EROSION pouring over surface for thousands of years.
@@kabkab8441 Thats not how sand erodes. Sand only erodoes whats its on for the first hours... then its covered by the sand and protected until the sand is removed.
Frosty CryptoShark
You wrote:
"Sand only erodes whats its on for the first hours... then its covered by the sand and protected until the sand is removed."
So by this thinking the Egyptians built this structure only to be covered up in a couple of hours. Is that right? There are many possibilities here that would allow the erosion by sand.
@@kabkab8441 i was exaggerating.. it likely takes days to cover. As deserts move by the wind its more a protector than a wrecker. The only parts that are exposed to erosion by sand blowing is parts sticking out of the terrain. As sand covers things up they are also protected from the elements. The sand beneath the top layer is not moving.
Frosty CryptoShark
Your statement is common knowledge. Ancient Egyptians were experts with sand. If the area was going to fill up with sand, they would have thought of that. Also, although the area does fill with sand in modern times, that MAY not be the situation in ancient times. In much of the same manner as rivers flowing freely at one time may become clogged or filled in other times. The Romans and Greeks both have modified the Sphinx in attempts to preserve it - proof of the fact that it wasn't simply covered up shortly after it's construction.
Don't apologize about the way you look... I think it's perfect.. almost like you took a big bong rip and then said "here hold my bong I got this" lol
I find the smile relaxing, and that is conducive to science.
Hey just wondering if you can expand on this and maybe talk about Graham Hancock's theories about Ice Age civilizations and Randall Carlson's theories that line up really, really well with his about the idea that a giant global flood really happened as proven by several geographic features found in North America and Siberia as well as the massive amounts of megafauna from 11,600 years ago found dead with their legs broken and all in one area as if they had been hit by a mega tsunami and floated to one area together. Would love to hear more on it as it is one of the few "conspiracy" theories I genuinely 100% believe. Thanks for doing great work man. As a video essayist creator I appreciate big levels of research going into videos
Well, the floodings in north america and sibria, where not 1 event, but the evidence clearly shows that they flooded a couple of times, wich doesnt work with this hypotheses. And could you give me a source to the claim of mega Fauna with broken legs ?
I'd take Hancock more seriously if he didn't attack 'science' so often for not embracing the theories he likes. I enjoy his books as entertainment and his TV programmes posed some interesting questions at times. He's undoubtedly a clever man with considerable knowledge but he chooses to use that knowledge to sell books rather than engage in original research that could then be verified by the scientific community and absorbed into the body of knowledge. His theory that an advanced global civilisation existed prior to the end of the last glaciation and were all but wiped out by rapid sea level rise is an interesting one but his evidence comes up short. In the end his argument seems to be that there are a few pieces of potentially anomalous evidence, that a coastal civilisation *could* have existed in areas now hundreds of feet under water and that the scientific community is too conservative to take such a concept seriously. As Carl Sagan is quoted as saying "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". Graham Hancock is very good at the first part of that but rather poor at the second.
@fullswing Do you mean pseudoscience from Hawass too, he was exactly about that reproach accused, and two more points. He shows the public a false picture of the dynasty Egypt's, Hollywood like. And itself he is close at The Edgar Cayce Foundation and is still looking as member of his circle or lodge for the hall of records. read up at Smithsonian.
To make it clear i don't agree with all this conclusions from all Autors Hancock Collins .... include the Tomb Theory. but all that researchers did a excellent investigation work.
@fullswing Hawass had been accused of shoddy science, uncomfortably close connections first lady,corruption. Do you want do this discussion ?
@fullswing Hawass isn't the devil at all. if you talk to him you just learn he is utterly smart. But it is time to fix that Egypt picture in the world. nobody can serve two lords for ever. We all knows about his hobby "looking for the hall of records" why he do it not in the public ?
I don't like Hancock personalty. he is into drugs. You are wrong about his education he graduated from Durham University in 1973, receiving a First Class Honours degree in sociology. worked as Journalist. worked for many British papers. But about his work. he is reading in public such famous texts "The Lament of Hermes" or "The book of the Gates / Dead, and of the Rebirth". "The Pyramid Texts".
Andrew Collins is a engineer working into stonemason technics. he is research the whole technical subject. Tool marks. processing stonemason technology.
And there a lot others Civil engineers. Stonemasons which are into that subject. You can't put all them experience turn down, call into question. Who are you?
I am an Archaeologist. I love your stuff! I like your smile too, brother!
there was this dynamic couple who are obsessed on prehistoric civilization though prehistory may change soon. I assume you have heard both of them, Graham Hancock and Randall Carlson and they have presented their case very well against a skeptical blogger, Michael Shermer.
I think that these 4 reasons you have given are all well founded and evidence you've provided in the description section is extensive but there are no good reason to fully deny the chamber of the sphinx water erosion hypothesis. I believe we need more study on this and denying this hypothesis at every turn slows down the progress which is fine,all sciences are like that but we're on an online forum, would you research and present evidence which supports the sphinx being older than the pyramids (the exact year being 10,500 BC)? I think that video will pull in a lot of views for you and I certainly would watch.
Fantastic video,I'm a new subscriber and I'm liking what I'm seeing.
0:59 Epic Catchphrase Confirmed
Skidly Doo that like button if you agree.
Agree!
I generally think you get things right, but I'd like to point out that one of your points is refuted by the existence of Gobekli Tepe. As I'm sure you're aware, Gobekli Tepe is a megalithic structure, and there is no known culture is associated with its creation. We know there must have been a culture in the area only because of the existence of Gobekli Tepe. Cultures can in fact built with megaliths and not leave any other trace.
I agree that the Sphinx was contemporary with the pyramids, regardless of this point. Also, the mass of the Sphinx far outstrips the mass of Gobekli Tepe, as does the technical mastery. So it is more unlikely that the culture that built it could have been insubstantial enough to leave no other trace. But it is theoretically possible.
There are lots of pieces of evidence with Gobekli Tepe though. It's obvious that people were living and working around there when it was built, there are artifacts and trash, etc., that are contemporary with the building site. Plus, GT is not as nearly as sophisticated as something like the Sphinx.
@@420JackG the sphinx is not that sophisticated... Do you know what Göbekli Tepe is? it is in alignment with true north, it's more sophisticated than you know.
It should be mandatory for anyone who wants to attend archeology university to cut 20 tonnes granite block in a half with copper saw before he/she can be accepted.
wtf?
still think the evidence for an older civilization is compelling but you make a good video, no ego or anything just your straight thoughts on the issue.
If the Sphinx were partially submerged in water long enough to erode it enough to notice, then wouldn't the lines of erosion be level with gravity? Because I've seen the Sphinx and they aren't even close to that. The different sedimentary layers erode at different rates, as they would under water, but equally throughout if it's wind erosion. If it were water erosion, there would be tons of erosion below a line level with water. If you boat down the Colorado River in Utah you can see the layers of sandstone erode differently, but at water level they ALL erode faster together. Sphinx looks nothing like that.
If I had to re write Shakespeare's stuff today:
... And when Romeo touched Juliet's spaghetti, Juliet said "You're already dead".. To which Romeo replied relax I've got some sunshine in ma bag... Good grief
Firstly I love your videos, and want to see loads more. I hope it's okay to point out some counter arguments though.
4:20 In saying that Khafre extended, or built around the Sphinx, I don't think Schoch means that Khafre actually cut the south wall. That wouldn't make sense at all. I don't think he's that goofy.
6:10 "Three times wetter than it is now." Google on rainfall in Egypt: "South to Cairo, the average drops to nearly 0 millimetres." Three times nearly 0, is still pretty close to zero. That's a lot of weathering.
9:23 They left nothing behind, except the Sphinx? You mention there's evidence of paleolithic groups relatively nearby. Paleolithic groups were able to build Gobekli Tepe, why not the Sphinx?
I'm not saying you're wrong at all, I'm just saying the evidence that exists is usually presented as if it is conclusive, but it really isn't conclusive. Anyway, would love to see more videos like this. Great work, and loving your channel!
Where are the Flakes or the salt.
You can tell rain erosion.
By the Mark the drops and leaval of drainage
Is this a Haiku?
Almost every temple in Egypt is built under much older foundations, early dynastic egyptians reused column bases as altars, it means that there were already very ancient temples there, and later a new population came and took over. Many researchers and egyptologists come to this same conclusion, that the egyptians were emulating what came before. It's also written in their mythology. There are the famous 40k-50k vases such as those found at Saqqara, and all the traces of advanced machining and tool marks, even mainstream archeology admits that pre-dynastic and early dynastic egyptian stone work was more advanced than later stone work. Just visit any Egyptian museum to see it with your own eyes. Look at Ben Van Kerkwyk's "A tale of two industries". The evidence is literally everywhere, in every temple or major archaeological site in Egypt, it's in every egyptian museum, it's written in their mythology too, meaning the egyptians themselves say it, the only ones who say something different are the mainstream archeologists, who can't even agree on a timeline
🥱 There is nothing under the Sphinx save for = bedrock......... - it being carved from the same. So you are proverbially "pounding square pegs into round holes" trying to rationalize what you want to believe. If you cannot directly correlate evidence to the Sphinx itself = you are _"grasping for straws"_ then by making supposed "connections" which only exist in your imagination.
p.s. - stone can be rather "heavy" you know........ Hence heavy things like large temples and pyramids etc. were by necessity built in areas where the ground could support that weight. They also had to be accessible and hence needed to be in areas accessible to the Nile which could support the inevitable population of priests etc. who serviced such places.
Moral: the Near East if you have ever been there is limited as far as places which can support human habitation. Consequently those areas have seen repeated habitation over millennia as a result = rendering your "observation" moot.
Produce a non-Egyptian origin pottery shard if you can reflecting a supposed civilization which predated dynastic Egypt and was capable of creating what dynastic Egypt did....... - good luck with that.
Great video! Nice to hear insights from a professional.
Sphynx was covered up to its head in sand,preserving all nooks and crannies until 1820,only recently has it been actually acknowledged the water erosion
It was only covered up until 500ad, before that it had two thousand years for sand blasting
Ah alas! Ah sphinxidiot
..... Because sand completely stops erosion and water. 🙄😕😕
What water erosion? There is not any.
@@honeysucklecat ?
one argument from the anti-traditional theorists is this: how did the egyptian culture rise and the very first construction of them is the most incredible, biggest and complex structure ever? its like they came into history with the greatest bang and from then on their architectual skill reduced?
i am not saying i believe the conspiracy theorists but what about a rise to perfection? you know the saying rome wasnt built in a day. its like the old romans built the colloseum the year rome was founded instead of late into the empires history.
why is the first thing the egyptions came up with the greatest thing ever without them having a decent history in architectual design beforehand? the only other building before the great pyramid was a stepped pyramid of djoser according to my reasearch, a mere 30 years before the great pyramid.
i would like to hear your take on this argument against the great pyramid origins.
There are many earlier examples of egyptian architecture, the great pyramid was not built in a day. There are a lot of more ancient tombs that lead to it, from mastabas to the pyramid of Djoser, to the three pyramids of Snofru and finally to Khufu's great pyramid. Also, they obviously had architectural plans, most probably drawn on papyri which do not survive very easily and were possibly also considered sacred or something and maybe destroyed? I don't understand why this looks so incredible to all conspiracy theorists, it is a big building that would have required a lot of raw material and workforce but it does not need that many technological skills or equipment, just a lot of money, sweat and time. Also why is everyone focused on Egypt and not the near easter ziqqurats lol. i think you are the mainstream conspiracists here ahhaha If you really want to solve your doubts, get a degree in archaeology and go excavate it yourself
@Sf Ski they already asked engineers 😅
@Sf Ski alright, so then it is aliens. Of course we will never know for sure how they did it, they are dead! But they didn't create anything otherworldly, they were very good architects and had a lot of resources that's it. I don't get why if we can't say for sure HOW Egyptians built their ramps, then it means they didn't built it. Jesus we don't know how Romans made their bread, does that mean that the bread we find in Pompei it's not Roman? If a pyramid is slathered in egyptian writing, frescoes and allover culture, if there are earlier examples of an evolution of the pyramid shaped tombs and if the pyramids are surrounded by Egyptian contex and fit well whitin it (mythology and all), then why is it so unbelievable that they could create impressive structures??? But no it must be aliens or some kind of older civilization that had superior technical skills but of which there is absolutely NO PROOF of existence. I really really don't understand why it is so difficult to believe.
@Sf Ski alright then i give up. Go on with your research and good luck solving the pyramid mystery. Just one last note: you can't find three articles that prove YOUR theory and call it a day, you should read also all the ones that contradict it and only then make up your mind. Also maybe ask yourself why the people who built the pyramids didn't leave any other trace beside them, and why it is ok for them to appear out of the blue and have a perfectly evoleved technology, but not for the egyptians. Bye bye
4:30 That makes no sense ... Its just as plausible to say Khafre built his shit around the re-discovered Sphinx. Actually... its more plausble considering the EGYPTIAN story of the Sphinx.
Gobekli Tepe if you are ever in Turkey is completely completely worth a visit and the town that it is close to called San urfa super untraveled and very awesome.
Not expecting a reply, and I don't have any sources (I used to but haven't gone in this direction for many years). Also, I'm a new watcher, and this is the first video I've seen about this topic. I like to address things as I see them. If I was younger and my memory better, I'd withhold commentary until I saw both videos ( you hint there is another video).
It was discussed in an archeology text that the erosion process around the sphinx is layered. This is partially because there have been build ups of sand drifts around the sphinx (similar to snow drifts) over the thousands of years of it's existence. Purportedly, when the French "found" the sphinx, it was buried in sand up to the shoulders, such that only the head was visible. When the sand was piled high, water erosion would rise higher and affect larger areas. When the sand was piled lower, smaller areas would be effected. This is partly to explain why the erosion is "layered." Another reason to explain the layering effect of erosion, is that the sphinx was fashioned partly from a natural outcropping of rock, and rock is not homogeneous, especially if the rock is sedimentary.
The trouble is, the sphinx was made from limestone, and as such, very susceptible to water damage. Unlike modern contemporaries that like to keep something antique in "original condition" to prove it's antiquity, the locals back then have tried to repair the sphinx several times (three sticks out as a number). This was largely because when times were good, they would send people out to polish up the old temples, and effigies and when times were not, temples and effigies would lie fallow (which explains why sand drifts would bury the sphinx). You have to remember, water doesn't just flow over sand, there are underground "rivers" which move in a periodic way. Especially in a desert where you typically have a inundation and recessive period.
In ancient times, they actually would paint the rock, the statuaries were made from. Unfortunately, they didn't have good, long-lasting, paints from Home Depot like we do nowadays, so each year, the sphinx would get a fresh coat.
Accordingly, and I believe this was said by Mr. Hawass, there are structures in the desert which are molded from the sand. Sand storms flow in a particular direction, normally, and therefore "shape" a stone outcropping into a shape roughly similar to the Sphinx (commonly). In other words, this might explain it's creative origin, and why some of the structure is natural stone, and some of it is brick and why some accounts say the structure was there before the pyramids, while some tests conclude the structure was "built" at a set time.
You should debunk the extreme antiquity theory, that “forbidden archaeology” stuff, next.
It's a non-debunkable, debunk-proof, because there's always a possibility that artifacts of extreme antiquity just haven't been dug up. I mean, basically the thesis demands that more archaeology needs to be done. There's no way to make a case that less archaeology should be done! Or I suppose you could attack the individual proponents of "forbidden archaeology", which would simply justify their paranoia. Maybe accept that these those people aren't really enemies of archaeology. You can say they're wrong and criticize their PR techniques, but the minute you make them an enemy, they've basically won the argument. The only response is to do more, better science.
@@squirlmy So they can propose any ludicrous theory they imagine and we can't criticise because technically it's not 100% impossible that in future we find some evidence for it? By, that logic you cannot criticise anyone's theories no matter how ridiculous they sound.
@@ciamciaramcia99 wouldn't the idea be that we can criticise their conclusions, but not disprove them
Wouldn't they fuel archeology because of an extreme fascination with the subject?
Very well argued video.
Thanks! It's been my most controversial for sure.
Could there have been a reflection pool around the 'island' sphinx, with pumped...???...fountains--of acidic pond water- eroding the stone ? It would be beautiful.
idk if there's any evidence of that but it seems possible at least! not sure how long water would be able to last in a reflection pool there though; even if that area was once wetter, the water would still evaporate after a while, and i'm not sure how much sense it would make to continuously refill it
@@dazeslays It could be an offering.....both to keep filled, and to pump the shaduf-ish pumps to aerate the pool. Pretty in the desert evenings !!
As to the Sphinx, in profile the current head of the Pharaoh seems to be small in scale, compared to the size of the lion's body. There is some conjecture that it originally was a lion sculpture, and someone decided to re-carve it into the shape we see now. A vanity project perhaps.
I really enjoy the alternate theories because they are fascinating, but on some level I know they are BS, but don't have the background to refute the claims. Thanks for producing this, it's very interesting and undoes the straw man arguments.