Drilling under the Sphinx (Featuring Dr Zahi Hawass and Dr Mark Lehner)

Dr Mark Lehner: “I'm Mark Lehner and I am here at the Great Sphinx of Giza on behalf of Dr Zahi Hawass, helping him out with the drilling that we're doing underneath the Sphinx. In our first hole here we will be underneath Sphinx's left paw, the north forepaw of the Sphinx. And we're doing this to test for ground water, which has risen dramatically in the recent years to where it's possibly posing a threat to the Sphinx and the temples in front of it.”

Dr Zahi Hawass: “A few months ago, the press announced that the Sphinx is in danger because of the rising of the water table in front of the Sphinx temple.”

Dr Mark Lehner: “So Dr Zahi, in collaboration with Cairo University, have done a series of holes to test the water and also in some cases out in front, to pump the water to lower it and to try to protect the Sphinx.”

Dr Zahi Hawass: “We have done eight drills now, going down about ten meters under the Sphinx. One of them is just underneath the left paw of the Sphinx, and that drill goes underneath the Sphinx itself.”

Dr Mark Lehner (shows a scheme): “This is the front of the paw, the Roman pavement, here is our first hole, one meter from the paw, 3.20m from the back claw, 2.85m-2.90m from the very front of this toe.”

“Four metres down there you getting a little solution cavities (shows a piece of limestone). And look at that – a nice fossil from a limestone, 50 million years old, but maybe that's where the water is going. Look how porous it's getting. (shows another piece of limestone) And very yellow and clay-like. See this? (shows the softness of limestone).”

“Also it's a good chance to test many new age ideas about secret passages and hidden chambers under the Sphinx. So with a number of drilled holes having been done since 2008 and now here 2009 we continue, it should be fast for to put to rest all of these theories that some kind of the tunnel or chamber exists under the Sphinx.”

Dr Zahi Hawass: “All these new age people, they used to fight with me. “Give us one permission only to drill in the left paw of the Sphinx and to see if anything is hidden or not.” We found nothing. And people can think that the myth of the Sphinx will be finished by this drilling. But I'll always believe that the myth and the mystery of the Sphinx will always continue.”

Dr Mark Lehner: “Actually, this is, for me, coming back to the Sphinx after thirty years starting here with Dr Zahi. We started our work together with the Sphinx really in 1978-79, and so here we are thirty years later, still working here, and we haven't aged a bit.”