Episode
New SAR Scans Reveal a Second Sphinx on Giza Plateau
- Published
- Jul 9, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 288
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Summary
A stele is like an ancient Egyptian billboard. Pharaohs used them to record major events, announce their deeds, and communicate with the public. The “Dream Stele” is a large stone slab, 4.2 meters tall, made of granite. It was carved with hieroglyphs around 1400 B.C. during the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose IV of the 18th Dynasty, who had it placed between the paws of the Great Sphinx of Giza as the back wall of a small chapel he built there. It was later buried under sand where it remained for centuries before being rediscovered in 1818 by Giovanni Battista Caviglia. According to the inscription, a young prince Thutmose was out on a hunting expedition near the pyramids when he grew tired and lay down to rest in the shade of the Great Sphinx’s massive head, which at the time was buried up to its neck in sand. Thutmose then had a dream that the Sphinx, speaking as the sun god, promised him the throne of Egypt if he would excavate the Sphinx from the desert sands. Thutmose did so, and was rewarded with the kingship. The Dream Stele is generally believed to be a piece of propaganda designed to legitimize Thutmose’s rule. Historical evidence suggests Thutmose IV may not have been the intended heir. His older brothers who would have had a stronger claim to the throne mysteriously vanished from history, and their names were removed from other monuments. The Dream Stele shows two sphinxes, and while the official argument is that this is a standard convention in Egyptian art used to emphasize the importance of a divine entity through duplication, others have argued that it is a literal depiction and that a second sphinx exists, or had existed, somewhere on the Giza Plateau. Based on the equinoctial alignments observed on the Giza Plateau, as well as historical and religious indica…