- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Sutton Publishing Ltd; New edition edition (24 Jun 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0750922443
- ISBN-13: 978-0750922449
- Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,006,213 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This work tells the story of the Great Sphinx of Giza as egyptology has uncovered it. The author details the Sphinx's impact on the ancient world, on Arab writers, on Renaissance travellers, on the pioneers of Egyptology and on modern scholarship. He tells the story of the Sphinx's many bouts of excavation and restoration and above all, puts the Sphinx in the context of all that is known about ancient Egyptian history and religion. Some 20th-century writers have promoted ideas about the Sphinx's immense antiquity and its creation by a lost super-civilization to send messages of doom to our own times. This book is intended as an "antidote" to such theories, exposing the flaws in the arguments of these writings and offering an account of what Egyptologies have found out about the Sphinx for real. Illustrated throughout, the text examines every aspect of the Sphinx, including modern claims by a professional geologist regarding its age, and provides an accessible overview of the issues and debates surrounding it.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book claims to be authoritative in its field and to be an "antidote" to "high-flown theories" recently promulgated on Egyptian Antiquity. It might have been more convincing had it been half as well argued as the books it criticises. This book seems to rely upon assurances of "painstaking research of many years" which somehow, not revealed by this book, supports what has become the traditional theories. Frankly, a book that seems to be inspired by the hysteria of people who have believed and built careers upon so much dogma for so long they cannot conceive of any alternative. A very unscientific and disappointing book.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I borrowed this book from the library and after reading it thought it is so good I must have it for myself. It is probably the best and unbiased book I have read on the Sphinx. Throughly recommend it to anyone who is interested in Ancient Egypt. Amazon should however get the author right, it is Paul Jordan.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
25 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Informative and valuable
11 Jun 1999
Format:Hardcover
There are perhaps two ways in which Paul Jordan's "Riddles of the Sphinx" should be viewed. First and foremost, Jordan details everything we know about the Sphinx--its structure, its geology, its place in Egyptian history, the cultural context in which it was made, the place of the Sphinx in Egyptian society thereafter, etc. etc. In this sense, the book is especially valuable in explaining in a highly readable fashion the scientific and historical basis for placing the origin of the Sphinx at about 2500 BCE. You will not find a clearer account of how such scientific reasoning works. At the same time, Jordan is quite fair in admitting where scientists and historians are simply guessing, or where they know nothing at all.
Second, this book provides a fine counterpoint to the recent spate of speculations--carried on by the likes of Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, John Anthony West, Robert Schoch, Zecharia Sitchin, et. al.--that the Sphinx dates from a far more ancient time and represents evidence of a long-lost civilization predating even ancient Egypt and Sumer. While Jordan argues persuasively against such wild theorizing, and is immeasurably helped by his careful summary of conventional Egyptology, I do wish he had been less offhand in his criticisms of the "alternative Sphinx." Only Schoch is ever mentioned by name or referenced, and then only because he is a trained geologist, and as such is deserving of being "taken seriously." While in some sense this might be correct, and certainly is in an academic context, in a work of popular nonfiction this is downright haughty. Someone, someday needs to address the Hancocks, the Bauvals and the Wests in the same way that, for example, Philip Klass and Robert Sheaffer deal with UFOlogists. In an academic context, it is perhaps appropriate to laugh Graham Hancock out of the room; in the popular arena, his claims need to be addressed specifically.
Nevertheless, as "Riddles of the Sphinx" is the only book I have yet found that does treat the most recent wave of early-Sphinx speculation directly, as of this writing it stands as the most valuable book on the subject for the general reader. It is written well and a surfeit of excellent photographs are included, though they undoubtedly contribute to its rather high price tag.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
excellent introduction about the Sphinx
15 Jun 2000
Format:Hardcover
Despite having a bad choice for a title, the twelve chapters of this book offer excellent information on the Ancient Egyptian sphinx. The author provides accurate description, dimensions, excavations and conditions of the monument. He discusses several theories regarding its construction dates and the reason for its construction. Chapters also present the history of Ancient Egypt from predynastic to Old Kingdom times. Accompanied by excellent black-and white illustrations and color photographs, it is a beautiful study of this monument, recommended to have in a personal library.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Good coffee table book!
7 Sep 2001
Format:Hardcover
I'm sure Mr. Jordan did not have in mind to write a coffee table book -- he seems to have a specific thought in mind regarding some of the books that have been released over the past 30 to 40 years regarding the mysterious Sphinx. However, the photography and other illustrations make this book one that you would want visitors to see. I enjoyed the writing as well as the photographs, regardless of Mr. Jordan's obvious biases. (Actually, from a professional historian's view, Mr. Jordan's biases are not at all biases.)
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