00:01.77 archpodnet Welcome to the pseudo archeology podcast episode 110 I am your host Dr Andrew Kinkella and tonight water erosion and the sphinx what does water erosion have to do with the age of the sphinx. If you thought nothing, you'd be right? Okay, my friends here we are with another classic of classics the water erosion hypothesis and good god I use the term hypothesis. Very lightly and with a note of comedy. So this is one that I've heard a lot and I I never understood the exact premise of this I never understood what they were getting at. It's just always sounded. Weird to me and the reason why I thought I do the water erosion hypothesis today is that you've heard me talk about this for the last you know, maybe 2 or even 3 episodes I'm still getting a lot of angry. Ah. Notes on my Youtube channel where I made fun of Graham Hancock you know where I did the little like Atlantean skull and and you know people weren't happy with that and so I keep getting this these angry missives. 01:39.00 archpodnet And 1 of the main things that they will say is like well as soon as you disprove the water erosion hypothesis of the sphinx then maybe I'll believe you right? It's literally one of the easily one of the top 2 or 3 ah, comments that I get kind of over and over again so much so that I would say that that the water erosion hypothesis is a tent pole of pseudo archeological thought it really is one of these major ideas that they. All swarm back to so I thought I would dig into it and kind of figure out. Yeah, where did this idea come from. Is there any validity to it. Um, hey you know I'll I'll keep an open mind. And of course what we're talking about is the sphinx right? The great sphinx of Giza a number one the famous 1 right? And the idea here is that when you look at the sphinx. The sides are kind of eroded. Right? They they look like they've kind of been around for a long time. They look like a hill that's kind of kind of crumbly. Yeah, so how did it get that way. The water erosion hypothesis says that it has eroded due to rainfall and you know. 03:13.10 archpodnet In a natural way but that the amount of erosion we see today needed many thousands of years to occur so the sphinx as we said in modern archeology. But date to around forty five hundred years ago right so somewhere in the vicinity of like 2500 bc more or less and we'll we'll talk more about the specifics later but it would go with the old kingdom pharaohs of the time of the pyramids of Giza that are right behind it right? it. It should date the same as all that other stuff which is to around 2500 bc plus or minus give or take and the water erosion hypothesis people say no no, no, it's not forty five hundred years old it's like 13000 years old have we heard 13000 years old before let me, ah right? It's right at the end of the last ice age. You know when they keep pushing that. Huge complex civilization that was destroyed at the end of the ice age. Well friends, the water erosion hypothesis obviously proves that there was an ancient civilization heretofore unknown symbolized by the sphinx and. 04:44.54 archpodnet Just hearing me say that you just know it's lame. You know you just know it's going to be a big party is stupid and unfortunately it is a big party is stupid and you know I don't know why I do this. I had hope for this one and by hope I mean that I thought there was going to be a background to this story that had some had some weight to it. You know what? I mean that like when I figured it out when I looked at the the history of it. Like oh ok, oh I can see why people used to think that what I thought was the erosion hypothesis would have been a real scientific idea that they had like a hundred years ago you know or one hundred fifty years ago which would have been a good guess right? At the time they didn't know any better so they just kind of went. Oh hey. It might be older because of this erosion but no, it's not nearly that good. This idea starts in the 1950 s with a french mystic you heard it correct friends. We're starting with a french mystic. So this is just ah see I don't I don't even have where are the words you know we're starting with the ideas of a mystic is that is that what we're doing here. Yeah I guess that's what it we're doing so this idea gains a little bit of traction in the pseudo archeological circles. 06:16.69 archpodnet And then it's picked up again in the latest nineteen seventy s and into the 80 s right by somebody who has labeled an alternative egyptologist. Not a normal one. You know an alternative one. It's like alternative music. Not really, it's just. Silly but you you know haven't we heard how many times have we heard this story right? Where where just an atrociously idiotic idea gets thrown out there and then it kind of gets reupped about every twenty years or so there's a push you know and then it kind of goes away and then it kind of comes back. So come the french mystic brings it up in the 50 s then it gets pushed again in the late 70 s and then it gets pushed again in 1990 by a pseudo geologist I know. Woo Pseudo Archeology we have some competition. There's pseudo geology out there and in all this that they they break the major rules of science which is. Don't push your pet idea for the sake of the pet idea you have to look at the evidence which of course they don't and they just push this erosion thing forever and ever and the day even though it's just silly now. Why do I think it's silly. 07:44.57 archpodnet You know you're you're like hey can kello come on. Don't be so harsh. Why can't the erosion thing kind of have some weight here's why I actually have some experience with pyramids now not egyptian ones but I do have experience with Maya Pyramids and I've seen a whole ton of Maya Pyramids you guys from all different areas of Southern Mexico and Guatemala and Belize right? I've been to dozens of archaeological sites and I can tell you this that. Ah. The maya pyramids that are made out of limestone and by the way, the egyptian pyramids are made out of limestone as well. It's the same sort of stone I can tell you that the limestone really varies in quality. You have some veins of limestone that are nice and and strong and and dense. Right? That will last a real long time and then you have other ah layers of limestone that are really just kind of crumbly and not that great so you can really see a variety definitely between sites in the in the Maya world right? in terms of. Some sites just happen to have good limestone where they were built others. Not so much even within a site sometimes you can see that um you know a certain pyramid might have been built was a slightly better limestone like it's like when they were quarrying it ooh. They just hit an extra. 09:09.83 archpodnet Good vein of it for a while or something I've really seen the differences. You'll see stone blocks that are that have been Carved. You know that were carved out a thousand years ago that still look really great even though they've been exposed to the elements and you'll see other ones that are just crumbly and look awful and so that's what we see. Here The the backstory of you know why is the sphinx there in that position is all around the sphinx. That's where they were quarying for the stones for the great pyramids again. The great pyramids are right behind them right? right? behind the sphinx rather so the quarry Down. And I'm sure they took all the good stone and right in the middle. There was one last blob that was just really crappy stone and they're like why should we cut this and make bricks out of it. It's just not gonna be very good Anyway I know we'll leave this blob here. And we'll put a human head on it and some lion paws on it and we'll make a sphinx done right? That's what that is It's crappy limestone to begin with So It's going to erode at a quicker rate than the norm right? And so everything works out. Do you ever hear the quicker erosion because the limestone is crappy Hypothesis. No and it's because these alternative egyptologists want to just push this same tired idea that. 10:46.31 archpodnet Top secretly the sphinx is they'll say they're 10000 years old or 13000 years old whatever we'll be right in there right and they need that to push their atlantis narrative I know you guys are like no can color. No don't say Atlantis yeah Atlantis. So behind all this is a push for the Atlantean model. Let's go with that that they've been doing since the french mystic of the 1950 s in terms of the how the sphinx wraps into all this. So. 11:29.25 archpodnet If I ever bring up my little crappy. Ah, let me say that again if I ever bring up my crappy limestone hypothesis. These people never go for it right? They they can't because their house of cards falls in terms of all their fringe ideas. So it. It just never plays. Well again, you guys you know at at the end in terms of this idea. It's just so a scientific right. Non-scientific I Just I was really expecting so much more on this one and they just they did not deliver and you know what in retaliation when we return I'm going to tell you the real story of the sphinx. Deal with it.