Mark Lehner’s 1979-1983 work with James Allen on the Sphinx Project is still the only systemic survey and architectural study of the Great Sphinx of Giza that has ever been made. The Sphinx Project’s archive includes:

• a stack over 5 feet long of written reports, notes, journal entries, site forms, and survey data,
• 7716 photographs,
• 266 architectural drawings and maps, one of which unrolls to over six feet long!

These documents show the bedrock surface of the Sphinx’s body, the history of its ancient repair, and the degree of erosion that existed when stonemasons first added its protective casing. Much of this evidence has since been covered by subsequent restoration work and is no longer visible.

For more than 35 years, these documents have remained largely unpublished and inaccessible to researchers. Now, thanks to a grant from the American Research Center in Egypt, we are hard at work scanning, digitizing and cataloging the data in order to make this archive of information freely and permanently available online through Open Context. We look forward to announcing its online launch sometime next year!

Click here to read more about the original Sphinx Project’s findings.