Just found out the Sphinx was carved from a single piece of limestone.

I always thought it was built up from blocks like the pyramids, but nope, it's one huge rock. Read it in a National Geographic article from 2019. Anyone else shocked by how simple some ancient construction really was?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_nancy11d ago

Actually I gotta push back on the "simple" part a little. The article mentions the Sphinx was carved from a single piece of limestone but that doesn't mean it was simple. They had to quarry around a massive block of rock and then chisel out all the details by hand with copper tools. The head alone took years of work to get the proportions right and they had to deal with different layers of hard and soft stone. That's pretty complex if you ask me, not simple at all.

fionamurphy11d ago

The key thing people miss is that limestone has what they call bedding planes. Those layers of hard and soft stone are a nightmare to work around because the soft spots crumble differently than the hard parts. You have to adjust your chisel angle and striking force constantly. I've worked with limestone on a smaller scale for garden projects, and even that takes a lot of patience.