Ben van Kerkwyk

It's spent so much time buried in sand up to its chest over the last several thousand years.

More time than it hasn't been.

We have to work pretty hard to keep the sand out of it now.

In fact, there were multiple attempts to dig it out of the sand in the 1800s that failed.

And then they just literally two or three years later, it's sort of buried up to its chest again.

Seems like a design flaw.

Why would you build this thing in a low spot in a windy desert where it's going to fill with sand?

Khafra.

That's right.

Right.

It's actually Thutmose IV.

There's a stele in front of the chest in there in the Sphinx.

So Thutmose IV.

About a thousand years later, he put that in.

So he was the one that was saying if he uncovered it.

So we knew it was buried in sand during the dynastic Egyptian civilization.

So there's a whole other.

Right.

So this is another big issue with the wind and sand erosion.

When you talk specifically about the Sphinx enclosure, I mean, this is this is one of the big controversial.