The action of wind or flowing water may be enough to carve majestic lions in repose out of rocks or clay – and it’s possible that this natural process gave a rocky outcrop in Egypt a lion-like shape that was further modified by the ancient Egyptians to create the Great Sphinx of Giza.
Writing in Smithsonian Magazine in 1981, geologist Farouk El-Baz conjectured that “Desert Builders Knew a Good Thing When They Saw It”. He suggested the…