Geology and the Great Sphinx

The Great Sphinx is an Egyptian monument built at the site of Giza, Egypt (location of the Great Pyramids). In more recent times, a debate has ensued between what are considered "amateur" archaeologists and geologists by the professional community, and the professional community itself. The debate is thus:These "amateur" geologists have agreed that the sides of the Sphinx and Sphinx enclosure (the pit that the statue sits in) show clear signs of water erosion through heavy rain downfall. The Giza Plateau is made of limestone, which alternate in layers based on hardness (soft layer, hard layer, soft layer, etc.). These geologists claim that had the Sphinx been eroded through by the wind, the soft layers would be missing, but the hard layers would have been left fully intact. However, the hard layers show up-down channels running between the alternating soft layers. It is their belief that the only way such erosion could've been caused is by heavy rains pounding down and trickling through cracks in the hard layers: slowly eating away at them.The kicker of their theory is that the last time a rainfall sufficient enough to cause such erosion on the plateau would've stopped around the end of the last Ice Age! Some geologists are more conservative, and don't go back that far, but it still suggests an older date (4500 BC being the date accepted by the "pros"). A date of at least a few thousand years earlier, which is earlier than it has been previously thought a civilization even existed in Egypt.What do the professionals have to say about this? Well, they think these people are all on crack (meth? pot? some sort of drug). They accept that the Sphinx was built by Khafre (Chephren), builder of the second pyramid on the plateau; placing it at around 4500 BC.Please, check out this Wikipedia Article for pictures and more information.So, tell me, what do you think happened? Is the Sphinx proof of a much older civilization? Is their an explanation for the erosion patterns found?J0NOne of the science forums please.

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In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist... might come to the conclusion that each species had not been independently created, but had descended, like varieties, from other species. - Charles Darwin On the Origin of Species

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