![](\"https:\/\/i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk\/incoming\/article31383006.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/1_Screenshot-2023-11-07-at-121904.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe infamous Sphinx resting near to the ancient pyramids of Giza could have been primarily formed by "the wind" according to a new report.<\/p>\n
A team from New York is now suggesting the Sphinx could have been formed into shape by gusts of wind rather than chiselled by ancient beings. Delicate features would still be hand-crafted, but the overall shape of the statue was already in place.<\/p>\n
Scientists are now looking into the erosion which took place to make the half-oval, suggesting it was weather changes in the area which brought out a windblown ridge in the back of the rock.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Boffins discover world's largest ancient burial site – and it wasn't built by humans<\/b><\/p>\n
For the weirdest and wildest tales from the heart of ancient Egypt, click here.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Taking soft clay and placing a water tunnel within, a crack team discovered the erosion left a "harder or more resistant" material, which effectively became the head of the lion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Leif Ristroph, the study's senior author, said the experiment "Ancient Egyptian Sphinx was 'formed by wind' with historic details chiselled in later". Mr Ristroph did confirm the more delicate features, such as the face and details, were manmade. <\/p>\n
He added there was "no doubt that the facial features and detail work was done by humans". Egyptologists are so far unsure on whether the research confirms the Sphinx as a natural wonder rather than something man made, LiveScience reported. <\/p>\n
Kathryn Bard, a fellow professor not involved in the study, says the research shows "a very real possibility of how a natural limestone formation came to have a kind of amorphous sphinx-like shape". <\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i2-prod.dailystar.co.uk\/incoming\/article31383008.ece\/ALTERNATES\/s615b\/0_Screenshot-2023-11-07-at-121850.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Questions over a yardang, an irregular ridge of sand formed through natural means, are now being levelled at the study. Bard says she has not seen a yardang like the one the New York team produced.<\/p>\n
Further criticism came from Judith Bunbury, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Cambridge, who said there had been "hypotheses in the past that the outline shape of the Sphinx was created by natural erosion."<\/p>\n
She credited the study as a "rather nice model to show how a yardang, with a harder patch inside it might come to resemble" a Sphinx. <\/p>\n
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking <\/i><\/b>here<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n