''The Mystery of the Sphinx'' is a 1993 television documentary about the

Great Sphinx of Giza The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human, and the body of a lion. Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, E ...

, with a central focus being the conflict of egyptologists against a number of modern geology and oftentimes fringe theory proponents of the Sphinx water erosion hypothesis.

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten C ...

is the host of the documentary, which features

John Anthony West John Anthony West (September 7, 1932 – February 6, 2018) was an American author and lecturer and a proponent of the Sphinx water erosion hypothesis. His early career was as a copywriter in Manhattan and science fiction writer. He received a Hu ...

and geologist

Robert M. Schoch Robert Milton Schoch is an American associate professor of Natural Sciences at the College of General Studies, Boston University. Schoch co-authored and expanded the fringe Sphinx water erosion hypothesis since 1990. Education Schoch received a ...

Release

Television

The documentary was first aired by NBC as an hour long

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

special on 10 November 1993. It reached an estimated audience of 33 million. It was subsequently shown repeatedly on

TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an As ...

and the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

over the next decade.

Home media

''Mystery'' was initially released by Goldhil Home Media as a 95-minute "extended version" on VHS in 1994, and re-released on DVD by UFOTV as a 95-minute "Special Edition" in 2005.

Reception

The VHS release was described in a 1994 review as "a fascinating combination of science and humbug." Robert M. Schoch criticized the extended version of the documentary, saying "Unfortunately, the original documentary has since been re-edited and expanded with all sorts of extraneous material, some of which I am not at all happy about, and is currently being marketed by 'UFO TV'. It still contains the core material and is worth watching, but when you do so, please disregard the nonsense 'filler' that was inserted into an otherwise great show."

Accolades

John Anthony West received a News & Documentary Emmy Award in the "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Researchers" category for the program on 8 September 1994. The documentary also received a nomination in the "Special Classification for Outstanding News and Documentary Program Achievement" category.

References

External links

* 1993 films 1993 documentary films Documentary films about Egypt Pseudoscience documentary films Documentaries about geology Documentary films about water and the environment Great Sphinx of Giza {{sci-documentary-film-stub