Beijing World Art Museum is holding an interesting exhibition of world civilizations. I visited it twice as I wrote my last blog. The visit to the Museum afforded reminescence of my trip to Egypt some years ago. Earlier the plot of the movie "Death on the Nile" in which  Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot unraveled the mystery intrigued me. Now I came to Egypt personally to see and learn the story on the spot as to how the Giza pyramid and Sphinx look like. The tour was filled with exciting scenes. In Giza I saw the Sphinx that is Egypt's treasure and an impresive sight. Standing in front of the remaining wonder of the world I felt awe-inspiring. Taking in its size and timeless nature was enough to think the trip to Egypt worthwhile where I soaked in the grandeur of the Sphinx.

I learned from NATIONAL GEORGRAPHIC the following information:

The forbidding Western Desert, driest part of the vast Sahara, comprises some two thirds of Egypt's land, generations pass without a rain. Wet and dry climatic cycles have altered for at least the past 200,000 years. The last 5,000 years have been dry.

Swirling winds fashion a mound of chalk into a mushroom near Farafra. But winds from a constant direction can create sphinx-like yardans. Some geologists theorize that the first sculptor of the famous Giza Sphinx was the wind. First a steady wind shaped a yardan. Turbulent wind flow over the top gradually erroded its rear, and abrading of weaker rock carveda chin. Humansculptor fifished the job. Scientists continue to study the wind's role in shaping the Giza Sphinx.

photos taken in Giza 2000

a mound of chalk in the fashion of mushroom in Farafra

sphinx-like yardan in Dakhla

A - A steady wind shaped a yardang.
B - Turbulent wind flow over the top gradually eroded its rear.
C - abrading of weaker rock carved a chin.
D - Human sculptors finished the job.