
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 1, 1992                   TAG: 9203010018
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: GIZA PLATEAU, EGYPT                                LENGTH: Short

SPHINX POSES MODERN RIDDLE:

For most of its 4,600 years, the Sphinx has been falling apart, and no one has figured out how to stop that from happening. On Saturday, Egypt convened the first global conference aimed at solving the riddle.

So far, the only conclusion is that it won't be easy. The mystical monument is plagued by salt-eaten rock, wind-driven abrasive sand, and pollution. And many past restoration efforts have done more harm than good.

The four-day conference brought together 90 delegates, nearly half from abroad, including scientists, historians, geologists, chemists, artists and environmental and conservation experts.

The Sphinx, with the crouching body of a lion and the head of a pharaoh, was sculpted from both good- and poor-quality limestone stacked at the base of Giza Plateau.

Sand continually covered it, and each time the Sphinx was pulled free, "it was found to be in terrible condition," said Zahi Hawass, antiquities head for the pyramids area and Sphinx. "Inside the statue, rocks are split, as though the Sphinx is in two parts."

Some see the international conference as an attempt to move the fate of the Sphinx out of the arena of politics and into that of science. But many privately concede that may not be possible.

by CNB