Egypt's top archaeologist Hawass refutes city, tunnels under Sphinx - Xinhua | English.news.cn

Some stories just never die. I recall standing in front of the Sphinx in 1997,  arguing with someone who claimed that there was an underground complex whose existence was covered up by a conspiracy of Egyptologists, the Egyptian government and the CIA. Glenn

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-10/13/c_136677881.htm
Egypt's top archaeologist Hawass refutes city, tunnels under Sphinx

CAIRO, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's top archaeologist Zahi Hawass denied allegations  about presence of a city and tunnels under the Great Sphinx of Giza, official news  agency MENA reported on Friday. The "UK EXPRESS" newspaper reported that the  Sphinx could be the entrance way into "a secret city" according to the latest research  by historians. "Malcolm Hutton and Gerry Cannon believe the Sphinx on the sands on the Giza  Plateau in front of the Great Pyramids could be the gateway to a labyrinth of tunnels  and passages and a whole underground metropolis that has been lost to the world  due to the cover-up by the Egyptian authorities," the newspaper added. Hawass, also a former antiquities minister, said those allegations have no relation  with the reality, adding "there is no scientific evidence at all that proved those  allegations." "We have photos for the digging process under the Sphinx that clarified the statute  is sculptured from a solid rock with no room for passages under it," Hawass added. He explained that when the groundwater level in front of the Sphinx increased,  teams from Cairo University dug holes 20 meter underground around the statute  from all sides, and undoubtedly found no passages under the monument. He added during the monument cleaning operations, four crypts were discovered  inside it, and some researchers thoughts it would lead to underground rooms, which  hasn't happened. The Egyptologist asserted that the hole in the head of the Sphinx, that made some  researches thought it will lead to underground city, was only caused by dynamite  used during the exploration operations.