logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2025
56 m

The Egyptian Sphinx

NOISER
About this episode
Measuring 240 feet long from paw to tail, and around the height of a six-story building, the Great Sphinx is one of Egypt’s most spectacular, and mysterious, monuments. Believed to have been built over four millennia ago, much of its story has been lost to history, and the rest is shrouded in myth. So what do we know about who built it? What caused such an ... Show More
Up next
Jul 26
Longitude
It was once one of the great unsolved problems of the early modern world: the calculation of exactly how far east or west a given point was on the surface of the Earth. Longitude was a challenge that sat at the intersection of science, navigation, empire and time itself. For cent ... Show More
55m 15s
Jul 19
Ireland’s Easter Rising
In April 1916, a small group of poorly-armed Irish radicals made a stand against the British Army, in a bid for independence for their homeland. Over six days during Easter week, almost 500 people died in the uprising, and thousands more were injured, leaving Dublin one of the mo ... Show More
53m 52s
Jul 12
The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
In 1986, seven astronauts boarded Space Shuttle Challenger for what was meant to be a routine tenth flight of the orbiter. Seventy-three seconds after lift-off, the shuttle broke apart in front of millions of viewers, in what remains one of the worst disasters in the history of h ... Show More
52m 45s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2024
The Great Sphinx
<p>The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the most iconic monuments from ancient history. 73 meters in length and 20 meters high, the huge limestone statue depicts a mythical creature with a lion's body and a human head thought to represent Khafre, an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the ... Show More
40m 20s
Jan 2025
The Great Sphinx of Giza
The Great Sphinx of Giza—an ancient marvel carved from stone, standing as a silent guardian of Egypt’s secrets. For millennia, this iconic monument has inspired wonder and curiosity. Who built it, and what mysteries does it hold? Is it a symbol, a riddle, or something more? Tonig ... Show More
50m 43s
Aug 2024
The Sphinx: Egypt's Greatest Mystery
<p>The Great Sphinx of Giza is the most recognisable statue in the world - and one of the most mysterious. Even its Western name is misleading, since the monument bears little resemblance to the sphinx of ancient Greek mythology. Conflicting stories about who built it and why hav ... Show More
48m 40s
Apr 2021
Why does the Sphinx of Giza have a broken nose?
The Sphinx of Giza is a monumental statue consisting of two distinct parts: a human face (that of a pharaoh wearing the nemes, the emblematic pharaonic headdress) and the elongated body of a lion. This Sphinx stands in front of the pyramids of the site of Giza, upstream of the Ni ... Show More
2m 19s
Dec 2021
Ancient Egypt: The Great Sphinx
There are so many unresolved mysteries surrounding the iconic monument, like whether it’s really a sphinx, and if it could be a relic from the lost city of Atlantis. We look at a stone beard, a story from Plato, and patterns of erosion to investigate. Learn more about your ad cho ... Show More
43m 19s
Oct 2025
The Pyramids
Sakkara, Egypt, 2,630BC. A man stands atop a structure of dizzying height as the final block grinds into place. For Imhotep, it is the culmination of his life’s work: a mountain made by man. He checks the joint while his workers wait in silence. Then, he gives a barely perceptibl ... Show More
57m 29s
Nov 2023
Ancient Egyptian pyramids: everything you wanted to know
For millennia, Egypt’s mighty pyramids have acted as emblems of the vibrant ancient civilisation that once straddled the Nile Valley. From mysteries surrounding their design and construction and the discovery of new passageways, to the enigma of the Great Sphinx, the pyramids con ... Show More
56m 48s
Feb 2024
The Great Pyramid of Giza
<p>Built by Pharaoh Khufu some 4,500 years ago, the Great Pyramid was the first ancient wonder to be built and is the only one still standing. Towering above the Giza Plateau, this stone behemoth was to be Khufu's tomb, the place from which he would travel to the afterlife.</p><b ... Show More
28m 8s
Jun 2021
Sphinx
The winged, feminine, and very feline Sphinx terrorizes ancient Greece with her sharp claws and unsolvable riddles. But all that changes when the Sphinx meets a young man named Oedipus… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 
39m 47s
Nov 2021
Ancient Egypt: Pyramids
The Great Pyramids of Giza are some of the largest, most foreboding structures on the planet, but the mystery of how they were built still plagues historians today. Some Egyptologists think aliens provided advanced technology, while engineers see evidence they were ancient nuclea ... Show More
46m 2s