128 The Atlantis Encyclopedia
that it dates before 2600 B.C., while many of the latter are unable to envision an
eighth-millenniumB.C. Atlantis. Regardless of who built the Great Sphinx, it was modi-
fied on several occasions over time. The head, for example, is clearly dynastic, and
may indeed have been sculpted around the period assigned to it by most Egyptolo-
gists. Its face could have belonged to Pharaoh Chephren (or Khafre), as they insist,
although evidence suggests he did not build the Great Sphinx, but only restored it in
the VI Dynasty, when it was already centuries old. Who the original head or face
depicted could not be determined after the pharaoh reworked it into a self-portrait.
At its inception, the monument more likely resembled a crouching lion. Although
it may or may not have been constructed by Atlanteans, they were probably re-
sponsible for at least one of its modifications, if not its conception. As a lion, the
Great Sphinx signified the constellation Leo, traditionally associated with heavy rain-
fall, even floods. As such, it suggests the immigration of Atlanteans after their home-
land experienced extensive geologic disturbances in 3100 B.C., when they brought
civilization to the Nile Delta. Interestingly, the famous Dendera zodiac painted on
the ceiling of a New Kingdom temple begins in Leo on the vernal equinox of 9880 B.C.
While this year was millennia before the suspected beginning of civilization in
Egypt, it coincides with the literal date for Atlantis reported by Plato.Greater Arrival
The Mayas of Middle America recounted two worldwide floods separated
by many centuries. The first of these was the Greater Arrival of Itzamna and Ixchel.
They survived the loss of their kingdom in the Atlantic Ocean, but arrived to
present the Mayas’ ancestors with the gifts of civilization. These included
hieroglyphs, mathematics, temple-building and astronomy-astrology from
Itzamna, “the Lord of Heaven.” Weaving, medicine, and religion were gifts from
his wife, Ixchel. Her name means “the White Lady,” while Itzamna was portrayed
in sacred art with the distinctly un-Indian features of a bearded man with a long
nose. The Itzas were his followers, who named their most famous ceremonial
site in Yucatan, Chichen Itza, after him. The Itzas were also known as the Ahaab,
or “Foreigners to the Land,” a title that literally meant “White Men.” They are
portrayed on the 27th stele at Yaxchilan, the 11th stele at Piedras Negras, and on
the Temple of the Warriors at Chichen Itza as bearded, long-nosed figures with
Europoid features.
They and their leader were said to have come from Tutulxiu, the “Land of
Abundance,” or “the Bountiful,” far across the sea, “where the sun rises.” The
worship of Ixchel survived the disappearance of the Mayas around the turn of the
10th century among the Aztecs as Coyolxauqui. Maya temple art depicts her strug-
gling in the waters of the Great Flood, as her possessions lie strewn across the
water. Itzamna was the Atlantean king mentioned in Plato’s Kritias as “Azaes.”
The Greater Arrival is probably a seminal event that marked the opening of
the Maya calendar on August 11, 3110 B.C. This date is remarkable, because it is
virtually identical to Babylonian records of the Great Flood, and coincides with
the founding of Egypt’s First Dynasty; the sudden construction of Ireland’s oldest