Today, the Ministry of Culture has released a new announcement, concerning the progress of the excavations. A very interesting video has also been released, which shows how the archaeological team have revealed the mosaic in the second chamber. You can see this video in the link http://amfipoli-news.com/blogpost.php?id=531. In the following images, you can see the wings of the Sphinxes that have been found. With these latest findings, the archaeologists can now fully reform the wings, at their initial state. An architectural design of the initial state of the Sphinxes has been made by Michalis Lefantzis (the architect of the team), which you can see below.

The assumption that had been made, based on the geological research, that there was a doorway leading to a fourth chamber, has been proved wrong. It was actually the existence of a marble upright that had led the researchers to this wrong assumption.

The excavations have been continued in the third chamber and the team have reached a depth of 1.50 meters below the surface of the second chamber (according to the incision that had been made, we have already known that the third chamber is at least 1.50 meters deeper than the previous chambers). Below the pieces of tuff that once formed a floor (which is now destroyed and the researchers now believe that it could have been diaphragmatic) pieces of the wings of the Sphinxes were found, as mentioned above, and also parts of the neck of the second Sphinx and pebbles that once formed the missing part of the mosaic of the second chamber. The excavations will be continued in the third chamber.

From what has been found up to now, the research team tend to believe that the diaphragmatic walls and the soil were put later than the time of the construction, but this hasn’t been proved yet.

In the next meeting with the press, a schedule of the work that has to be done concerning the accessibility of the monument to the public, which has to be safe and controlled, will be announced.