I just read that a common theory about the schist disc (tri-lobed disc) is for making rope. Something like this rope maker's top, with the hole in the middle of the disc to thread a 4th strand down the center. Just thought I'd throw that in to stir the pot.
"Like the Luxor Las Vegas, Malaysia's Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall doesn't just stop at pyramids when paying homage to ancient Egypt. The theme carries throughout the "architecturally spellbinding" retail bonanza — one of Malaysia's largest malls at 4 million square feet — where shoppers will find an array of large pharaoh statues, pseudo-hieroglyphs and an imposing, XL-sized sphinx standing guard out front."
Song of the King (Seven Fat Cows) Joseph Technicolor Pharaoh This is a beautiful mix of "All Shook Up", "Stuck On You" and "Don't Be Cruel"
Sphinx Realty Company, Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, 1920s "Sphinx Realty Company, located at 537 North Fairfax Avenue just east of Melrose, in 1920. These days we’re used to the Vegas approach of more-is-better, but back then, this must have been eye-catching, to say the least."
@Joe Riley I think that is one of the coolest buildings I have ever seen. I wish they had interior pictures.
I couldn't find interior photos. Not sure if the Sphinx Realty Company was a legitimate business. Lost LA "At one point in time, a Sphinx could be found along Fairfax, seemingly out of nowhere, entirely out of place. This piece of programmatic architecture housed the The Sphinx Realty Company, and it was built during a time that was big on novelty architecture, and even bigger on Egyptian culture." "It is believed that the building at 537 N. Fairfax was constructed around 1926, possibly even before that. Old photos show the realty firm's signs—some shaped like camels—advertising apartments and homes nearby. The address in modern times appears to be a parking lot." "In The Colossus of Roads: Myth and Symbol Along the American Highway, author Karal Ann Marling wrote about Los Angeles' many mimetic buildings, pointing out that—like many things here—a Sphinx had very little do to with Southern California." "Sphinx Realty lacked even that minimal confession to sober salesmanship. The company, apparently, sold neither cemetery plots nor spaces in Forest Lawn, and no more than its share of arid building lots in sunbaked subdivisions. Rather than a building warped into a colossal figure, this is a preexisting colossal statue, first shrunken in size and then scooped out to form a building. The content of the signage or symbolism, on both practical an aesthetic levels, is hopelessly cloudy. The passerby might easily postulate that Sphinx Realty is an ancient and therefore an honorable firm, or, conversely, that it is a trendy Egyptomaniac's answer to King Tut's recently discovered tomb, filtered through the Hollywood neo-Arabianism of Valentino and Theda Bara. Whatever the intention, the Los Angeles Sphinx is as freakish and enigmatic a presence as its famous prototype."
Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre "Los Angeles was at the forefront of co-opting Egypt's ancient culture. In a Vanity Fair article about the 1920s Egyptian obsession in America, author Bruce Handy notes that L.A. developer Charles Toberman (aka Mr. Hollywood) may have "had a premonition that the Western world was on the verge of one of its periodic waves of Egyptomania."" "Toberman was one of the people behind Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, which was built in 1922, the same year that Howard Carter and company entered Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. This event is what sparked an interest in ancient Egypt in other parts of the world, impacting fashion, entertainment and architecture. And as Handy points out, "If the opening of King Tut’s tomb was a milestone in archaeology, the opening of Grauman’s Egyptian was a milestone in archaeological kitsch. And it was this one-two punch, separated by mere weeks, that would ignite a vogue for Egyptian-themed theaters in America," and, well, realty companies."
The Big Egyptian Sphinx Cover Up: Hidden Chambers, An Unexcavated Mound and Endless Denial Two Sphinxes? There have been sketches of the Giza (the word Gisa in Ancient Egyptian means ‘Hewn Stone’) complex from as far back as 1665 and some do show two heads peering out of the sands, one usually having female features. A Hole in the Sphinx’s Head Around 1798, Vivant Denon etched an image of the sphinx, although he hadn’t copied it that well. However, he no doubt knew that there was a hole on the top of its head as he had drawn an image of a man being pulled out.