The Great Sphinx of Giza is a
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
statue of a reclining
sphinx
A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon.
In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...
, a
mythical creature
A legendary creature (also mythical or mythological creature) is a type of fictional entity, typically a Hybrid beasts in folklore, hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore (including myths and legends), but may be feat ...
with the head of a human, and the body of a lion.
Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the
Giza Plateau
The Giza Plateau ( ar, هضبة الجيزة) is a plateau in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, site of the Fourth Dynasty Giza Necropolis, which includes the Great Pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the Great Sphinx, several cemete ...
on the west bank of the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...
in
Giza,
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
. The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the
pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...
Khafre.
The original shape of the Sphinx was cut from the
bedrock, and has since been restored with layers of
limestone block
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms when t ...
s. It measures long from paw to tail, high from the base to the top of the head and wide at its rear haunches. Its nose was broken off for unknown reasons between the 3rd and 10th centuries AD.
The Sphinx is the oldest known
monumental sculpture in Egypt and one of the most recognisable statues in the world. The archaeological evidence suggests that it was created by ancient Egyptians of the
Old Kingdom
In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...
during the reign of Khafre ().
Names
The original name the Old Kingdom creators gave the Sphinx is unknown, as the Sphinx temple, enclosure and possibly the Sphinx itself was not completed at the time, thus cultural material was limited. In the
New Kingdom, the Sphinx was revered as the
solar deity ''
Hor
Hor Awibre (also known as Hor I) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the Thirteenth dynasty of Egypt, 13th Dynasty reigning from c. 1777 BC until 1775 BCK.S.B. Ryholt, ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period'', ''Carsten ...
-em-
akhet'' ( en, "Horus of the Horizon";
Hellenized
Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in th ...
: ''Harmachis''), and the pharaoh
Thutmose IV
Thutmose IV (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis IV, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek; egy, ḏḥwti.msi(.w) "Thoth is born") was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century ...
(1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC) specifically referred to it as such in his
Dream Stele
The Dream Stele, also called the Sphinx Stele, is an epigraphic stele erected between the front paws of the Great Sphinx of Giza by the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose IV in the first year of the king's reign, 1401 BC, during the 18th Dynast ...
.
The commonly used name "
Sphinx
A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon.
In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...
" was given to it in
classical antiquity
Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...
, about 2,000 years after the commonly accepted date of its construction by reference to a
Greek mythological beast with the head of a woman, a falcon, a cat, or a sheep and the body of a lion with the wings of an eagle. (although, like most
Egyptian sphinxes, the Great Sphinx has a man's head and no wings). The English word ''sphinx'' comes from the
ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
Σφίγξ (
transliterated
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...
: ) apparently from the verb σφίγγω (
transliterated
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus ''trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → , Cyrillic → , Greek → the digraph , Armenian → or L ...
: / en, to squeeze), after the Greek sphinx who strangled anyone who failed to answer
her riddle.
Medieval
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
writers, including
al-Maqrīzī
Al-Maqrīzī or Maḳrīzī (Arabic: ), whose full name was Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī (Arabic: ) (1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian Arab historian during the Mamluk era, kn ...
, call the Sphinx by an Arabized
Coptic name ''Belhib'' () and ''Belhawiyya (''), which in turn comes from , a name of the
Canaanite god
Hauron with whom the Sphinx was identified. The modern
Egyptian Arabic
Egyptian Arabic, locally known as Colloquial Egyptian ( ar, العامية المصرية, ), or simply Masri (also Masry) (), is the most widely spoken vernacular Arabic dialect in Egypt. It is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family, and ...
name is
أبو الهول (''ʼabu alhōl / ʼabu alhawl'' , "The Terrifying One"; literally "Father of Dread") which is a
phono-semantic matching
Phono-semantic matching (PSM) is the incorporation of a word into one language from another, often creating a neologism, where the word's non-native quality is hidden by replacing it with Phonetics, phonetically and semantically similar words o ...
of the Coptic name.
History
Old Kingdom
![Weisse Wüste](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Weisse_W%C3%BCste.jpg)
The archaeological evidence suggests that the Great Sphinx was created around 2500 BC for the pharaoh
Khafre, the builder of the
Second Pyramid
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...
at Giza. The Sphinx is a
monolith
A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. For instance, Savandurga mountain is a monolith mountain in India. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often ma ...
carved from the bedrock of the plateau, which also served as the
quarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...
for the
pyramids
A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...
and other monuments in the area.
Egyptian geologist Farouk El-Baz has suggested that the head of the Sphinx may have been carved first, out of a natural
yardang
A yardang is a streamlined protuberance carved from bedrock or any consolidated or semiconsolidated material by the dual action of wind abrasion by dust and sand and deflation (the removal of loose material by wind turbulence.) Yardangs become ...
, i.e. a ridge of bedrock that had been sculpted by the wind. These can sometimes achieve shapes which resemble animals. El-Baz suggests that the "moat" or "ditch" around the Sphinx may have been quarried out later to allow for the creation of the full body of the sculpture.
The stones cut from around the Sphinx' body were used to construct a temple in front of it, however neither the enclosure nor the temple were ever completed, and the relative scarcity of Old Kingdom cultural material suggests that a Sphinx cult was not established at the time.
Selim Hassan
Selim Hassan ( ar, سليم حسن; born on 15 April 1886 – 1961) was an Egyptian Egyptologist.
He was the first native Egyptian to be appointed Professor of Egyptology at the University of Cairo, a post he held from 1936 to 1939. He was then ...
, writing in 1949 on recent excavations of the Sphinx enclosure, made note of this circumstance:
In order to construct the temple, the northern perimeter-wall of the Khafre Valley Temple had to be deconstructed, hence it follows that the Khafre funerary complex preceded the creation of the Sphinx and its temple. Furthermore, the angle and location of the south wall of the enclosure suggests the causeway connecting Khafre's Pyramid and Valley Temple already existed before the Sphinx was planned. The lower base level of the Sphinx temple also indicates that it doesn't pre-date the Valley Temple.
New Kingdom
![Great Sphinx with Stelae](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Great_Sphinx_with_Stelae.jpg)
Some time around the
First Intermediate Period, the Giza Necropolis was abandoned, and drifting sand eventually buried the Sphinx up to its shoulders. The first documented attempt at an excavation dates to , when the young
Thutmose IV
Thutmose IV (sometimes read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis IV, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek; egy, ḏḥwti.msi(.w) "Thoth is born") was the 8th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, who ruled in approximately the 14th century ...
(1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC) gathered a team and, after much effort, managed to dig out the front paws, between which he erected a shrine that housed the
Dream Stele
The Dream Stele, also called the Sphinx Stele, is an epigraphic stele erected between the front paws of the Great Sphinx of Giza by the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose IV in the first year of the king's reign, 1401 BC, during the 18th Dynast ...
, an inscribed
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...
slab (possibly a repurposed door lintel from one of Khafre's temples). When the stele was discovered, its lines of text were already damaged and incomplete. An excerpt reads:
The
Dream Stele
The Dream Stele, also called the Sphinx Stele, is an epigraphic stele erected between the front paws of the Great Sphinx of Giza by the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose IV in the first year of the king's reign, 1401 BC, during the 18th Dynast ...
associates the Sphinx with Khafre, however this part of the text is not entirely intact:
Egyptologist
Thomas Young, finding the ''Khaf''
hieroglyph
A hieroglyph ( Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatoni ...
s in a damaged
cartouche
In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oval with a line at one end tangent to it, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. The first examples of the cartouche are associated with pharaohs at the end of the Third Dynasty, but the f ...
used to surround a royal name, inserted the glyph ''ra'' to complete Khafre's name. When the Stele was re-excavated in 1925, the lines of text referring to ''Khaf'' flaked off and were destroyed.
Later,
Ramesses II the Great (1279–1213 BC) may have undertaken a second excavation.
In the
New Kingdom, the Sphinx became more specifically associated with the sun god ''Hor-em-akhet'' (
Hellenized
Hellenization (other British spelling Hellenisation) or Hellenism is the adoption of Greek culture, religion, language and identity by non-Greeks. In the ancient period, colonization often led to the Hellenization of indigenous peoples; in th ...
: ''Harmachis'') or "Horus-at-the-Horizon". Pharaoh
Amenhotep II
Amenhotep II (sometimes called ''Amenophis II'' and meaning '' Amun is Satisfied'') was the seventh pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few milit ...
(1427–1401 or 1397 BC) built a temple to the northeast of the Sphinx nearly 1000 years after its construction and dedicated it to the cult of ''Hor-em-akhet''.
Graeco-Roman period
In Graeco-Roman times, Giza had become a tourist destination—the monuments were regarded as antiquities—and some Roman Emperors visited the Sphinx out of curiosity, and for political reasons.
The Sphinx was cleared of sand again in the first century AD in honor of Emperor
Nero
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68), was the fifth Roman emperor and final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 unti ...
and the Governor of Egypt
Tiberius Claudius Balbilus
Tiberius Claudius Balbillus Modestus (AD 3-79), more commonly known as Tiberius Claudius Balbilus, was a distinguished Ancient Roman scholar, politician and a court astrologer to the Roman emperors Claudius, Nero, and Vespasian.Holden, ''A History ...
. A monumental stairway—more than wide—was erected, leading to a pavement in front of the paws of the Sphinx. At the top of the stairs, a podium was positioned that allowed view into the Sphinx sanctuary. Further back, another podium neighbored several more steps. The stairway was dismantled during the 1931–32 excavations by
Émile Baraize.
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...
describes the face of the Sphinx being colored red and gives measurements for the statue:
A stela dated to 166 AD commemorates the restoration of the retaining walls surrounding the Sphinx. The last Emperor connected with the monument is
Septimius Severus
Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary suc ...
, around 200 AD. With the downfall of Roman power, the Sphinx was once more engulfed by the sands.
File:Retaining walls and Roman Period stairways east of the Sphinx.tif, Side view of the Sphinx with the Roman stairway on the right.
File:Excavation East of Sphinx.tif, Top of the Roman stairway before dismantling in 1931-32.
File:Sphinx Map by Henry Salt.tif, Map of the area east of the Sphinx by Henry Salt.
Middle Ages
Some ancient non-Egyptians saw it as a likeness of the god
Horon
Horon ( pnt, χορόν, khorón) is a traditional folk dance from Pontus or Eastern Black Sea Region in Turkey.
Name Etymology
The term ''horon'' derives from Greek '' choros'' ( el, χορός, khorós), which means "dance." The earliest in ...
. The cult of the Sphinx continued into medieval times. The
Sabians
The Sabians, sometimes also spelled Sabaeans or Sabeans, are a mysterious religious group mentioned three times in the Quran (as , in later sources ), where it is implied that they belonged to the 'People of the Book' (). Their original ident ...
of
Harran
Harran (), historically known as Carrhae ( el, Kάρραι, Kárrhai), is a rural town and district of the Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa and 20 kilometers from the border cr ...
saw it as the burial place of
Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus (from grc, Ἑρμῆς ὁ Τρισμέγιστος, "Hermes the Thrice-Greatest"; Classical Latin: la, label=none, Mercurius ter Maximus) is a legendary Hellenistic figure that originated as a syncretic combination of t ...
. Arab authors described the Sphinx as a
talisman
A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...
which guarded the area from the desert.
Al-Maqrizi
Al-Maqrīzī or Maḳrīzī (Arabic: ), whose full name was Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī (Arabic: ) (1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian Arab historian during the Mamluk era, kn ...
describes it as the "talisman of the Nile" of which the locals believed the
flood cycle depended upon.
Muhammad al-Idrisi
Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply al-Idrisi ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد الإدريسي القرطبي الحسني السبتي; la, Dreses; 1100 – 1165), was a Muslim geographer, cartogra ...
stated that those wishing to obtain bureaucratic positions in the Egyptian government gave
incense offering to the monument.
Early European descriptions of the Great Sphinx of Giza
Over the centuries, writers and scholars have recorded their impressions and reactions upon seeing the Sphinx. The vast majority were concerned with a general description, often including a mixture of science, romance and mystique. A typical description of the Sphinx by tourists and leisure travelers throughout the 19th and 20th century was made by
John Lawson Stoddard
John Lawson Stoddard (April 24, 1850 – June 5, 1931) was an American lecturer, author and photographer."John Lawson Stoddard." ''Dictionary of American Biography'', Charles Scribner's Sons, 1936. ''Gale In Context: Biography'', Accessed 23 May ...
:
From the 16th-19th centuries, European observers described the Sphinx having the face, neck and breast of a woman. Examples included Johannes Helferich (1579),
George Sandys
George Sandys ( "sands"; 2 March 1578[''Sandys, George''](_blank)
in: ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' online ...
(1615),
Johann Michael Vansleb
Johann Michael Vansleb (1 November 1635 – 1679) was a German theologian, linguist and Egypt traveller. He converted to Catholicism and was a member of the Dominican Order from 1666.
''(Depending on the language of publication, his name is sp ...
(1677),
Benoît de Maillet
Benoît de Maillet (Saint-Mihiel, 12 April 1656 – Marseille, 30 January 1738) was a well-travelled French diplomat and natural historian. He was French consul general at Cairo, and overseer in the Levant. He formulated an evolutionary hypothesi ...
(1735) and
Elliot Warburton
Bartholomew Eliot George Warburton (1810–1852), usually known as Eliot Warburton, was an Irish traveller and novelist, born near Tullamore, Ireland.
Biography
His father was Major George Warburton, Inspector General of the Royal Irish Cons ...
(1844).
Most early Western images were book illustrations in
print form, elaborated by a professional
engraver from either previous images available or some original drawing or sketch supplied by an author, and usually now lost. Seven years after visiting Giza, André Thévet (''Cosmographie de Levant'', 1556) described the Sphinx as "the head of a colossus, caused to be made by Isis, daughter of Inachus, then so beloved of Jupiter". He, or his artist and engraver, pictured it as a curly-haired monster with a grassy dog collar. Athanasius Kircher (who never visited Egypt) depicted the Sphinx as a Roman statue (''
Turris Babel'', 1679). Johannes Helferich's (1579) Sphinx is a pinched-face, round-breasted woman with a straight haired wig. George Sandys stated that the Sphinx was a
harlot
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...
; Balthasar de Monconys interpreted the headdress as a kind of hairnet, while
François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz's Sphinx had a rounded hairdo with bulky collar.
Richard Pococke's Sphinx was an adoption of Cornelis de Bruijn's drawing of 1698, featuring only minor changes, but is closer to the actual appearance of the Sphinx than anything previous. The print versions of Norden's drawings for his ''
Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie
''Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie'' (1755) records Frederic Louis Norden's extensive documentation and drawings of his voyage through Egypt in 1737–38. It contains some of the very first realistic drawings of Egyptian monuments and to this day re ...
'', 1755 clearly show that the nose was missing.
Image:Hogenberg & Braun, 1572.png, Hogenberg and Braun (map), ''Cairus, quae olim Babylon'' (1572), exists in various editions, from various authors, with the Sphinx looking different.
Image:Jan Sommer, 1591.png, Jan Sommer, (unpublished) ''Voyages en Egypte des annees 1589, 1590 & 1591'', Institut de France, 1971 (Voyageurs occidentaux en Égypte 3)
Image:George Sandys, 1615.png, George Sandys
George Sandys ( "sands"; 2 March 1578[''Sandys, George''](_blank)
in: ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' online ...
, ''A relation of a journey begun an dom. 1610'' (1615)
Image:François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz, 1653.png, François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz, ''Les Voyages et Observations'' (1653)
Image:Balthasar de Monconys, 1665.png, Balthasar de Monconys, ''Journal des voyages'' (1665)
Image:Olfert Dapper, 1665.png, Olfert Dapper
Olfert Dapper (January 1636 – 29 December 1689) was a Dutch physician and writer. He wrote books about world history and geography, although he never travelled outside the Netherlands.
Biography
Olfert Dapper was born in early 1636 in the J ...
, ''Description de l'Afrique'' (1665), note the two different displays of the Sphinx.
Image:Cornelis de Bruijn, 1698.png, Cornelis de Bruijn
Cornelis de Bruijn or Cornelius de Bruyn (; 16521726/7), also formerly known in English by his French language, French name Corneille Le Brun, was a Dutch artist and traveler. He made two large tours and published illustrated books with his obser ...
, ''Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn door de vermaardste Deelen van Klein Asia'' (1698)
Image:Johanne Baptista Homann, 1724.png, Johanne Baptista Homann (map), ''Aegyptus hodierna'' (1724)
Image:Norden, 1755 (1).png, Frederic Louis Norden
Frederic Louis Norden (22 October 1708 – 22 September 1742) was a Danish naval captain, cartographer, and archaeological explorer.
Also known as ''Frederick'', ''Frederik'', ''Friderick'', ''Ludwig'', ''Ludvig'' and ''Lewis'', names use ...
, ''Voyage d'Égypte et de Nubie'' (1755)
Modern excavations
![Sphinx-and-the-Pyramids-of-Ghiza-by-Facchinelli,-BNF-Gallica](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Sphinx-and-the-Pyramids-of-Ghiza-by-Facchinelli%2C-BNF-Gallica.png)
In 1817, the first modern
archaeological dig, supervised by the Italian
Giovanni Battista Caviglia, uncovered the Sphinx's chest completely.
One of the people working on clearing the sands from around the Great Sphinx was
Eugène Grébaut
Eugène Grébaut (1846 – 8 January 1915) was a French Egyptologist. Grébaut made significant discoveries in the complex of mortuary temples and tombs located at Deir el-Bahari including several Egyptian mummies of the twenty-first Dynast ...
, a French Director of the
Antiquities Service.
Opinions of early Egyptologists
Early Egyptologists and excavators were of divided opinion regarding the age of the Sphinx and the associated temples.
In 1857,
Auguste Mariette, founder of the
Egyptian Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display a ...
in Cairo, unearthed the much later
Inventory Stela
The Inventory Stela (also known as Stela of Khufu's Daughter) is an ancient Egyptian commemorative tablet dating to the 26th Dynasty (c. 670 BC). It was found in Giza during the 19th century. The stela presents a list of 22 divine statues owned b ...
(estimated to be from the
Twenty-sixth Dynasty
The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVI, alternatively 26th Dynasty or Dynasty 26) dynasty was the last native dynasty to rule Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC (although others followed). The dynasty's reign (664–525 ...
, c. 664–525 BC), which tells how
Khufu
Khufu or Cheops was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period ( 26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having c ...
came upon the Sphinx, already buried in sand. Although certain tracts on the Stela are likely accurate, this passage is contradicted by archaeological evidence, thus considered to be
Late Period historical revisionism,
a purposeful fake, created by the local priests as an attempt to imbue the contemporary Isis temple with an ancient history it never had. Such acts became common when religious institutions such as temples, shrines and priests' domains were fighting for political attention and for financial and economic donations.
Flinders Petrie
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egyp ...
wrote in 1883 regarding the state of opinion of the age of the Khafre Valley Temple, and by extension the Sphinx: "The date of the Granite Temple has been so positively asserted to be earlier than the fourth dynasty, that it may seem rash to dispute the point. Recent discoveries, however, strongly show that it was really not built before the reign of Khafre, in the fourth dynasty."
Gaston Maspero
Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper.
Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia.
...
, the French Egyptologist and second director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, conducted a survey of the Sphinx in 1886. He concluded that because the Dream Stela showed the cartouche of Khafre in line 13, it was he who was responsible for the excavation and therefore the Sphinx must predate Khafre and his predecessors—possibly
Fourth Dynasty
The Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty IV) is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Dynasty IV lasted from to 2494 BC. It was a time of peace and prosperity as well as one during which trade with other ...
, . Maspero believed the Sphinx to be "the most ancient monument in Egypt".
Ludwig Borchardt
Ludwig may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Ludwig (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Ludwig (surname), including a list of people
* Ludwig Ahgren, or simply Ludwig, American YouTube live streamer and ...
attributed the Sphinx to the Middle Kingdom, arguing that the particular features seen on the Sphinx are unique to the 12th dynasty and that the Sphinx resembles
Amenemhat III.
E. A. Wallis Budge agreed that the Sphinx predated Khafre's reign, writing in ''The Gods of the Egyptians'' (1904): "This marvelous object
he Great Sphinx
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
was in existence in the days of Khafre, or Khephren, and it is probable that it is a very great deal older than his reign and that it dates from the end of the
archaic period []."
Selim Hassan
Selim Hassan ( ar, سليم حسن; born on 15 April 1886 – 1961) was an Egyptian Egyptologist.
He was the first native Egyptian to be appointed Professor of Egyptology at the University of Cairo, a post he held from 1936 to 1939. He was then ...
reasoned that the Sphinx was erected after the completion of the Khafre pyramid complex.
Modern dissenting hypotheses
Rainer Stadelmann
Dr. Rainer Stadelmann (24 October 1933 – 14 January 2019) was a German Egyptologist. He was considered an expert on the archaeology of the Giza Plateau.
Biography
After studying in Neuburg an der Donau in 1933, he studied Egyptology, orienta ...
, former director of the
German Archaeological Institute
The German Archaeological Institute (german: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office of Germany ...
in Cairo, examined the distinct
iconography of the ''
nemes
Nemes were pieces of striped head cloth worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt. It covered the whole crown and behind of the head and nape of the neck (sometimes also extending a little way down the back) and had lappets, two large flaps which hung ...
'' (headdress) and the now-detached beard of the Sphinx and concluded the style is more indicative of the pharaoh
Khufu
Khufu or Cheops was an ancient Egyptian monarch who was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, in the first half of the Old Kingdom period ( 26th century BC). Khufu succeeded his father Sneferu as king. He is generally accepted as having c ...
(2589–2566 BC), known to the Greeks as Cheops, builder of the
Great Pyramid of Giza
The Great Pyramid of Giza is the biggest Egyptian pyramid and the tomb of Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khufu. Built in the early 26th century BC during a period of around 27 years, the pyramid is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient Worl ...
and Khafre's father. He supports this by suggesting Khafre's Causeway was built to conform to a pre-existing structure, which, he concludes, given its location, could only have been the Sphinx.
In 2004, Vassil Dobrev of the
Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale
The Institut français d'archéologie orientale (or IFAO), also known as the French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, is a French research institute based in Cairo, Egypt, dedicated to the study of the archaeology, history and language ...
in Cairo announced he had uncovered new evidence that the Great Sphinx may have been the work of the little-known pharaoh
Djedefre
Djedefre (also known as Djedefra and Radjedef – Modern Greek: ) was an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the 4th Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He is well known by the Hellenized form of his name Rhatoisēs (Ῥατοίσης) by Manetho. D ...
(2528–2520 BC), Khafra's half brother and a son of Khufu.
[Riddle of the Sphinx](_blank)
Retrieved 2010. Dobrev suggests Djedefre built the Sphinx in the image of his father Khufu, identifying him with the sun god
Ra in order to restore respect for
their dynasty. Dobrev also says that the causeway connecting Khafre's pyramid to the temples was built around the Sphinx, suggesting it was already in existence at the time. Egyptologist
Nigel Strudwick
Nigel ( ) is an English masculine given name.
The English ''Nigel'' is commonly found in records dating from the Middle Ages; however, it was not used much before being revived by 19th-century antiquarians. For instance, Walter Scott published ...
responded to Dobrev saying that "It is not implausible. But I would need more explanation, such as why he thinks the pyramid at Abu Roash is a sun temple, something I'm sceptical about. I have never heard anyone suggest that the name in the graffiti at Zawiyet el-Aryan mentions Djedefre. I remain more convinced by the traditional argument of it being Khafre or the more recent theory of it being Khufu."
Recent restorations
In 1931, engineers of the Egyptian government repaired the head of the Sphinx. Part of its headdress had fallen off in 1926 due to erosion, which had also cut deeply into its neck. This questionable repair was by the addition of a concrete collar between the headdress and the neck, creating an altered profile. Many renovations to the stone base and raw rock body were done in the 1980s, and then redone in the 1990s.
Degradation and violation
The
nummulitic limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
of the area consists of layers which offer differing resistance to
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...
(mostly caused by wind and windblown sand), leading to the uneven degradation apparent in the Sphinx's body.
The lowest part of the body, including the legs, is solid rock.
The body of the animal up to its neck is fashioned from softer layers that have suffered considerable disintegration.
The layer in which the head was sculpted is much harder.
A number of "dead-end" shafts are known to exist within and below the body of the Great Sphinx, most likely dug by treasure hunters and tomb robbers.
Missing nose
![Sphinx of Giza 9059](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Sphinx_of_Giza_9059.jpg)
Examination of the Sphinx's face shows that long rods or
chisels
A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, stru ...
were hammered into the nose area, one down from the bridge and another beneath the nostril, then used to pry the nose off towards the south, resulting in the one-metre wide nose still being lost to date.
Mark Lehner, who performed an archaeological study, concluded that it was intentionally broken with instruments at an unknown time between the 3rd and 10th centuries AD.
[ Christiane Zivie-Coche “Sphinx: History of a Monument” p. 16]
![Norden, 1755 (2)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Norden%2C_1755_%282%29.png)
Drawings of the Sphinx by
Frederic Louis Norden
Frederic Louis Norden (22 October 1708 – 22 September 1742) was a Danish naval captain, cartographer, and archaeological explorer.
Also known as ''Frederick'', ''Frederik'', ''Friderick'', ''Ludwig'', ''Ludvig'' and ''Lewis'', names use ...
in 1737 show the nose missing. Many folk tales exist regarding the destruction of its nose, aiming to provide an answer as to where it went or what happened to it. One tale erroneously attributes it to cannonballs fired by the army of
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
. Other tales ascribe it to being the work of
Mamluks. Since the 10th century, some Arab authors have claimed it to be a result of iconoclastic attacks.
The Arab historian
al-Maqrīzī
Al-Maqrīzī or Maḳrīzī (Arabic: ), whose full name was Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī (Arabic: ) (1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian Arab historian during the Mamluk era, kn ...
, writing in the 15th century, attributes the loss of the nose to Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr, a
Sufi Muslim from the
khanqah of Sa'id al-Su'ada in 1378, who found the local peasants making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope of increasing their harvest and therefore defaced the Sphinx in an act of
iconoclasm
Iconoclasm (from Greek: grc, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, εἰκών + κλάω, lit=image-breaking. ''Iconoclasm'' may also be conside ...
. According to al-Maqrīzī, many people living in the area believed that the increased sand covering the Giza Plateau was retribution for al-Dahr's act of defacement. Ibn Qadi Shuhba mentions his name as Muhammad ibn Sadiq ibn al-Muhammad al-Tibrizi al-Masri, who died in 1384. He attributed the desecration of the sphinxes of Qanatir al-Siba built by the sultan
Baybars to him, and also said he might have desecrated the Great Sphinx.
Al-Minufi stated that the
Alexandrian Crusade
The brief Alexandrian Crusade, also called the sack of Alexandria, occurred in October 1365 and was led by Peter I of Cyprus against Alexandria in Egypt. Although often referred to as and counted among the Crusades, it was relatively devoid of r ...
in 1365 was divine punishment for a Sufi sheikh of the khanqah of Sa'id breaking off the nose.
Beard
![Beard of the sphinx](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Beard_of_the_sphinx.jpg)
In addition to the lost nose, a
ceremonial pharaonic beard is thought to have been attached, although this may have been added in later periods after the original construction. Egyptologist Vassil Dobrev has suggested that had the beard been an original part of the Sphinx, it would have damaged the chin of the statue upon falling.
The lack of visible damage supports his theory that the beard was a later addition.
Residues of red pigment are visible on areas of the Sphinx's face and traces of yellow and blue pigment have also been found elsewhere on the Sphinx, leading Mark Lehner to suggest that the monument "was once decked out in gaudy comic book colours".
However, as with the case of many ancient monuments, the pigments and colours have since deteriorated, resulting in the yellow/beige appearance it has today.
Holes and tunnels
Hole in the Sphinx's head
Johann Helffrich visited the Sphinx during his travels in 1565–1566. He describes that a priest went into the head of the Sphinx, and when he spoke it was as if the Sphinx itself was speaking.
Many New Kingdom stelae depict the Sphinx wearing a crown. If it in fact existed, the hole could have been the anchoring point for it.
Émile Baraize closed the hole with a metal hatch in 1926.
Perring's Hole
Howard Vyse directed
Perring in 1837 to drill a tunnel in the back of the Sphinx, just behind the head. The boring rods became stuck at a depth of , Attempts to blast the rods free caused further damage. The hole was cleared in 1978. Among the rubble was a fragment of the Sphinx's
nemes
Nemes were pieces of striped head cloth worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt. It covered the whole crown and behind of the head and nape of the neck (sometimes also extending a little way down the back) and had lappets, two large flaps which hung ...
headdress.
Major fissure
A major natural fissure in the bedrock cuts through the waist of the Sphinx, first excavated by
Auguste Mariette in 1853.
At the top of the back it measures up to in width. Baraize, in 1926, sealed the sides and roofed it with iron bars, limestone and cement, and installed an iron trap door at the top. The sides of the fissure might have been artificially squared; however, the bottom is irregular bedrock, about above the outside floor. A very narrow crack continues deeper.
Rump passage
In 1926 the Sphinx was cleared of sand under direction of Baraize, which revealed an opening to a tunnel at floor-level at the north side of the rump. It was subsequently closed by masonry veneer and nearly forgotten.
More than fifty years later, the existence of the passage was recalled by three elderly men who had worked during the clearing as basket carriers. This led to the rediscovery and excavation of the rump passage, in 1980.
The passage consists of an upper and a lower section, which are angled roughly 90 degrees to each other:
* The upper part ascends to a height of above the ground-floor at a northwest direction. It runs between masonry veneer and the core body of the Sphinx and ends in a niche wide and high. The ceiling of the niche consists of modern cement, which likely spilled down from the filling of the gap between masonry and core bedrock, some above.
* The lower part descends steeply into the bedrock toward northeast, for a distance of approximately and a depth of . It terminated in a cul-de-sac pit at groundwater level. At the entrance it is wide, narrowing to about towards the end. Among the sand and stone fragments, a piece of tin foil and the base of a modern ceramic water jar was found. The clogged bottom contained modern fill. Among it, more tin foil, modern cement and a pair of shoes.
It is possible that the entire passage was cut top down, beginning high up on the rump, and that the current access point at floor-level was made at a later date.
Vyse noted in his diary (February 27 and 28, 1837) that he was "boring" near the tail, which indicates him as the creator of the passage, as no other tunnel has been identified at this location. Another interpretation is that the shaft is of ancient origin, perhaps an exploratory tunnel or an unfinished tomb shaft.
File:Sphinx rump, view to east.tif, Rump of the Sphinx, with passage entrance at floor-level.
File:Rump Passage Entrance Closeup.tif, Closeup of the entrance hole of the rump shaft.
File:Rump passage, entrance from inside.tif, Inside the passage, looking up, seeing entrance stones and upper tunnel.
File:Rump passage, upper part.tif, Looking up the upper tunnel.
File:Rump passage, upper part, chamber 1.tif, Ceiling of upper tunnel.
File:101-black-and-white-photo-02557.tif, Looking down the upper part from chamber 1.
File:Rump passage, lower part before excavation.tif, Lower part of rump passage, before excavation.
File:Rump passage, lower part after excavation.tif, Lower part after excavation.
Niche in northern flank
A 1925 photograph shows a man standing below floor level in a niche in the Sphinx's core body. It was closed during the 1925-6 restorations.
Gap under southern large masonry box
Another hole might have been at floor level in the large masonry box on the south side of the Sphinx.
Space behind Dream Stele
The space behind the
Dream Stele
The Dream Stele, also called the Sphinx Stele, is an epigraphic stele erected between the front paws of the Great Sphinx of Giza by the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose IV in the first year of the king's reign, 1401 BC, during the 18th Dynast ...
, between the paws of the Sphinx, was covered by an iron beam and cement roof, which was fitted with an iron trap door.
Keyhole Shaft
At the ledge of the Sphinx enclosure, a square shaft is located opposite the northern hind paw. It was cleared during excavation in 1978 by Hawass and measures and about deep. Lehner interprets the shaft to be an unfinished tomb and named it "Keyhole Shaft", because a cuttings in the ledge above the shaft is shaped like the lower part of a keyhole, upside down.
Pseudohistory
Numerous ideas have been suggested to explain or reinterpret the origin and identity of the Sphinx, that lack sufficient evidential support and/or are contradicted by such, and are therefore considered part of
pseudohistory
Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often by employing methods resembling those used in scholarly historical research. The related term cryptohistory is applied to pseudohi ...
and
pseudoarchaeology
Pseudoarchaeology—also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, cult archaeology, and spooky archaeology—is the interpretation of the past from outside the archaeological science community, which rejects ...
.
Ancient Astronauts/Atlantis
* The Sphinx is oriented from west to east, towards the rising sun, in accordance with the ancient Egyptian solar cult. The
Orion correlation theory
The Orion correlation theory is a fringe theory in Egyptology explaining a possible purpose in the arrangement of the Giza pyramid complex.
It posits that there is a correlation between the location of the three largest pyramids of the Giza pyra ...
posits that it was instead aligned to face the constellation of
Leo during the vernal equinox around 10,500 BC. The idea is considered
pseudoarchaeology
Pseudoarchaeology—also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, cult archaeology, and spooky archaeology—is the interpretation of the past from outside the archaeological science community, which rejects ...
by academia, because no textual or archaeological evidence supports this to be the reason for the orientation of the Sphinx.
![Pyramids5](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Pyramids5.jpg)
* The
Sphinx water erosion hypothesis
The Sphinx water erosion hypothesis is a fringe claim, contending that the Great Sphinx of Giza and its enclosing walls eroded primarily due to ancient floods or rainfalls, attributing their creation to Plato's lost civilization of Atlantis ov ...
contends that the main type of
weathering
Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soils and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with water, atmospheric gases, and biological organisms. Weathering occurs ''in situ'' (on site, with little or no movement) ...
evident on the enclosure walls of the Great Sphinx could only have been caused by prolonged and extensive
rainfall
Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...
,
and must therefore predate the time of the pharaoh Khafre. The hypothesis was championed by
René Schwaller de Lubicz,
John Anthony West
John Anthony West (September 7, 1932 – February 6, 2018) was an American author and lecturer and a proponent of the Sphinx water erosion hypothesis. His early career was as a copywriter in Manhattan and science fiction writer. He received a ...
, and
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...
Robert M. Schoch. The theory is considered pseudoarchaeology by mainstream scholarship due to archaeological, climatological and geological evidence to the contrary.
* There is a long history of speculation about hidden chambers beneath the Sphinx, by esoteric figures such as
H. Spencer Lewis.
Edgar Cayce specifically predicted in the 1930s that a "
Hall of Records", containing knowledge from
Atlantis
Atlantis ( grc, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, , island of Atlas) is a fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and '' Critias'', wherein it represents the antagonist naval power that b ...
, would be discovered under the Sphinx in 1998. His prediction fueled much of the fringe speculation that surrounded the Sphinx in the 1990s, which lost momentum when the hall was not found when predicted.
* Author
Robert K. G. Temple
''The Sirius Mystery'' is a book written by Robert K. G. Temple (born Robert Kyle Grenville Temple in 1945) supporting the Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific ancient astronauts hypothesis that intelligent extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial bein ...
proposes that the Sphinx was originally a statue of the jackal god
Anubis
Anubis (; grc, Ἄνουβις), also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian () is the god of death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the Underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depict ...
, the god of funerals, and that its face was recarved in the likeness of a Middle Kingdom pharaoh,
Amenemhet II. Temple bases his identification on the style of the eye make-up and style of the pleats on the headdress.
Racial characteristics
Until the early 20th century, it was suggested that the face of the Sphinx had "Negroid" characteristics, as part of now outdated
historical race concepts
The concept of race as a categorization of anatomically modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') has an extensive history in Europe and the Americas. The contemporary word ''race'' itself is modern; historically it was used in the sense of "nation, eth ...
.
[Irwin, Graham W. (1977)]
Africans abroad
Columbia University Press, p. 11
Other Alternative Ages
Geologist Colin Reader suggests that
water runoff
Water (chemical formula ) is an Inorganic compound, inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living ...
from the Giza plateau is responsible for the differential erosion on the walls of the sphinx enclosure. Because the hydrological characteristics of the area were significantly changed by the quarries, he contends this suggests that the sphinx likely predated the quarries (and thus, the pyramids). He points towards the larger cyclopean stones in part of the Sphinx Temple, as well as the causeway alignment with the pyramids and the break in the quarries, as evidence that the pyramids took the alignment with some pre-existing structure, such as the sphinx, into consideration when they were constructed, and that the sphinx temple was built in two distinct phases. He contends that such erosion could have occurred relatively rapidly and suggests that the sphinx was no more than a few centuries older than present archaeology would suggest, suggesting an origin from the late pre-Dynastic or early Dynastic era, when Ancient Egyptians already were known to be capable of sophisticated masonry.
Gallery
Image:Description de l'Egypte, 1823(1).png, ''Description de l'Egypte
Description is the pattern of narrative development that aims to make vivid a place, object, character, or group. Description is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as ''modes of discourse''), along with exposition, argumentation, and narra ...
'', Planches, Antiquités, volume V (1823)
Image:Description de l'Egypte, 1823(2).png, ''Description de l'Egypte
Description is the pattern of narrative development that aims to make vivid a place, object, character, or group. Description is one of four rhetorical modes (also known as ''modes of discourse''), along with exposition, argumentation, and narra ...
'', Planches, Antiquités, volume V (1823)
Image:Japanese-Mission-Samurai-Sphinx-Egypt-1864.png, Members of the Second Japanese Embassy to Europe (1863)
The Second Japanese Embassy to Europe ( ja, 第2回遣欧使節, also ), also called the Ikeda Mission, was sent on February 6, 1864 by the Tokugawa shogunate. The head of the mission was Ikeda Nagaoki, governor of small villages of Ibara, Bitch ...
in front of the Sphinx, 1864
Image:Pedro II of Brazil in Egypt 1871.jpg, French archaeologist Auguste Mariette (seated, far left) and Emperor Pedro II of Brazil (seated, far right) with others in front of the Sphinx, 1871
Image:'Le Sphinx Armachis, Caire' (The Sphinx Armachis, Cairo).jpg, The Great Sphinx partly under the sand, ca. 1870s
Image:Bonaparte ante la Esfinge, por Jean-Léon Gérôme.jpg, Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living artist by 1880." The ra ...
's '' Bonaparte Before the Sphinx'', 1886
Image:Nazlet El-Semman, Al Haram, Giza Governorate, Egypt - panoramio (27).jpg, Rear view of the Sphinx in 2014, showing some of the restoration work up to that time.
See also
*
Sphinx of Memphis
The Sphinx of Memphis is a stone sphinx located near the remains of Memphis, Egypt. The carving was believed to take place between 1700 and 1400 BCE, which was during the 18th Dynasty. It is unknown which pharaoh is being honored and there ...
*
Sphinx of Taharqo
*
African lions in culture
*
Lion (heraldry)
The lion is a common charge in heraldry. It traditionally symbolises courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valour, because historically the lion has been regarded as the "king of beasts". The lion also carries Judeo-Christ ...
*
List of colossal sculpture in situ
A colossal statue is one that is more than twice life-size. This is a list of colossal statues and other sculptures that were created, mostly or all carved, and remain ''in situ''. This list includes two colossal stones that were intended to be m ...
*
List of tallest statues
This list of tallest statues includes completed statues that are at least tall, which was the assumed height of the Colossus of Rhodes. The height values in this list are measured to the highest part of the human (or animal) figure, but exclude ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
*
Riddle of the SphinxWhat happened to the Sphinx's nose?
Sphinx photo galleryAl Maqrizi's account
The Age of the Sphinxby
Brian Dunning
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Sphinx Of Giza
Buildings and structures completed in the 27th century BC
Colossal statues in Egypt
Giza pyramid complex
Monoliths
Art of ancient Egypt
Sculptures of ancient Egypt
Khafre
3rd-millennium BC establishments in Egypt
Limestone statues
Tourist attractions in Egypt
Sculptures of lions
Sphinxes