The Great Sphinx

Attribution:

MykReeve

Key Dates

Dated at over 4,500 years old though it spent millennia buried to the neck in sand.

The first documented attempt at an excavation dates to c.1400 BCE when Thutmose IV dug out the front paw area and later Ramessess II the Great (1279-1213) may have made another attempt.

The first modern archaeological dig was undertaken in 1817 CE under Captain Giovanni Battista Caviglias, who's team exposed the sculptures chest area. The full body was finally excavated in 1925.

Cairo

Egypt

Key People

Pharaoh Khafra, Pharaoh Khufu, King Thutmose IV

VIDEO: Drilling under the Sphinx (Featuring Dr Zahi Hawass and Dr Mark Lehner)

The reclining statue of the Great Sphinx sits to the northeast of Chephren's (Khafra's) Valley Temple on the west bank of the Nile. The soft sandstone forms a body of 200 feet long and 65 feet tall. The face of the sphinx is 13 feet wide and its eyes are 6 feet high. Part of the uraeus (sacred cobra), the nose and the ritual beard are now missing ( the beard is now displayed in the British Museum). It is likely that the Sphinx was built to represent Chephren. If correct, it would make this monolith the oldest known royal portrait of this scale. (Although it is worth noting that other scholars believe that the style is more indicative of the Pharaoh Khufu (2589-2566 BCE), whilst others would hold that the the body was not originally intended to represent a lion but rather that of a dog or jackel, therefore intending the sculpture to be in the image of the god Anubis.)

The sphinx faces the rising sun with a temple to the front which resembles the sun temples which were built later by the kings of the 5th Dynasty. King Thutmose IV (1425 - 1417 BC) placed a stela between the front paws of the figure. It is believed that once, Thutmose had gone hunting and fell asleep in the shade of the monument. During a dream, the sphinx spoke to Thutmose and told him to clear away the sand because it was choking the sphinx. The sphinx told him that if he did this, he would be rewarded with a kingship. Thutmose carried out this request and with a team, managed to unearth the sculptures front paws....and Thutmose did indeed become king.

The name 'sphinx' translates as 'strangler' and was first given by the Greeks to a mythical creature which had the head of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. The sphinx appears to have started in Egypt in the form of a sun god. The Egyptian sphinx is usually a head of a king wearing his headdress and the body of a lion . There have also been found however, sphinxes with ram heads that are associated with god Amun.

Admission Fee

Admission Free

Related Websites

Tour Egypt

Images