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{{Short description|Limestone statue of a reclining sphinx}}{{redirect|The Sphinx}}{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}

factoids

| gbgridref =| map_dot_label =| location = Giza, Egypt| region = Egypt| type =| part_of =73ft}}19ft}}| area =| volume =| diameter =| circumference =20ft}}| builder =| material = Limestone| built =| abandoned =| epochs = | cultures =| dependency_of =| occupants =| event =| discovered =| excavations =| archaeologists =| condition =Partially restored| ownership =| management =| public_access =| other_designation =| website = | architectural_styles =| architectural_details =| notes =}}The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion.WEB,weblink The Great Sphinx of Giza, Ancient History Encyclopedia, 2016-12-07,weblink 12 June 2018, dead, Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the pharaoh Khafre.BOOK, Sims, Lesley, A Visitor's Guide to Ancient Egypt, 2000, The Great Pyramids, Saffron Hill, London, Usborne Publishing, 17, 0-7460-30673,weblink The original shape of the Sphinx was cut from the bedrock, and has since been restored with layers of limestone blocks.WEB,weblink Saving the Sphinx – NOVA {{!, PBS|website=pbs.org|date=January 2010 |access-date=2016-12-07}} It measures {{Convert|73|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} long from paw to tail, {{Convert|20|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} high from the base to the top of the head and {{Convert|19|m|ft|0|abbr=on}} wide at its rear haunches.BOOK,weblink Pyramids of the Giza Plateau, Charles, Rigano, 2014, 148, Author House, 9781496952493, The Sphinx is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and one of the most recognizable statues in the world. The archaeological evidence suggests that it was created by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of Khafre ({{circa|2558–2532 BC}}).WEB, 10 September 2009, Sphinx Project « Ancient Egypt Research Associates,weblink 12 November 2021, Dunford, Jane; Fletcher, Joann; French, Carole (ed., 2007). Egypt: Eyewitness Travel Guide {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218063731weblink|date=2009-02-18}}. London: Dorling Kindersley, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-7566-2875-8}}.{{sfn|Lehner|1991}}The circumstances surrounding the Sphinx's nose being broken off are uncertain, but close inspection suggests a deliberate act using rods or chisels.BOOK, Lehner, Mark,weblink The Complete Pyramids: Solving the Ancient Mysteries, Thames and Hudson, 1997, 11, 9780500050842, Contrary to a popular myth, it was not broken off by cannonfire from Napoleon's troops during his 1798 Egyptian campaign. Its absence is in fact depicted in artwork predating Napoleon and referred to in descriptions by the 15th-century historian al-Maqrīzī.NEWS, Journeys, Smithsonian, What happened to the Sphinx's nose?,weblink 2023-01-23, www.smithsonianjourneys.org, en, WEB, The Sphinx's Nose,weblink 2023-01-23, www.catchpenny.org,

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, and thus cultural material was limited.{{Sfn|Lehner|1991|p=96}} In the New Kingdom, the Sphinx was revered as the solar deity Hor-em-akhet (; Hellenized: Harmachis),BOOK, Hawkes, Jacquetta,weblink Atlas of Ancient Archaeology, McGraw-Hill Education, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1974, 0-07-027293-X, 150, Jacquetta Hawkes, and the pharaoh Thutmose IV (1401–1391 or 1397–1388 BC){{efn|See Thutmose IV#Dates and length of reign}} specifically referred to it as such in his Dream Stele.Bryan, Betsy M. (1991) The Reign of Thutmose IV. The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 145–146The commonly used name "Sphinx" was given to it in classical antiquity, 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).NEWS, sphinx {{!, mythology|newspaper=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/sphinx|access-date=2016-12-07}} The English word sphinx comes from the ancient Greek Σφίγξ (transliterated: {{transliteration|grc|sphinx}}) apparently from the verb σφίγγω (transliterated: {{transliteration|grc|sphingo}} / ), after the Greek sphinx who strangled anyone who failed to answer her riddle.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}Medieval Arab writers, including al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, call the Sphinx by an Arabized Coptic name Belhib (), Balhubah () Belhawiyya (),WEB,weblink ص229 - كتاب المواعظ والاعتبار بذكر الخطط والآثار - ذكر الصنم الذي يقال له أبو الهول - المكتبة الشاملة الحديثة, al-maktaba.org, 12 November 2021, BOOK, Makrîsî,weblink Kitâb el mawâ'is wa 'l i'tibâr bidhikri 'lchitat wa 'l athâr d. h. Buch der Unterweisungen und der Betrachtung in der Geschichte der Länderstriche und Denkmale: Eine histor. und topogr. Beschreibung Ägyptens von Takieddîn Ahmed ben Ali ben Abdelkâder ben Mohammed Makrisi, 1853, ar, which in turn comes from Pehor () or Pehor(o)n (), a name of the Canaanite god Hauron with whom the Sphinx was identified. It is also rendered as Ablehon on a depiction of the Sphinx made by François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz.WEB, Chartier, Marc, 2013-05-22, Le Sphinx de Guizeh - énigmes - théories: "Les anciens Égyptiens l'honoraient comme un dieu" (François Le Gouz de La Boullaye - XVIIe s. - à propos du Sphinx),weblink 2023-02-27, Le Sphinx de Guizeh - énigmes - théories, The modern Egyptian Arabic name is (:wikt:أبو الهول|أبو الهول) (ʼabu alhōl / ʼabu alhawl {{IPA-ar|Ê”abulhoːl|IPA}}, "The Terrifying One"; literally "Father of Dread") which is a phono-semantic matching of the Coptic name.WEB, Peust, Carsten, Die Toponyme vorarabischen Ursprungs im modernen Ägypten,weblink 46,

History

Old Kingdom

File:Weisse Wüste.jpg|thumb|right|Natural rock formation at FarafraFarafraThe archaeological evidence suggests that the Great Sphinx was created around 2500 BC for the pharaoh Khafre, the builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza.WEB, 2007, Sphinx Project: Why Sequence is Important,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20100726101013weblink">weblink 26 July 2010, 27 February 2015, The Sphinx is a monolith carved from the bedrock of the plateau, which also served as the quarry for the pyramids and other monuments in the area.WEB,weblink Stone quarries in ancient Egypt. Details about the Giza quarries, the granite quarries in Assuan, and the Tura limestone quarries, Zuberbühler, Franz Löhner, Teresa, cheops-pyramide.ch, 2016-12-08, Egyptian geologist Farouk El-Baz has suggested that the head of the Sphinx may have been carved first, out of a natural yardang, i.e. a ridge of bedrock that had been sculpted by the wind. These can sometimes achieve shapes that 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.Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century: Archaeology; INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EGYPTOLOGISTS, Lyla Pinch Brock; American University in Cairo Press, 2003; pages 70-71 The stones cut from around the Sphinx's 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.JOURNAL, 2017, Who Built the Sphinx?,weblink Aeragram, 18 - 1, 2–6, Selim Hassan, writing in 1949 on recent excavations of the Sphinx enclosure, made note of this circumstance:{{blockquote|Taking all things into consideration, it seems that we must give the credit of erecting this, the world's most wonderful statue, to Khafre, but always with this reservation: that there is not one single contemporary inscription which connects the Sphinx with Khafre, so sound as it may appear, we must treat the evidence as circumstantial, until such time as a lucky turn of the spade of the excavator will reveal to the world a definite reference to the erection of the Sphinx.{{sfn|Hassan|1953|p=164}} |author=Hassan|source=page 164}}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 does not pre-date the Valley Temple.

New Kingdom

File:Great Sphinx with Stelae.jpg|thumb|The New Kingdom Dream SteleDream SteleSome 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 {{circa|1400 BC}}, when the young Thutmose IV (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, an inscribed granite 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:{{blockquote|... the royal son, Thothmos, being arrived, while walking at midday and seating himself under the shadow of this mighty god, was overcome by slumber and slept at the very moment when Ra is at the summit [of heaven]. He found that the Majesty of this august god spoke to him with his own mouth, as a father speaks to his son, saying: Look upon me, contemplate me, O my son Thothmos; I am thy father, Harmakhis-Khopri-Ra-Tum; I bestow upon thee the sovereignty over my domain, the supremacy over the living ... Behold my actual condition that thou mayest protect all my perfect limbs. The sand of the desert whereon I am laid has covered me. Save me, causing all that is in my heart to be executed.Mallet, Dominique, The Stele of Thothmes IV: A Translation, at harmakhis.org. Retrieved {{Nowrap|3 January}} 2009.|title=The Stele of Thothmes IV: A Translation}}The Dream Stele associates the Sphinx with Khafre, however this part of the text is not entirely intact:{{blockquote|which we bring for him: oxen ... and all the young vegetables; and we shall give praise to Wenofer ... Khaf ... the statue made for Atum-Hor-em-Akhet.Colavito, Jason (2001). "Who Built the Sphinx?" at Lost Civilizations Discovered. Retrieved {{Nowrap|19 December}} 2008.|author=Jason Colavito|title=Who Built the Sphinx?}}Egyptologist Thomas Young, finding the Khaf hieroglyphs in a damaged cartouche 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.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}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: Harmachis) or "Horus-at-the-Horizon". The Pharaoh Amenhotep II (1427–1401 or 1397 BC) built a temple to the northeast of the Sphinx nearly 1,000 years after its construction and dedicated it to the cult of Hor-em-akhet.Stadelmann, Rainer (2001). "Giza". In Redford, Donald B. (ed), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Volume II, p. 29

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.{{sfn|Hassan|1953|p=119}}The Sphinx was cleared of sand again in the first century AD in honor of Emperor Nero and the Governor of Egypt Tiberius Claudius Balbilus.{{sfn|Lehner|1991|p=34}} A monumental stairway—more than {{convert|12|m|ft}} 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 a view into the Sphinx sanctuary. Farther back, another podium neighbored several more steps.{{sfn|Lehner|1991|p=35}} The stairway was dismantled during the 1931–32 excavations by Émile Baraize.{{sfn|Lehner|1991|p=62}}Pliny the Elder describes the face of the Sphinx being colored red and gives measurements for the statue:BOOK, Pliny the Elder,weblink The Natural History, A stela dated to 166 AD commemorates the restoration of the retaining walls surrounding the Sphinx.{{sfn|Hassan|1953|p=123}} The last Emperor connected with the monument is Septimius Severus, around 200 AD.{{sfn|Hassan|1953|p=125}} With the downfall of Roman power, the Sphinx was once more engulfed by the sands.{{sfn|Hassan|1953|p=124}}File:Retaining walls and Roman Period stairways east of the Sphinx.tif|Side view of the Sphinx with the Roman stairway on the rightFile:Excavation East of Sphinx.tif|Top of the Roman stairway before dismantling in 1931–1932File:Sphinx Map by Henry Salt.tif|Map of the area east of the Sphinx by Henry Salt

Middle Ages

Some ancient non-Egyptians saw the Sphinx as a likeness of the god Hauron. The cult of the Sphinx continued into medieval times. The Sabians of Harran saw it as the burial place of Hermes Trismegistus. Arab authors described the Sphinx as a talisman that guarded the area from the desert.BOOK,weblink Egyptology: The Missing Millennium : Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings, Okasha El Daly, 12 November 2005, Psychology Press, 9781844720637, 12 November 2021, Google Books, Al-Maqrizi describes it as the "talisman of the Nile" that the locals believed the flood cycle depended upon.BOOK, Joseph E Lowry,weblink Arabic Humanities, Islamic Thought: Essays in Honor of Everett K. Rowson, Shawkat M Toorawa, Everett K Rowson, 2017, Boston Brill, 9789004343245, 263, 992515269, 11 October 2017, Muhammad al-Idrisi stated that those wishing to obtain bureaucratic positions in the Egyptian government gave incense offering to the monument.BOOK,weblink Egyptology: The Missing Millennium : Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings, Okasha El Daly, 12 November 2005, Psychology Press, 9781844720637, 12 November 2021, Google Books,

Early modern period

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.{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} A typical{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} description of the Sphinx by tourists and leisure travelers throughout the 19th and 20th century was made by John Lawson Stoddard:{{blockquote|It is the antiquity of the Sphinx which thrills us as we look upon it, for in itself it has no charms. The desert's waves have risen to its breast, as if to wrap the monster in a winding-sheet of gold. The face and head have been mutilated by Moslem fanatics. The mouth, the beauty of whose lips was once admired, is now expressionless. Yet grand in its loneliness, – veiled in the mystery of unnamed ages, – the relic of Egyptian antiquity stands solemn and silent in the presence of the awful desert â€“ symbol of eternity. Here it disputes with Time the empire of the past; forever gazing on and on into a future which will still be distant when we, like all who have preceded us and looked upon its face, have lived our little lives and disappeared.BOOK, Stoddard, John L., John L. Stoddard's Lectures, 1 March 2009, Wildside Press LLC, 978-1-4344-5271-9,weblink en, 333, |title=John L. Stoddard's Lectures}}From the 16th to the 19th centuries, European observers described the Sphinx having the face, neck and breast of a woman. Examples included Johannes Helferich (1579), George Sandys (1615), Johann Michael Vansleb (1677), Benoît de Maillet (1735) and Elliot Warburton (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; 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.{{citation needed|date=February 2019}}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, 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, 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, Description de l'Afrique (1665), note the two different displays of the Sphinx.Image:Cornelis de Bruijn, 1698.png|Cornelis de Bruijn, 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, Voyage d'Égypte et de Nubie (1755)

Modern excavations

(File:Sphinx partially excavated2.jpg|thumb|The Great Sphinx partially excavated, ca. 1878)File:Sphinx-and-the-Pyramids-of-Ghiza-by-Facchinelli,-BNF-Gallica.png|thumb|The Sphinx circa 1880s, by Beniamino FacchinelliBeniamino FacchinelliIn 1817, the first modern archaeological dig, supervised by the Italian Giovanni Battista Caviglia, uncovered the Sphinx's chest completely.{{blockquote|In the beginning of the year 1887, the chest, the paws, the altar, and plateau were all made visible. Flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate measurements were taken of the great figures. The height from the lowest of the steps was found to be one hundred feet, and the space between the paws was found to be thirty-five feet long and ten feet wide. Here there was formerly an altar; and a stele of Thûtmosis IV was discovered, recording a dream in which he was ordered to clear away the sand that even then was gathering round the site of the Sphinx.BOOK, Rappoport, S., The Project Gutenberg EBook of History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12), by S. Rappoport, The Grolier Society Publishers, London,weblink 31 October 2016, live,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160304095932weblink">weblink 4 March 2016, 2005-12-17, |author=S. Rappoport|title=The Project Gutenberg EBook of History of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present|source=Volume 12}}One of the people working on clearing the sands from around the Great Sphinx was Eugène Grébaut, a French Director of the Antiquities Service.WEB, A Brief History of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA): 1858 to present,weblink dead,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20161017043511weblink">weblink 2016-10-17, 2017-03-21, SCA - Egypt,

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 in Cairo, unearthed the much later Inventory Stela (estimated to be from the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, c. 664–525 BC), which tells how Khufu came upon the Sphinx, already buried in sand. Although certain tracts on the Stela are likely accurate,Hawass, Zahi. (The Khufu at The Plateau. Retrieved {{Nowrap|6 January}} 2009. this passage is contradicted by archaeological evidence, thus considered to be Late Period historical revisionism,BOOK, Colin, Reader, Journal of the Ancient Chronology Forum, 2002, 9, 5–21, Giza Before the Fourth Dynasty, 11 October 2017,weblinkweblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20131210134155weblink">weblink 10 December 2013, dead, 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.BOOK, Verner, Miroslav, The Pyramids: The Mystery, Culture, and Science of Egypt's Great Monuments, Grove/Atlantic Inc., 2007, 978-0802198631, 212, BOOK, Jánosi, Peter, Die Pyramidenanlagen der Königinnen (= Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, volume 13, 1996, 978-3700122074, 11, 125, Flinders Petrie 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."BOOK, Petrie, Flinders, The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh, 1883, London, 133, Gaston Maspero, 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, {{circa|2575–2467 BC}}. Maspero believed the Sphinx to be "the most ancient monument in Egypt".{{sfn|Hassan|1953|p=17-18}}Ludwig Borchardt 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.{{sfn|Hassan|1953|p=86-87}}E. A. Wallis Budge agreed that the Sphinx predated Khafre's reign, writing in The Gods of the Egyptians (1904): "This marvelous object [the Great Sphinx] was in existence in the days of Khafre, or Khephren,{{efn|Early Egyptologists were inconsistent in their transliteration of pharaonic names: Khafre and Khephren are both references to Khafre.}} 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 [{{circa|2686 BC}}]."BOOK, Wallis Budge, E. A.,weblink The Gods of the Egyptians: Studies in Egyptian Mythology, Dover Publications, Courier Dover Publications, 1904, 978-0-486-22055-0, 361, E. A. Wallis Budge, Selim Hassan reasoned that the Sphinx was erected after the completion of the Khafre pyramid complex.{{sfn|Hassan|1953|p=88}}

Modern dissenting hypotheses

Rainer Stadelmann, former director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, examined the distinct iconography of the nemes (headdress) and the now-detached beard of the Sphinx and concluded the style is more indicative of the pharaoh Khufu (2589–2566 BC), known to the Greeks as Cheops, builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza and Khafre's father.WEB,weblink NOVA | Transcripts | Riddles of the Sphinx | PBS, PBS, {{when?|date=April 2024}} 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.WEB,weblink Giza Before the Fourth Dynasty, Reader, Colin, In 2004, Vassil Dobrev of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale in Cairo announced he had uncovered new evidence that the Great Sphinx may have been the work of the little-known pharaoh Djedefre (2528–2520 BC), Khafre's half brother and a son of Khufu.Riddle of the Sphinx Retrieved {{Nowrap|6 November}} 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 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."Geologist Colin Reader suggests that water runoff 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 a late Predynastic or Early Dynastic origin, when Ancient Egyptians already were known to be capable of sophisticated masonry.

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.Popular Science Monthly, July 1931, page 56. This questionable repair was by the addition of a concrete collar between the headdress and the neck, creating an altered profile.WEB, 2017-04-17, Filmed in 1897, THIS is the OLDEST footage of the Great Sphinx of Giza - Ancient Code,weblink 23 October 2017, ancient-code.com, Many renovations to the stone base and raw rock body were done in the 1980s, and then redone in the 1990s.WEB, Hawass, Zahi, HISTORY OF THE CONSERVATION OF THE SPHINX,weblink 23 October 2017, {{wide image|Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza panorama.jpg|800px|Panoramic view of the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid of Giza, 2010}}

Degradation and violation

The nummulitic limestone of the area consists of layers which offer differing resistance to erosion (mostly caused by wind and windblown sand), leading to the uneven degradation apparent in the Sphinx's body.NEWS, 1999-02-11, How old is the Sphinx?, msnbc.com,weblink 2016-12-07, 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.WEB, The Great Sphinx {{!, Geology of a Statue {{!}} Dating the Sphinx {{!}} Ancient Egypt Research Associates|url=http://www.aeraweb.org/sphinx-project/geology-of-the-sphinx/|access-date=2016-12-08|website=aeraweb.org| date=13 October 2009 }} The layer in which the head was sculpted is much harder.BOOK, Zivie-Coche, Christiane, Sphinx: History of a Monument, Cornell University Press, 2002, 978-0-8014-3962-9, 99–100, 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

(File:Great Sphinx (أبو الهول).jpg|thumb|right|200px|The Sphinx in profile (2023))File:Norden, 1755 (2).png|thumb|200px|The Sphinx as seen by Frederic Louis NordenFrederic Louis NordenExamination of the Sphinx's face shows that long rods or chisels 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.BOOK, Lehner, Mark,weblink The Complete Pyramids, Thames & Hudson, 1997, 978-0-500-05084-2, 41, 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. This is considered false since drawings of the Sphinx by Frederic Louis Norden in 1737 already show the nose missing, predating Napoleon's arrival by sixty years.WEB, F.L. Norden. Travels in Egypt and Nubia, 1757. Plate 47, Profil de la tête colossale du Sphinx,weblink dead,weblink 6 April 2016, 24 January 2014, Brooklyn Museum, The damaged nose has also been attributed by some 10th century Arab authors stating that it was a result of iconoclastic attacks. Besides this, there was also mention of the damage being the work of the Mamluks in the 14th century.BOOK, Zivie-Coche, Christiane,weblink Sphinx: History of a Monument, Cornell University Press, 2004, 978-0-8014-8954-9, Ithaca, New York, US, 16, en, According to Ibn Qadi Shuhba, Muhammad ibn Sadiq ibn al-Muhammad al-Tibrizi al-Masri (d. 1384), desecrated the sphinxes of "Qanatir al-Siba", built by Sultan Baybars.The Arab historian al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, writing in the early 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 local peasants making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope of increasing their harvest and therefore defaced the Sphinx in an act of iconoclasm. According to al-MaqrÄ«zÄ«, many people living in the area believed that the increased sand covering the Giza Plateau was retribution for al-Dahr's act of defacement.BOOK, Joseph E Lowry,weblink Arabic Humanities, Islamic Thought: Essays in Honor of Everett K. Rowson, Shawkat M Toorawa, Everett K Rowson, 2017, Boston Brill, 9789004343245, 264, 992515269, 11 October 2017, The Wonders of the Ancients: Arab-Islamic Representations of Ancient Egypt, Mark Fraser Pettigrew, page 201, University of California, Berkeley Al-Minufi (1443–1527) meanwhile mentioned that the Alexandrian Crusade in 1365 was divine retribution for Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr's breaking off the nose of a sphinx.File:Beard_of_the_sphinx.jpg|thumb|Limestone fragments of the Sphinx's beard in the British MuseumBritish Museum

Beard

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.NEWS, Fleming, Nic, 14 December 2004, I have solved riddle of the Sphinx, says Frenchman, The Daily Telegraph,weblinkweblink 11 January 2022, subscription, live, 28 June 2005, {{cbignore}}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".WEB, Evan Hadingham, February 2010, Uncovering Secrets of the Sphinx,weblink Smithsonian Magazine, {{Clear}}

Holes and tunnels

(File:Top of Sphinx head with hole.tif|thumb|Man standing in the hole on top of the head of the Sphinx (1925).)

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.BOOK, Helffrich, Johann, Kurtzer und warhafftiger Bericht, Von der Reis aus Venedig nach Hierusalem, Von dannen in Aegypten, auff den Berg Sinai, und folgends widerumb gen Venedig, 1579, 195, de, 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.{{Sfn|Lehner|1991|p=363}}WEB, Accessions of the Griffith Institute Archive in 2009,weblink Émile Baraize closed the hole with a metal hatch in 1926.WEB, 360° photograph of the Sphinx,weblink {{Sfn|Lehner|1991|p=187}}

Perring's Hole

(File:Sphinx, Perring's hole.tif|thumb|Perring's Hole behind neck of the Sphinx. Part of headdress on the right.)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 {{Convert|27|ft|m}}, 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 headdress.{{Sfn|Lehner|1991|pp=204-205}}

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 {{Convert|2|m|ft}} 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 {{Convert|1|m|ft}} above the outside floor. A very narrow crack continues deeper.{{Sfn|Lehner|1991|pp=202-203}}File:Top of Sphinx back before modern restorations.tif|Major fissure running through the waist of the Sphinx, before modern restorations in 1926.File:Iron trap-door over fissure at top of Sphinx back.tif|Trap-door access to major fissure, after restorations.

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 {{Convert|4|m|ft}} 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 {{Convert|1|m|ft}} wide and {{Convert|1.8|m|ft}} 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 {{Convert|3|m|ft}} above
• The lower part descends steeply into the bedrock toward northeast, for a distance of approximately {{Convert|4|m|ft}} and a depth of {{Convert|5|m|ft}}. It terminated in a cul-de-sac pit at groundwater level. At the entrance it is {{Convert|1.3|m|ft}} wide, narrowing to about {{Convert|1.07|m|ft}} 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.BOOK, Vyse, Howard, Operations carried on at the pyramids of Gizeh in 1837, 1840, 1, 173, 175, Another interpretation is that the shaft is of ancient origin, perhaps an exploratory tunnel or an unfinished tomb shaft.{{Sfn|Lehner|1994}} File:Top-down plan of the rump of the Great Sphinx of Giza.tif|Top-down plan of the rump passage. Lower part labeled "Sub-Floor Shaft", upper part "Core-Body Trench".File:Profile and elevation of rump passage of the Sphinx.tif|Profile of the rump passage with upper part (1+2) and lower part (3+4).File:Sphinx rump, view to east.tif|Rump of the Sphinx, with passage entrance at floor-levelFile:Rump Passage Entrance Closeup.tif|Closeup of the entrance hole of the rump shaftFile:Rump passage, entrance from inside.tif|Inside the passage, looking up, seeing entrance stones and upper tunnelFile:Rump passage, upper part.tif|Looking up the upper tunnelFile:Rump passage, upper part, chamber 1.tif|Ceiling of upper tunnelFile:101-black-and-white-photo-02557.tif|Looking down the upper part from chamber 1File:Rump passage, lower part before excavation.tif|Lower part of rump passage, before excavationFile: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 1925–1926 restorations.{{Sfn|Lehner|1994|p=215}}

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.{{Sfn|Lehner|1994|p=215}}

Space behind Dream Stele

The space behind the Dream Stele, between the paws of the Sphinx, was covered by an iron beam and cement roof, which was fitted with an iron trap door.{{Sfn|Lehner|1991|p=298}}WEB, 360° photograph of the Sphinx,weblink

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 {{Convert|1.42 by 1.06|m|ft}} and about {{Convert|2|m|ft}} deep. Lehner interprets the shaft to be an unfinished tomb and named it "Keyhole Shaft", because of cuttings in the ledge above the shaft that are shaped like the lower part of a traditional (Victorian era) keyhole, upside down.{{Sfn|Lehner|1991|pp=160-163}}

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 and pseudoarchaeology.

Ancient Astronauts/Atlantis

{{Further|Ancient astronauts|Atlantis#Atlantis pseudohistory}}

• The Sphinx is oriented from west to east, towards the rising sun, in accordance with the ancient Egyptian solar cult. The Orion correlation theory 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 by academia, because no textual or archaeological evidence supports this to be the reason for the orientation of the SphinxHancock, Graham; Bauval, Robert (2000-12-14). Atlantis Reborn Again. Horizon. BBC. Aired 2000-12-14.BOOK, Orser, Charles E., Race and practice in archaeological interpretation, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003, 978-0-8122-3750-4, 73, BOOK, Hancock, Graham,weblink The Message of the Sphinx: A Quest for the Hidden Legacy of Mankind, Bauval, Robert, Three Rivers Press, 1997, 978-0-517-88852-0, 271, limited, BOOK, Archaeological fantasies: how pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public, Routledge, 2006, 978-0-415-30593-8, Fagan, Garrett G., 20, 38–40, 100–103, 127, 197–201, 238, 241–255, (File:Pyramids5.jpg|thumb|Weathering on the Sphinx's body (north-eastern exposure))
• The Sphinx water erosion hypothesis contends that the main type of weathering evident on the enclosure walls of the Great Sphinx could only have been caused by prolonged and extensive rainfall,BOOK, Schoch, Robert M.,weblink Redating the Great Sphinx of Giza, 1992, 11 October 2017,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160204134600weblink">weblink 2016-02-04, live, and must therefore predate the time of the pharaoh Khafre. The hypothesis was championed by René Schwaller de Lubicz, John Anthony West, and geologist Robert M. Schoch. The theory is considered pseudoarchaeology by mainstream scholarship due to archaeological, climatological and geological evidence to the contrary.NEWS,weblink Scholars Dispute Claim That Sphinx Is Much Older, Associated Press, The New York Times, 9 February 1992, 12 November 2021, }BOOK, White, Chris, The Age of the Sphinx? Reader versus Schoch,weblink 1 July 2016, 30 June 2016,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20160630054326weblink">weblink dead, JOURNAL, Reader, C. D., February 2001, A Geomorphological Study of the Giza Necropolis, with Implications for the Development of the Site, Archaeometry, 43, 1, 149–165, 10.1111/1475-4754.00009,
• 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, 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 predictedBOOK, MacDonald, Sally,weblink Consuming Ancient Egypt, Rice, Michael, UCL Press, 2003, 978-1-84472-003-3, 180–181, 190,
• Author Robert K. G. Temple proposes that the Sphinx was originally a statue of the jackal god Anubis, 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 headdressRobert K. G. Temple, The Sphinx Mystery: The Forgotten Origins of The Sanctuary of Anubis (Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2009). {{ISBN|978-1-59477-271-9}}

Racial characteristics

{{Further|Ancient Egyptian race controversy}}Until the early 20th century, it was suggested that the face of the Sphinx had "Negroid" characteristics, as part of the now outdated historical race concepts.BOOK,weblink Book of the Sphinx, U of Nebraska Press, 2004, 978-0-8032-3956-2, Regier, Willis G., 157, limited, Irwin, Graham W. (1977). Africans abroad, Columbia University Press, p. 11

Gallery

Image:Description de l'Egypte, 1823(1).png|Description de l'Egypte, Planches, Antiquités, volume V (1823)Image:Description de l'Egypte, 1823(2).png|Description de l'Egypte, Planches, Antiquités, volume V (1823)Image:Japanese-Mission-Samurai-Sphinx-Egypt-1864.png|Members of the Second Japanese Embassy to Europe (1863) in front of the Sphinx, 1864Image: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, 1871Image:'Le Sphinx Armachis, Caire' (The Sphinx Armachis, Cairo).jpg|The Great Sphinx partly under the sand, ca. 1870sImage:Bonaparte ante la Esfinge, por Jean-Léon Gérôme.jpg|Jean-Léon Gérôme's Bonaparte Before the Sphinx, 1886Image: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.File:Sphinx of Giza 9059.jpg|The Sphinx in profile in 2010

See also

• Sphinx of Memphis
• Sphinx of Taharqo
• African lions in culture
• Lion (heraldry)
• List of colossal sculpture in situ
• List of tallest statues

Notes

{{notelist}}

References

{{reflist|30em}}

Bibliography

• BOOK, Lehner, Mark, Archaeology of an Image: The Great Sphinx of Giza, 1991,weblink
• JOURNAL, Lehner, Mark, The Passage Under the Sphinx, 1994, Hommages à Jean Leclant, 1, 201–216,weblink
• BOOK, Hassan, Selim, Excavations at Giza 8: 1936-1937. The Great Sphinx and its Secrets. Historical Studies in the Light of the Recent Excavations., 1953,weblink Government Press, Cairo,

External links

• {{Commons category-inline}}
• Riddle of the Sphinx
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20081211015848weblink">Egyptian and Greek Sphinxes
• weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110717033510weblink">Egypt—The Lost Civilization Theory
• The Sphinx's Nose
• What happened to the Sphinx's nose? {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140516191332weblink |date=16 May 2014 }}
• Sphinx photo gallery
• Al Maqrizi's account {{in lang|ar}}
• The Age of the Sphinx by Brian Dunning

{{Giza}}{{Ancient Egypt topics}}{{Ancient Near East}}{{Sculptures}}{{Authority control}}