Sphinx of Khafre (Great Sphinx of Giza)

ca. 2550 BC
Giza, Egypt

This photo, that provides a canonical view of the Great Sphinx of Giza, looks west towards Egypt's western desert, the realm of the dead; modern Cairo, the realm of the living, is located just behind the photographer's back.

The Sphinx faces east, towards the rising sun; it is located near the Nile end of an east-west causeway that connects Khafre's Nile valley temple (E) to his pyramid (W, directly behind the Sphinx in this photo) and mortuary temple. A human-headed lion, the Sphinx represents both Khafre himself¹ (the lion body symbolizes Pharaoh's power) and also the god Re-Harakhte, the rising sun at dawn who protects Khafre's burial complex and pyramid². It has its own temple, the Sphinx Temple, which is located directly in front of the statue. An equinoctal solar alignment passes E-W through the Sphinx temple and over the Sphinx's right shoulder (photo left) to coincide with the southern baseline of Menkaure's pyramid, establishing a geometric connection between the two.

The enormous monument, about 240 ft (73m) long³, was sculpted as a unit from a limestone outcrop on the Giza plateau. Stone that was removed during this process was then used to construct the Sphinx Temple. The striations seen on the Sphinx's body are alternating layers of hard and soft limestone, deposited fifty million years ago when North Africa was underwater. The layers of softer limestone have eroded in the 4500 years since the rock was carved, resulting in the banded appearance of the body that is seen today. The Sphinx's head presents a smoother surface, because the limestone there happened to be relatively hard. The head of the Sphinx wears a royal nemes headdress, and is missing its nose and beard. Contrary to popular belief, the Sphinx's nose was not shot off by Napoleon's troops; according to Arab records, the nose had been vandalized by religious fanatics in the 14th century.

Almost as soon as it was created, the statue began to be damaged by erosion from wind and sand, and by spalling due to rising ground water. By the time of the New Kingdom, the Sphinx had been covered up to its neck in drifting sand. It was restored as an ex-voto by the 18th dynasty pharaoh Thutmosis IV, who cleared away the sand, enclosed the Sphinx in a protective retaining wall, carried out repairs with large blocks of stone, painted the monument, and built a small chapel with the famous Dream Stela and a statue of himself between the statue's paws. The statue was resurfaced with small blocks of stone in Roman times, and a modern conservation and stabilization program was undertaken in the 1990's. Evidence of all these restoration projects is visible now on the monument.

For more information about the Sphinx, see for example: Riddles of the Sphinx (NOVA/PBS, 2009), Guardian's Sphinx, and The Great Sphinx of Giza, an Introduction (Allen Winston).

²Multivalent symbolism, in which a single symbol may simultaneously carry more than one meaning, is characteristic of additive cultures.

³ The total size of the excavated area is comparable to an American football field (300 ft long). Egyptologist Mark Lehner estimates that it would have taken 100 workers three years to create the monument.