Facts About the Sphinx in Egypt
Considered the most prodigious, man-made stone monument, the Great Sphinx of Giza consists of the head of a woman in nemes (striped) head cloth and the torso, paws and tail of a lion. As part of a temple complex, it perches on a bedrock and is enclosed by walls to the south and west. While working for the Antiquities Service, French engineer Emile Baraize took 11 years (1925-1936) to unearth the Sphinx.
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Location
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Bordering the Sahara Desert, the Sphinx lies on the Giza Plateau to the west of the Nile River and northeast of Khafre's (Chephren) Valley Temple. It faces the rising sun, and two temples are placed on a terrace below the monument's enclosure.
Dimensions
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With a body that measures 73 meters in length and 20 meters in height, the Sphinx presents a formidable figure in the desert. The face is four meters wide. While the mouth is two meters wide and the eyes are two meters tall, the Sphinx's nose and uraeus (cobra head gear) are missing. Its beard was relocated to the British Museum after it became detached.
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Material
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The Sphinx is constructed from megaliths, or large, hard blocks of limestone. The limestone was extracted from the bedrock (petrified carbonate mud) of the Muqqatam Formation. The sediment that formed this geologic feature was deposited 50 million years ago on what had been northeast Africa's sea bottom. An average megalith is estimated to weigh 200 tons. The smallest weighed 50 tons. The limestone was chipped away to shape the leonine body and female head.
Style
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The Sphinx's distinct features---broad face and chin, manipulation of eyes and lips, nemes headdress and the 'uraeus' cobra set high on the brow---indicate a style prevalent during Egypt's Old Kingdom and, more specially, the 4th Dynasty, circa 2575 to 2465 BC.
Origin
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Although the eighth Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, Pharoah Thutmose IV (circa 1426-1386 BC) inserted a granite stele between the Sphinx's paws, geologists have suggested that the monument is much older. First suggested by Egyptologist R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, the severe vertical erosion marks seen on the body of the Sphinx may be due to water as opposed to wind and sand. Not only was the Sphinx covered by sand for the past 5,000 years but the Giza plateau was subject to flooding and copious rainfall thousands of years prior to the rule of Egyptian dynasties.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Sphinx image by Pete Blackman from Fotolia.com
