The largest statue in Egypt is the Sphinx. Legends of Egypt

Having heard the combination of the words “Ancient Egypt”, many will immediately imagine majestic pyramids and the large Sphinx - it is with them that a mysterious civilization separated from us by several millennia is associated. Let's get to know interesting facts about sphinxes, these mysterious creatures.

Definition

What is a sphinx? This word first appeared in the Land of the Pyramids, and later spread throughout the world. So, in ancient Greece you can find a similar creature - beautiful woman with wings. In Egypt, these creatures were most often masculine. The sphinx with the face of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut is famous. Having received the throne and pushed aside the rightful heir, this powerful woman tried to rule like a man, even wearing a special false beard. Therefore, it is not surprising that many statues of this time have found her face.

What function did they perform? According to mythology, the sphinx acted as the guardian of tombs and temple buildings, which is why most of the statues that have survived to this day were discovered near such structures. Thus, in the temple of the supreme deity, solar Amun, approximately 900 of them were found.

So, answering the question of what a sphinx is, it should be noted that this is a statue characteristic of the culture of Ancient Egypt, which, according to mythology, guarded temple buildings and tombs. The material used for creation was limestone, which was quite abundant in the Country of the Pyramids.

Description

The ancient Egyptians depicted the Sphinx like this:

The head of a person, most often a pharaoh.
The body of a lion, one of the sacred animals of the hot country of Kemet.

But this appearance is not the only option for depicting a mythological creature. Modern finds prove that there were other species, for example with the head:

a ram (the so-called cryosphinxes, installed near the temple of Amon);
Falcon (they were called hieracosphinxes and were most often placed near the temple of the god Horus);
hawk

So, answering the question of what a sphinx is, it should be pointed out that it is a statue with the body of a lion and the head of another creature (usually a person, a ram), which was installed in the immediate vicinity of temples.

The most famous sphinxes

The tradition of creating very original statues with a human head and a lion's body was inherent in the Egyptians for a long time. So, the first of them appeared during the fourth dynasty of the pharaohs, that is, around 2700-2500. BC e. Interestingly, the first representative was female and depicted Queen Hethephera the Second. This statue has reached us; anyone can look at it in the Cairo Museum.

Everyone knows the Great Sphinx of Giza, which we will talk about below.

The second largest sculpture depicting an unusual creature is an alabaster creation with the face of Pharaoh Amenhotep II, discovered in Memphis.

No less famous is the famous Avenue of the Sphinxes near the Temple of Amun in Luxor.

Greatest value

The most famous throughout the world, of course, is the Great Sphinx, which not only amazes with its enormous size, but also poses many mysteries to the scientific community.

The giant with a lion's body is located on the plateau at Giza (near the capital of the modern state, Cairo) and is part of a funerary complex that also includes three great pyramids. It was carved from a monolithic block and is the largest structure for which solid stone was used.

Even the age of this outstanding monument is controversial, although analysis of the rock suggests that it is at least 4.5 millennia old. What features of this colossal monument are known?

The face of the Sphinx, disfigured by time and, as one legend says, by the barbaric actions of the soldiers of Napoleon's army, most likely depicts Pharaoh Khafre.
The giant's face is turned to the east, which is where the pyramids are located - the statue seems to protect the peace of the greatest pharaohs of antiquity.
The dimensions of the figure, carved from monolithic limestone, are amazing: length - more than 55 meters, width - about 20 meters, shoulder width - more than 11 meters.
Previously, the ancient sphinx was painted, as evidenced by the surviving remains of paint: red, blue and yellow.
The statue also had a beard, typical of the kings of Egypt. It has survived to this day, although separately from the sculpture - it is kept in the British Museum.

The giant found himself buried under the sand several times and was dug up. Perhaps it was the protection of the sand that helped the Sphinx survive the destructive influence of natural disasters.

Changes

The Egyptian Sphinx managed to defeat time, but it affected the change in its appearance:

Initially, the figure had a traditional pharaonic headdress, decorated with a sacred cobra, but it was completely destroyed.
The statue also lost its false beard.
Damage to the nose has already been mentioned. Some blame this on the shelling of Napoleon's army, others on the actions of Turkish soldiers. There is also a version that the protruding part was damaged by wind and humidity.

Despite this, the monument is one of the greatest creations of the ancients.

Mysteries of history

Let's get acquainted with the secrets of the Egyptian Sphinx, many of which have not yet been solved:

Legend has it that there are three underground passages under the giant monument. However, only one of them was found - behind the giant's head.
The age of the largest sphinx is still unknown. Most scholars believe that it was built during the reign of Khafre, but there are those who consider the sculpture to be more ancient. Thus, her face and head retained traces of the influence of the water element, which is why the hypothesis arose that the giant was erected more than 6 thousand years ago, when a terrible flood hit Egypt.
Perhaps the army of the French emperor is wrongly accused of causing damage to the great monument of the past, since there are drawings by an unknown traveler in which the giant is already depicted without a nose. Napoleon was not yet born at that time.
As you know, the Egyptians knew writing and documented in detail everything on papyri - from conquests and the construction of temples to the collection of taxes. However, not a single scroll was found that contained information about the construction of the monument. Perhaps these documents simply have not survived to this day. Perhaps the reason is that the giant appeared long before the Egyptians themselves.
The first mention of the Egyptian Sphinx was found in the works of Pliny the Elder, which talks about the work of excavating the sculpture from sand.

The majestic monument of the Ancient World has not yet revealed all its mysteries to us, so its research continues.

Restoration and protection

We learned what the Sphinx was and what role it played in the worldview of the ancient Egyptian. They tried to dig out the huge figure from the sand and partially restore it even under the pharaohs. It is known that similar work was carried out during the time of Thutmose IV. A granite stele has been preserved (the so-called “Dream Stele”), which tells that one day the pharaoh had a dream in which the god Ra ordered him to cleanse the statue of sand, in return promising power over the entire state.

Later, the conqueror Ramses II ordered the excavation of the Egyptian Sphinx. Then attempts were made in the early 19th and 20th centuries.

Now let's see how our contemporaries are trying to preserve this cultural heritage. The figure was carefully analyzed, all the cracks were identified, the monument was closed to the public and restored within 4 months. In 2014 it was reopened to tourists.

The history of the Sphinx in Egypt is amazing and filled with secrets and riddles. Many of them have not yet been solved by scientists, so the amazing figure with the body of a lion and the face of a man continues to attract attention.

(c. 2575-2465 BC), whose burial pyramid is located nearby. The length of the statue is 72 meters, height - 20 meters; There was once a small shrine between the front paws.

Purpose and name

Even more confusing the question of who ordered the statue is the fact that the face of the statue has Negroid features, which is at odds with other surviving images of Khafre and his relatives. Forensic experts, who used a computer to compare the face of the Sphinx with signed statues of Khafre, came to the conclusion that they could not depict the same person.

Since the 1950s. In popular literature, the dating of the Sphinx to the period of the Old Kingdom began to be questioned. It has been argued that the lower part of the sphinx represents a classic example of erosion caused by the stone being left in water for long periods of time. The last time a corresponding level of precipitation was observed in Egypt was at the turn of the 4th and 3rd millennia, which, according to supporters of this theory, indicates the creation of the statue in the Predynastic period or even earlier. In the scientific literature, the features of sculpture erosion are explained by other reasons - secondary fracturing, the action of acid rain, low quality limestone.

The relatively small size of the head prompted Boston geologist Robert Schoch to suggest that the statue originally had the muzzle of a lion, from which one of the pharaohs ordered to carve a mysteriously smiling human face in his own image and likeness. This hypothesis did not find recognition in the scientific community, as well as Graham Hancock’s assumption about the correlation of the three pyramids with stars in the constellation Orion, which was allegedly observed in the 11th millennium BC. e. (see en: Orion Correlation Theory).

Descriptions

The Italians managed to clear the sand from the entire chest of the Sphinx in 1817, and it was completely freed from thousand-year-old sand deposits in 1925.

In 2014, the Sphinx underwent a four-month restoration, after which it became available to tourists.

Loss

Sphinx face in profile.

The statue is missing a 1.5 meter wide nose. Its absence can be explained both by the natural destruction of stone (centuries of exposure to wind and moisture) and by human influence. There is a legend that this part of the statue was knocked off by a cannonball during the Napoleonic battle with the Turks at the Pyramids (1798); according to other versions, Napoleon's place is taken by the British or Mamelukes. The falsity of this opinion is indicated by the drawings of the Danish traveler Norden, who saw the noseless Sphinx back in 1737.

The medieval Cairo historian al-Maqrizi wrote that in 1378, one Sufi fanatic, finding the fellahs bringing gifts to the Sphinx in the hope of replenishing their harvest, was filled with anger and knocked off the “idol’s” nose, for which he was torn to pieces by the crowd. From the story of al-Makrizi, we can conclude that for local residents the Sphinx was a kind of talisman, the ruler of the Nile, on which, as they believed, the level of the great river’s flood and, accordingly, the fertility of their fields depended.

The Sphinx has survived to this day not only without a nose, but also without a false ceremonial beard, fragments of which can be seen in the British and Cairo Museums. The timing of the appearance of the Sphinx's beard is controversial. Some authors attribute its installation to the New Kingdom. According to others, the beard was made together with the head, because the technical complexity of high-altitude work on installing a beard exceeded the capabilities of builders of that time.

In works of art

“The Prisoner of the Pharaohs” (1924) - a story by Howard Lovecraft, built on the assumption that the Egyptian Sphinx, which originally depicted a supposedly terrible monster, was a million years old. Under Pharaoh Khafre, the features of the monster were allegedly knocked off the face of the Sphinx and replaced with the features of the pharaoh.

Sphinxes do not walk on their own. One can even assume that these unique animals do not consider themselves cats because they do not react to their brothers of other breeds. About the history of the origin of the Sphinx breed, as well as the features of the appearance and character of their subspecies.

Origin

Sphinxes are a discovery of the 20th century, although there are suggestions that the Aztecs had hairless cats, but they became extinct. Over the past 100 years, hairless cat breeds have continually come and gone. They tried to treat kittens born naked for lichen.

And then one day in Canada, in the 60s, from domestic cat A naked kitten was born, which was bought by a scientist from Toronto, wanting to study the hairlessness gene. The information he obtained was successfully used in breeding hairless cats, but the Sphynx breed did not immediately receive recognition and permission to participate in exhibitions.

In the 70s, breeders again began breeding Sphynxes. They crossed cats born naked with Siamese cats, Devon Rex cats and ordinary mongrels. Finally, in 1985, Sphynx cats were recognized as a separate breed.

Over time, hairless cats became very popular. In 1997, they even served as models for the cover of the new album of the rock band Aerosmith, and the Sphynx cat also starred in the film “Austin Powers.”

Appearance

The appearance of sphinxes is truly amazing and unusual, so much so that some people do not mistake them for cats. These are not hairless cats, as some may call them. There is still hair on the body of sphinxes, but it is very short and feels like suede.

The Sphynx is a very warm and soft cat. More abundant hair, but still short, may be present on the paws, ears, tail and scrotum.

Why sphinxes are born hairless remains a mystery. There is an assumption that the absence of hair is caused by single natural mutations, which were supported by breeders by crossing hairless cats with short-haired ones. Over time, the mutation was fixed.

Although sphinxes do not have a soft cat's fur coat, their body color is very diverse: there are spotted and plain sphinxes of different shades.

In addition to the lack of a fluffy coat, alien cats are also distinguished by large expressive ears and rather abundant folding of the skin. The main number of folds occurs on the head, and no other cat has such folded skin.

The name “Sphynx” is a collective name for three breeds of hairless cats: Canadian, Don and Peterbald, or St. Petersburg Sphynx. The Canadian Sphynx is the oldest of them. Each breed has its own characteristics.

Canadian Sphynx

This is the most hairless of all hairless ones: while the Don and St. Petersburg Sphynxes may have short, velvety fur, the Canadian Sphynx does not. His skin feels like peach skin, despite his many wrinkles.

The Canadian Sphynx is of medium size and weight, with large ears. The hind legs are slightly longer than the front legs. The eyes are large and wide open.

He has a sweet personality, is intelligent and has a deep, insightful gaze. It becomes strongly attached to its owner, whom he determines himself. In the house he becomes a full-fledged member of the family.

The Canadian Sphynx has a stable psyche, he is not afraid of dogs and gets along calmly with other animals.

Don Sphynx

It was bred in Russia in Rostov-on-Don, which is how the breed got its name. Donchak are the largest and most powerful among the sphinxes, they have strong bones and short legs. The ears stick straight up. The eyes are narrow, almond-shaped.

The Don Sphynx's mustache is curly or absent altogether. Thick, delicate hair may grow at the tip of the tail. In winter, slight pubescence of the entire body is possible.

His characteristics are silence and touchiness, but not rancor. The owner must be tactful and attentive with the Don Sphynx, for which the cat will repay with loyalty. Avoids children who are too noisy and annoying.

Peretbold

Appeared as the last of the three breeds of sphinxes based on the Don Sphynx. In Europe, the St. Petersburg Sphynx was recognized as a separate breed only in 2003.

It is distinguished by its elegance and light, flexible, narrow body, with long tail, paws and toes. Ears point to the sides. Eye color is limited - green or blue. Any coat color can be found. The head resembles the head of a snake and is set on a long neck.

Loves to “talk”, communication with people is the most important part of a Peterbald’s life. He really needs affection, gentle touches and words. He loves everyone in the family equally, and is patient even with very active children.

For many millennia, the Egyptian Sphinx has been guarding the tombs of the pharaohs - and some even claim that it appeared long before the construction of the most luxurious tombs ancient world and survived the global flood. This amazing beast cares not only about the safety of the deceased pharaohs: after all, in reality he is alive, he is a demigod, he is a guardian of order.

Therefore, the sphinx does not always sit in its place: if it is not satisfied with the way people behave (wars, strife, robberies, passion for foreign gods), it jumps off the pedestal and runs away into the desert. And there, buried deep in the sand, it disappears from sight for a long time.

The Great Sphinx is located on the territory of Egypt, in the suburbs of Cairo, on the Giza plateau, which is located on the western coast of the Nile - and tirelessly looks towards where the daylight rises on the day of the summer or winter equinox. He is so old that he is the oldest statue of our planet that has been able to survive to this day - and it is interesting that ancient masters carved him out of limestone rock, depicting him in enormous sizes mythical creature, a lion with a human face.

The Great Sphinx looks like this:

Height – 20 m, length – 73 m, shoulder width – 11.5 m and face width – 4.1 m, and height – 5 m;
Between the paws of the ancient statue is a stele erected by Pharaoh Thutmose IV, who ruled in the 14th century. BC.;
The Great Sphinx is surrounded by a wide moat - 5.5 m, the depth of which is 2.5 m;
Near the oldest statue in the world there are three Egyptian pyramids, the tombs of the pharaohs Hebren, Cheops and Mycerne.

Unfortunately, the past millennia have had a negative impact on the statue. The headdress, imitating a cobra rising to the face, disappeared forever, and the festive scarf, falling onto the shoulders from the head, was broken off. From the ceremonial beard of the demigod, only fragments have survived, which can now be seen in museums in Britain and Cairo. When exactly the Sphinx's beard appeared, scientists still have not decided - some claim that it was created already during the New Kingdom, others that it was made at the same time as the head.

The nose was severely damaged, the width of which in former times was 1.5 m (most likely, therefore, one of the rulers decided to fulfill the covenant of Muhammad, which did not allow the depiction of a human face, and ordered it to be knocked down).

Purpose of the Sphinx

The mystery of the Sphinx surrounds everything - and one of its mysteries is why exactly ancient people needed to create such a sculpture.

Many Egyptologists agree that the huge sculpture was dedicated to the Nile and the rising Sun (the gaze of the mythical creature is not in vain directed to the east). They draw attention to the fact that in almost all civilizations of the ancient East the lion symbolized the Sun, therefore the Egyptians, who considered him the incarnation of God, often depicted their pharaoh in the form of this beast, dealing with his enemies. There is a high probability that the purpose of the Sphinx was to guard the eternal sleep of the deceased pharaohs.

There are versions that say that in reality the Sphinx statue is a collective image that symbolized the four seasons and pointed the ancient people to the day of the spring equinox.

For example, according to this theory, the lion’s body symbolized the spring day, and the wings invisible to our eyes symbolized the autumn equinox, and the demigod’s paws symbolized the summer solstice, and his face the winter solstice.

Secrets of the ancient world

The mystery of the Sphinx has haunted people for many millennia - when it was built, who built it, why it was built. Even the face of this amazing monument leaves more questions than answers.

Despite the fact that many Egyptologists still agree that the face of the Sphinx is the face of Pharaoh Hebren (2574-2465 BC), this hypothesis is not final, and many researchers dispute it, therefore, apparently, the answer to question: whose face is wearing this? mystical creature, most likely, will remain unsolved for quite a long time.

What confuses Egyptologists is that the face has Negroid features, completely unlike the surviving images of Hebren, whom the statue supposedly depicted, and even his relatives. Experts, having compared the face of the Sphinx with the statues of this pharaoh, made a clear conclusion that they belong to two completely different people.

Some researchers put forward another interesting theory, saying that the face of this amazing creature combines the images of the pharaohs, the baboon (the monkey of the god of wisdom and knowledge Thoth) and the god of the Sun - Horus.

Many researchers also put forward more non-standard versions. For example, geologist Robert Schoch, whose hypothesis did not find recognition among his colleagues, put forward the idea that at first the monument had the face of a lion, instead of which later some Egyptian ruler ordered his face to be knocked out.

Riddle No. 2. When was the Sphinx created?

One of the reasons why Egyptologists could not determine exactly when the representatives of the ancient people created the Great Sphinx is that they carved it into limestone rock, the age of which is much older than the statue itself.

The official version of scientists so far says that since the statue depicts Pharaoh Hebren, the time of its creation also dates back to this period, that is, it was created during the reign of the IV dynasty (approximately 2.5 thousand years BC).

They focus on the fact that it was at this time that the ancient Egyptian civilization reached its greatest prosperity, and therefore the statue could not have been created either before or after it, since Egyptians of other eras simply would not have been able to cope with such work. It’s not so simple: everyone questions this theory larger number

Please note that the base of the statue was clearly subject to erosion, which was caused by the monument's prolonged exposure to water. Studies by hydrologists have shown that there was an extremely large amount of water around the Egyptian Sphinx - and the Nile flowing nearby had absolutely nothing to do with it, because the huge flow of water that caused the erosion came from the north, and this happened approximately in the 8th millennium BC. e.

Another group of British researchers came to even bolder results: according to their version, a natural disaster swept here in the twelfth millennium BC, which is consistent with the date of the global flood, which occurred between the 8th-10th millennium BC.

The official version explains the presence of cracks and erosion due to the influence environment(acid rain, low quality limestone rocks). Another explanation suggests that the Giza plateau was previously extremely revered by the ancient Egyptians, who kept it clean and cleared of sand, and therefore heavy rains could easily damage the statue, collecting in huge puddles near the monument.

Recently, the Egyptian Sphinx posed another riddle regarding its age - a group of Japanese scientists used an echolocator to illuminate the nearby Sphinx pyramids and discovered that the stones of the rock from which the Great Sphinx was knocked out were processed much earlier than the blocks of the Cheops pyramid were hewn.

Riddle No. 3. Mysterious room

Japanese researchers suddenly faced another mystery of the Sphinx: their equipment discovered a small rectangular room (it was located under the lion’s left paw) - the entrance to a rather narrow tunnel located at a depth of two meters, which slopes down towards the Pyramid of Khafre, and therefore , where exactly it leads, it has not yet been possible to trace, especially since the Egyptians did not allow the Japanese to study it in more detail (perhaps fearing that the researchers would damage the statue).

Riddle No. 4 Where did the Sphinx go?

Herodotus, having visited Egypt in 445 BC, writing about the trip in Histories, did not mention this unique statue at all - and this despite the fact that in the chronicle he even told such details from the life of the pyramids as how many slaves worked on construction sites and what they were fed with.

But the Sphinx in Egypt was not mentioned by him. This can only be for one reason - at that time the giant lion was not in place: the desert did its job and completely covered the statue with sand (at the same time, the sculpture spent so long under it that information about it did not even reach Herodotus). The Egyptians The famous statue was dug up more than once. Local residents looked after the statue because it was a talisman for them, on which the level of the Nile flood, and therefore the harvest and prosperity, depended.

Then it apparently lost its primary importance and for some reason the local residents stopped carefully clearing the area around it of sand - and the sand gradually completely covered it. The Egyptian rulers came to their senses and ordered the statue to be cleared of debris: this was done repeatedly by the pharaohs, then by the Greek kings, the emperors of Rome, and the Arab rulers.

It was not possible to restore it to its original form and completely excavate it - and therefore only the head often rose above the sand. Thutmose IV in the 14th century. BC. He managed to free the lion's front paws, after which he installed a granite stele with an inscription between them.

The desert did not calm down, and only in the last two centuries the sculpture was dug up three times and significant results were achieved: in 1817, Italian archaeologists managed to clear the chest of the statue from sand, and it was completely freed from drifts only in 1925.

The cleanup work did not stop there and continued. And for good reason: one of the bulldozers between the Sphinx and the Pyramid of Hebren accidentally stumbled upon the remains of a settlement ancient egypt, which turned out to be much older than the Egyptian pyramids (people lived here even before the appearance of the pharaohs).

Sphinx in our time

The Sphinx was recently restored - after scanning the lion with ultrasonic emitters, scientists discovered dangerous cracks that urgently needed to be dealt with. And the condition of the paws also inspired concern. Therefore, it was decided to close the monument, and tourists were prohibited from approaching it.

The Egyptians restored the statue at their own expense and, with their own efforts, the cracks were filled with the latest synthetic solutions, the pedestal was strengthened, and previously fallen pieces of the Sphinx were found and attached in place. They even demanded (so far, to no avail) that the British return fragments of the beard in order to attach it in place.

And at the end of 2014, after restoration, the Great Sphinx became accessible to tourists, and for the first time in many years, people had the opportunity to approach the most ancient monument of our planet at arm’s length.

The Sphinx of Giza is one of the oldest, largest and most mysterious monuments ever created by man. Disputes about its origin are still ongoing. We've collected 10 little-known facts about the majestic monument in the Sahara Desert.

1. The Great Sphinx of Giza is not a Sphinx

Experts say that the Egyptian Sphinx cannot be called a traditional image of the Sphinx. In classical Greek mythology, the sphinx was described as a creature that had the body of a lion, the head of a woman, and the wings of a bird. There is actually a sculpture of an androsphinx at Giza, as it has no wings.

2. Initially, the sculpture had several other names

The ancient Egyptians did not originally call this giant creature the "Great Sphinx". The text on the "Dream Stele", dating from around 1400 BC, refers to the Sphinx as the "Statue of the Great Khepri". When the future pharaoh Thutmose IV slept next to her, he had a dream in which the god Khepri-Ra-Atum came to him and asked him to free the statue from the sand, and in return promised that Thutmose would become the ruler of all Egypt. Thutmose IV unearthed the statue, which had been covered with sand over centuries, which then became known as Horem-Akhet, which translates as “Horus on the horizon.” Medieval Egyptians called the Sphinx "balkhib" and "bilhou".

3. Nobody knows who built the Sphinx

Even today, people do not know the exact age of this statue, and modern archaeologists argue about who could have created it. The most popular theory is that the Sphinx arose during the reign of Khafre (the fourth dynasty of the Old Kingdom), i.e. The age of the statue dates back to approximately 2500 BC.

This pharaoh is credited with creating the Pyramid of Khafre, as well as the necropolis of Giza and a number of ritual temples. The proximity of these structures to the Sphinx has prompted a number of archaeologists to believe that it was Khafre who ordered the construction of the majestic monument with his face.

Other scientists believe that the statue is much older than the pyramid. They argue that the face and head of the statue show signs of obvious water damage and theorize that the Great Sphinx already existed during an era when the region faced extensive flooding (6th millennium BC).

4. Whoever built the Sphinx ran away from it headlong after the construction was completed

American archaeologist Mark Lehner and Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass discovered large stone blocks, tool sets and even fossilized dinners under a layer of sand. This clearly indicates that the workers were in such a hurry to get away that they did not even take their tools with them.

5. The laborers who built the statue were well fed

Most scholars think that the people who built the Sphinx were slaves. However, their diet suggests something completely different. Excavations led by Mark Lehner revealed that workers regularly dined on beef, lamb and goat.

6. The Sphinx was once covered in paint

Although the Sphinx is now a sandy gray color, it was once completely covered in bright paint. Remnants of red paint can still be found on the face of the statue, and there are traces of blue and yellow paint on the Sphinx's body.

7. The sculpture was buried under sand for a long time

The Great Sphinx of Giza fell victim to the quicksand of the Egyptian desert several times during its long existence. The first known restoration of the Sphinx, which was almost completely buried under sand, occurred shortly before the 14th century BC, thanks to Thutmose IV, who soon after became an Egyptian pharaoh. Three millennia later, the statue was again buried under the sands. Until the 19th century, the statue's front paws were deep below the desert surface. The Sphinx was completely excavated in the 1920s.

8. The Sphinx lost her headdress in the 1920s

During the last restoration, part of the Great Sphinx's famous headdress fell off and its head and neck were seriously damaged. The Egyptian government hired a team of engineers to restore the statue in 1931. But that restoration used soft limestone, and in 1988, a 320-kilogram piece of the shoulder fell off, nearly killing a German reporter. After this, the Egyptian government again began restoration work.

9. After the construction of the Sphinx, there was a cult that worshiped it for a long time

Thanks to the mystical vision of Thutmose IV, who became pharaoh after unearthing a giant statue, a whole cult of Sphinx worship arose in the 14th century BC. The pharaohs who ruled during the New Kingdom even built new temples from which the Great Sphinx could be seen and worshiped.

10. The Egyptian sphinx is much kinder than the Greek one

The Sphinx's modern reputation as a cruel creature comes from Greek mythology, not Egyptian mythology. In Greek myths, the Sphinx is mentioned in connection with a meeting with Oedipus, to whom he asked a supposedly unsolvable riddle. In ancient Egyptian culture, the Sphinx was considered more benevolent.

11. It’s not Napoleon’s fault that the Sphinx doesn’t have a nose

The mystery of the Great Sphinx's missing nose has given rise to all sorts of myths and theories. One of the most common legends says that Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the nose of the statue to be broken off in a fit of pride. However, early sketches of the Sphinx show that the statue lost its nose before the birth of the French emperor.

12. The Sphinx was once bearded

Today, the remains of the Great Sphinx's beard, which was removed from the statue due to severe erosion, are kept in the British Museum and in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, established in Cairo in 1858. However, French archaeologist Vasil Dobrev claims that the statue was not bearded from the very beginning, and the beard was added later. Dobrev argues that removing the beard, if it had been a component of the statue to begin with, would have damaged the statue's chin.

13. The Great Sphinx is the most ancient statue, but not the most ancient sphinx

The Great Sphinx of Giza is considered the oldest monumental sculpture in human history. If the statue is considered to date from Khafre's reign, the smaller sphinxes depicting his half-brother Djedefre and sister Netefere II are older.

14. Sphinx - the largest statue

The Sphinx, which is 72 meters long and 20 meters high, is considered the largest monolithic statue on the planet.

15. Several astronomical theories are associated with the Sphinx

The mystery of the Great Sphinx of Giza has led to a number of theories about the ancient Egyptians' supernatural understanding of the cosmos. Some scientists, such as Lehner, believe that the Sphinx with the pyramids of Giza is a giant machine for capturing and processing solar energy. Another theory notes the coincidence of the Sphinx, the pyramids and the Nile River with the stars of the constellations Leo and Orion.