The Great Sphinx, Limestone sphinx in Giza, Egypt
The Great Sphinx is a limestone statue on the Giza Plateau, 73 m long and 20 m high, with a human head wearing a striped nemes headcloth and a crouching lion body. It was carved from bedrock of the Mokattam Formation, and its face is heavily weathered, with the nose missing. A dark opening sits between the extended front paws.
Workers shaped it from bedrock around 2500 BCE during the reign of Pharaoh Khafre, carving the monument while building his pyramid. The nose disappeared sometime between the third and tenth centuries, though restoration work began much earlier under Thutmose IV and has continued in stages ever since.
The Arabic name Abu al-Hawl, "Father of Terror", may reinterpret the name of the god Hauron, with whom the Sphinx was identified; medieval writers such as al-Maqrīzī also recorded the Coptic-derived form Belhib. In the New Kingdom it was worshipped as Hor-em-akhet, "Horus of the Horizon", and Thutmose IV's Dream Stele between the paws addresses it by that name.
The Sphinx faces east on the Giza Plateau, about 20 km southwest of central Cairo, with the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre behind it. Visitors approach from the plateau entrance and walk around the enclosure; the base and forepaws are solid bedrock, while the softer body layers show heavy erosion. The dark opening between the front paws is visible from the viewing path.
Red pigment traces on the face suggest the entire sculpture was once painted according to traditional Egyptian color practices. Seismic surveys have revealed a network of passages and chambers beneath the figure, some possibly older than what remains visible above ground today.
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