Pyramids & the Sphinx‏

The Sphinx

The Sphinx is the representation of Khéphren, appeared like a lion with a human head, responsible for ensuring its necropolis. Topped the némès with uraeus forehead, it is carved into the rock, living forever and forever the face turned towards the East. Exercises shooting cannon made to the Mamluk era, combined with the effect of wind erosion would be responsible for the destruction of the nose of the Sphinx.

The Great Sphinx of Giza, near Cairo, is Re-Horakhty, a form of the powerful Sun God, and is the epitome of royal power and the protector of the temple doors.


The Sphinx is a sculpture of stone the oldest and longest of the Old Empire. Under the XVIIIth dynasty, it was called "Horus the horizon" and "Horus" in the necropolis, the god of the sun which is held above the horizon. At times later, many representations were carved sphinx, smaller or in cameos with the faces of monarchs rulers. The Great Sphinx is the effigy of Khépren, the pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty who built the second of the pyramids of Giza by size. Like the Sphinx, the pharaoh was regarded as a powerful god.



Carved in a natural limestone outcropping, the Sphinx measure 19.8 meters in height and 73.2 meters in length. It is located within walking distance of the great pyramid.

The huge legs lock in a stele which recorded a dream that Tuthmosis IV did when he was a prince. He dreamt that he had stopped to rest in the shadow of the Sphinx during a hunting expedition in the desert. In his sleep, the Sphinx told him, saying he would become king if he emerged from the sand that buried almost whole. When it became king, Tuthmosis IV désensabla statue erected a stele and telling his dream. Once the work is completed, a chapel was built around the Sphinx to venerate the god of the sun.

The Sphinx are sometimes represented with a woman's face. For example, a sphinx of Queen Hatshepsut was carved with a beard. Queen Tiy, wife of Amenhotep III, the first of which was given traits to a sphinx truly feminine. In addition to a woman's face imberbe, Sphinx had breasts and wings.