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The Sphinx of Giza

The Sphinx of Giza is one of the largest and most recognisable statues in the world. Standing 20 metres high and 72 metres long, the half-man, half-lion colossus of stone was sculpted 4,500 years ago but was almost lost beneath the desert sands of Egypt. This is the story of one of the wonders of the ancient world.

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2500 BC - A colossus constructed in the image of the pharaoh Khephren

When the king saw the Sphinx as it neared completion, he was flushed with pride. He, Khephren, the pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt, was going to fully satisfy the gods and dazzle mortals with his prestige. The statue, with the body of a lion and the face sculpted in his image, was already making the entire population in the capital, Memphis, tremble with respect. The project was certainly not lacking in audacity: its architect had the ingenious idea of using a rocky outcrop standing in isolation in the middle of a stone quarry to make a gigantic statue. It was the first time that a pharaoh had been represented in this way with the body of a lion, even though this animal had symbolised royalty since ancient Egypt’s beginnings around 3000 BC. The animal body of the Sphinx in fact represented the king’s triumphant strength. Today, 4,500 years after it was constructed, all Egyptologists agree that the Sphinx’s face is definitely that of Khephren (also known as Khafra), as proven by the numerous statues of the king dating from this era. Nobody actually knows what the Egyptians called the Sphinx, but it was probably named after the pharaoh, as there is no Egyptian word to designate sphinx. It was the Greeks, who came as “tourists” around the 6th century BC, who gave this name to these curious structures.

1398 BC - A statue elevated to the rank of a god

Following the death of Khephren, the desert gradually buried the Sphinx, to such an extent that the site was abandoned at the end of the Old Kingdom around 2100 BC. The colossus was then forgotten for 700 years, until a young prince, the future Tuthmosis IV, came to have a nap between its immense paws. The Sphinx spoke to him in his dreams: “Look at me, my son Tuthmosis, it is I, your father Harmakhis-Khephren. Look, I am like one who suffers; my whole body is in a state of ruin. The desert sand is coming closer …” Harmakhis said he would make Tuthmosis king if he removed the sand burying the Sphinx. The dream was so powerful that Tuthmosis followed the instructions. He of course became pharaoh and had a stele of pink granite engraved around the Sphinx to commemorate the prodigious event. For Egyptologists, this text dating from 1398 BC confirms that the Sphinx’s role had changed in the course of a thousand years. It was no longer the image of a king-god, but Harmakhis, a god in his own right. This is the only example of an Egyptian god created from a statue.

From the 10th century to the 19th century AD - Under the sand

Tuthmosis IV’s successors restored the Sphinx on four different occasions because the god Harmakhis was the object of a fervent cult which continued to the end of the Roman period, towards the 3rd century AD . But firstly Christianity, and then Islam in the 7th century, led to the Sphinx being forgotten and the desert sand gradually buried it again. From the 10th century, only its monstrous head was visible above the dunes. It was nicknamed “the Father of Fear” by the inhabitants of Cairo, who were frightened by its strange silhouette. During the Middle Ages, it lost its nose and the sand continued to rise around it. The Sphinx was uncovered again for the first time in the “modern era” in 1817. The task had to be repeated on several occasions, as the sand quickly returned. Archaeologists were a little disappointed when they discovered that the statue did not contain any treasure chamber or burial chamber. However, this lack of riches did not stop the Sphinx from becoming famous in the West and travellers hurried to admire it.

1900 AD - A new look for a 4,500-year-old figure

During the 20th century, the Sphinx endured assaults from hordes of tourists, apparently without being worse for wear. However, at the beginning of the 1990s, it was time to face the truth: The colossus was gravely ill. In addition to the traditional erosion of the stone, the Sphinx was threatened by modern pollution, poor restorations and by the salt rising up from below the ground and eating away at its foundations. Egyptian and American archaeologists attempted to save it: a new veneer of small limestone rocks was placed on its damaged body and the poor quality cement which was eating away at it from the inside was replaced by natural mortar made from the same recipe as the one used in antiquity. The statue can now face another thousand years more serenely.

From Discovery Channel Magazine - Issue 6