The Great Sphinx
The Great Sphinx
Among the marvels of Egypt perhaps
the Great Sphinx of Giza is second to none. The mysterious colossus with
the head of a man and the body of a lion is not at all uncommon in
Egyptian architectural adornment, but the Great Sphinx placed before the
Second Pyramid (the Pyramid of Khafre) fills the observer with wonder
and awe by its gigantic and monumental
proportions.
Location of the
Great Sphinx of Giza
The location of the Great Sphinx of
Giza is on the Giza Plateau, bordering the Sahara Desert, on the west
bank of the Nile River, near modern-day Cairo. Mysterious passages pierce the great Sphinx and connect it with the
Second Pyramid built by the Pharaoh Khafre, which is three hundred feet west of it.
Origins of the Name
The Great Sphinx is known to the
Arabs as Abul-hol meaning the father of terror. The Greek word "sphinx"
may have derived from the Egyptian shesep-ankh, which translates to
'living image'. The name "Sphinx" was given to the statue in antiquity
based on the legendary Greek creature with the body of a lion and the
head of a woman. There are three types of the Egyptian sphinx:
-
Androsphinx -
The Androsphinx has the body of a lion and a head of a man
-
Criosphinx - The
Criosphinx has the body of a lion and a head of a ram
-
Hieracosphinx -
The Hieracosphinx has the body of a lion and a head of a
hawk
Facts about the
Great Sphinx of Giza
The known facts and information
provide an accurate description of the Great Sphinx of Giza. Information
and Facts are as follows:
-
Definition: A
sphinx is a mythical beast of ancient Egypt with the head of
a man and the body of a lion, often symbolizing the pharaoh
as an incarnation of the sun god Ra
-
The sheer size
of the Sphinx is colossal standing taller than a six-story
building
-
It is one of the
largest single-stone statues in the world and carved out of
limestone bedrock
-
The Great Sphinx
of Giza was considered by the ancients to be one of the
Seven Wonders of the World
-
The Sphinx is
oriented due east facing the rising sun
-
For centuries
the sands buried the great ancient monument to the chin. The
entirety of the Sphinx was finally dug out in 1925
-
The paws and
breast were restored by the Ptolemy's and the Caesars
-
The Great Sphinx
of Giza is 57 metres (260 feet) long, 6 m (20 ft) wide, and
has a height of 20 m (65 ft)
-
The paws are 50
feet long (15m)
-
The head is 30
(10m) feet long and 14 feet (4m) wide
-
The
one-meter-wide nose on the face is missing
-
A beard, symbol
of the Pharaohs, used to hang from it’s chin, but it has
long since fallen away
-
It has a tail
which wraps around the right hind paw. The paw has been
restored in recent years
-
There is a
chapel located between the out-stretched feet of the sphinx
which was uncovered in 1816
-
A small temple
is located behind the great monument which is formed of
great blocks of red Syene granite
-
The Great Sphinx
of Giza is made from megaliths. A megalith is a large stone
which has been used to construct a structure or monument
either alone or with other stones without the use of mortar
or cement. The megaliths used to build the Great monument of
Giza are estimated to weigh 200 tons apiece, the smallest
weighing 50 tons and built from megaliths fashioned from a
single stone of rock
-
The body of the
monument has been subjected to considerable water damage
-
The Egyptian
government has refused permission for the the chambers
beneath the Sphinx to be excavated and explored
The Head of the
Great Sphinx of Giza
The lower part of the head-dress has
fallen, and the diminished neck looks too slender to sustain the
enormous weight of the head. The nose and beard have been broken off by
fanatics, and the red hue which formerly enlivened the features is
almost wholly effaced. A nemes adorns the head of the sphinx. The nemes
was the striped headcloth worn by the pharaoh, as seen on the gold mask
of Tutankhamun, which was tight across the forehead. The nemes has
lappets falling forward over each shoulder displaying the uraeus and the
vulture on the brow. The uraeus was a rearing cobra emblem associated
with the "eye" of the sun and meant to protect the pharaoh by spitting
fire at his enemies.
When was the
Great Sphinx of Giza built?
When was the Great Sphinx of Giza
built? Good question, but no one has the exact answer! The Great Sphinx
of Giza is carved of rock, so it cannot be dated by the radio carbon
technique. The only other method of dating the Sphinx would be by using
old Egyptian texts that refer to its existence and construction. The
problem is that there are no such texts, therefore, no definite facts
are known. The great monument was definitely in existence in the time of
Khufu (Cheops). Pharaoh Thutmose IV had a granite stele known as the
Dream stele placed between the paws (A stele was a stone slab, decorated
with text which served as a monument. But the sphinx probably dates back to the generations before the
Pharaoh Menes who established the 1st Egyptian dynasty
in the Early Dynastic Period.
These people were called in the priestly chronicles "the Servants of
Horus" and were the early people who settled in Egypt and who were
Aryans during the Predynastic Period 5550 BC - 3050 BC. However
other scholars believe that the Great Sphinx of Giza was built during
the period of the Old Kingdom of Egypt during the 3rd millennium BC. The Old Kingdom is often referred to as
"the Age of the
Pyramids" when the Great pyramids of Giza were built, in close proximity
to the Great Sphinx. The time period of the Old Kingdom covers 2686 BC - 2181 BC.
So there is no definitive answer to when the Great Sphinx was built and
who built the sphinx - it is no wonder that people often refer to the
Mystery or Riddle of of the Sphinx.
Mystery surrounding
the Head of the Great Sphinx of Giza
The mystery surrounding the head of
the Great Sphinx of Giza relates to the disproportional size of the
monument. Many believe that the original head was that of the lion.
The
Great Sphinx of Giza - Water Damage
The outer walls of the body of the
Sphinx has been subjected to considerable water damage despite being
located on borders the Sahara Desert. The mystery of the Sphinx deepens.
How could this have happened? The impressions on the eroded stone of the
sphinx are vertical, not horizontal as they would be if the erosion
occurred because of sand and wind (like the sand and wind erosion on the
pyramids around the Sphinx). However, we do know that the Sahara Desert
was once covered with grass and turned to dessert between 10,000
and 5,000 B.C. during a long period of torrential rainfall. Does this
give credence to the theories that the sphinx is much older than
scholars once believed?
The Mystery and
Riddle of the Sphinx
The eyes gaze out afar with a look of intense
and profound thoughtfulness and the mouth still wears a smile. What
secrets is the Sphinx hiding? We do not know. The Egyptian government
has refused permission for the the chambers beneath the Sphinx to be
excavated and explored. So the mystery, sometimes referred to the riddle
of the Sphinx continues:
-
No inscriptions
have yet been discovered on, or in, the Sphinx to indicate
who built it
-
The true origin
remains a mystery
-
The true purpose
remains a mystery
-
The Great Sphinx
of Giza has been subject to water damage although its
location borders the Sahara Desert
So deep is the riddle and
the mystery that the word sphinx is now used to describe an inscrutable
person who keeps his thoughts and intentions secret.
The Riddle of
the Sphinx
There is some confusion regarding the legend of
the Riddle of the Sphinx. The Riddle of the Sphinx refers to the
legendary Greek creature with the body of a lion and the head of a
woman. The myth surrounding the Greek Riddle of the Sphinx is therefore
attributed to Greek mythology. In this story the Sphinx of Thebes asked
a riddle of all travellers who passed by. If the traveller failed to
solve the riddle, then the Sphynx of Thebes would kill them. The riddle
of the Thebes Sphinx is:
"What goes on four legs in
the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?"
The answer to the riddle is:
"A man. He crawls on all
fours as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane in
old age."
The riddle refers to
morning, noon, and night which are metaphors for the times in a man's
life. The riddle was solved by Oedipus, whereupon the sphinx slew
herself.
The Great Sphinx
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