Why does the sphinx guard the pyramids

Sphinx is the human-headed lion in ancient Greek mythology; the term likely came into use some 2, years after the statue was built.

There are hundreds of tombs at Giza with hieroglyphic inscriptions dating back some 4, years, but not one mentions the statue. The face, though better preserved than most of the statue, has been battered by centuries of weathering and vandalism. Archaeological excavations in the early 19th century found pieces of its carved stone beard and a royal cobra emblem from its headdress. Traces of blue and yellow paint elsewhere suggest to Lehner that the Sphinx was once decked out in gaudy comic book colors.

Then, in , a Genoese adventurer, Capt. Giovanni Battista Caviglia, led men in the first modern attempt to dig out the Sphinx. They could not hold back the sand, which poured into their excavation pits nearly as fast as they could dig it out. The Egyptian archaeologist Selim Hassan finally freed the statue from the sand in the late s. The question of who built the Sphinx has long vexed Egyptologists and archaeologists. Then, in , French archaeologist and engineer Emile Baraize probed the sand directly in front of the Sphinx and discovered yet another Old Kingdom building—now called the Sphinx Temple—strikingly similar in its ground plan to the ruins Mariette had already found.

Limestone is the result of mud, coral and the shells of plankton-like creatures compressed together over tens of millions of years.

Looking at samples from the Sphinx Temple and the Sphinx itself, Aigner and Lehner inventoried the different fossils making up the limestone.

The fossil fingerprints showed that the blocks used to build the wall of the temple must have come from the ditch surrounding the Sphinx. Apparently, workmen, probably using ropes and wooden sledges, hauled away the quarried blocks to construct the temple as the Sphinx was being carved out of the stone. That Khafre arranged for construction of his pyramid, the temples and the Sphinx seems increasingly likely. But who carried out the backbreaking work of creating the Sphinx?

In , an American tourist was riding in the desert half a mile south of the Sphinx when she was thrown from her horse after it stumbled on a low mud-brick wall.

Hawass investigated and discovered an Old Kingdom cemetery. Some people were buried there, with tombs belonging to overseers—identified by inscriptions recording their names and titles—surrounded by the humbler tombs of ordinary laborers. Near the cemetery, nine years later, Lehner discovered his Lost City.

He and Hawass had been aware since the mids that there were buildings at that site. Wind and sand have eaten away at the limestone over the centuries since the Great Sphinx was built. According to this tablet, the Great Sphinx appeared to Pharaoh Thutmose IV in a dream, more than 1, years after it was first built. It promised to make him king of all Egypt if he would clear away the sand covering the statue. A restoration project is currently under way to replace the stone casing that once protected this monument.

S phinxes are sometimes represented with a female face. For example, a sphinx of Queen Hatshepsut was sculpted with her face and a pharaoh's beard. Queen Tiy , wife of Amenhotep III, was the first to have a truly female sphinx sculpted in her likeness. Besides a female face without a beard, her sphinx had breasts and wings. T he Sphinx differs from other deities in that it has an animal body and a human head, whereas most other deities have human bodies and animal heads.

One explanation for this anomaly is that the Sphinx is the earthly representation of the constellation Leo, which has a lion's body. For one thing, the head and face of the Sphinx are strikingly similar to a life-size statue of Khafre that French archaeologist Auguste Mariette found in the Valley Temple—the ruins of a building situated adjacent to the Great Sphinx—in the mids.

In the s, researchers uncovered evidence that the limestone blocks used in the walls of the Sphinx Temple came from the ditch surrounding the great statue, suggesting workmen hauled away quarry blocks for the Sphinx Temple as they were being chipped off the Great Sphinx during its construction.

Researchers estimate that it would have taken people 3 years to carve the Great Sphinx out of a single mass of limestone. Some theories suggest the face of the sphinx actually resembles Khufu and, therefore, Khufu built the structure. Other theories hold that the statue depicts Amenemhat II around to B.

Some scientists also contend that the Great Sphinx is far older than is widely believed, based on the potential age of the causeway or various patterns of erosion of the statue. What Egyptians called the Great Sphinx during its prime remains a riddle, because the word sphinx originates from Greek mythology some 2, years after the statue was built. Whatever the case, the statue began to fade into the desert background at the end of the Old Kingdom, at which point it was ignored for centuries.

Whether or not the dream actually occurred is unknown, but when the prince did, in fact, become Pharaoh Thutmose IV, he introduced a Sphinx-worshipping cult to his people. Statues, paintings, and reliefs of the figure popped up across the country and the sphinx became a symbol of royalty and the power of the sun.

The Great Sphinx was eventually forgotten again. Its body suffered from erosion and its face became damaged by time as well. More likely, the nose was purposely destroyed by a Sufi Muslim in the 15th century to protest idolatry.

The Sphinx was actually buried in sand up to its shoulders until the early s, when a Genoese adventurer named Capt. Giovanni Battista Caviglia attempted and ultimately failed to dig out the statue with a team of men.

Mariette managed to clear some of the sand from around the sculpture and Baraize made another large excavation push in the 19th and 20th centuries. Today, the Sphinx is continuing to deteriorate thanks to wind, humidity, and pollution. Restoration efforts have been ongoing since the mids, some of which failed and ultimately caused more damage to the Sphinx.