THE GREAT SPHINX AT GIZA
The Sphinx presides over the Giza necropolis and ancient art as the first colossal royal statue of Pharaonic Egypt. It was once a symbol of Egyptian kingship; it remains a symbol of the nation. As an archetype of antiquity, the image of the great Sphinx has stirred the imaginations of poets, scholars, adventurers and tourists for centuries.
The Sphinx is a composite of a lion's body with a king's face and head that symbolically wear the nemes headdress and a false beard. The beard, now lost, must have been sculpted with the head because it would be impossible to add it as a separate piece. A small portion of the beard found by Caviglia is now in two parts: one in the British Museum and one in the Egyptian Museum.
This magnificent creature is carved from a rock knoll that is part of the Mokatam Formation. Despite suggestions to the contrary, the location of the Sphinx is not a chance occurrence of a knoll or quarry nodule: the overseer of the project chose its location carefully in relation to the pyramid of Khafre.
Geologists suggest that the Sphinx consists of three members or layers. Member I is the lowest stratum. Most of the Sphinx's south wall and its lion body are carved in Member II. The neck is carved in the base of Member III which is the strongest member.
The weak composition of Member II necessitated the Sphinx's body be covered with large stones similar in quality to those that encased Khafre's pyramid. The Dynasty IV architect and sculptor worked together in the gross modeling of the mother rock and in the final modeling of the exterior casing of large stones that we see today. So rather than being the work of later restorers, the fine limestone covering the mother rock was already in place in the Old Kingdom. Only the head and neck were carved from the mother rock and left without a covering because here the rock belongs to the stronger Member III.
The Sphinx sits surrounded by the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, but it is intimately connected to Khafre's causeway and lower temple. This connection suggests that Khafre had it built as part of his pyramid complex.
The Sphinx belongs to Khafre's pyramid complex for several reasons. First, the south side of the Sphinx's ditch forms the northern edge of the Khafre's causeway as it runs past the Sphinx and enters the lower temple. A drainage channel runs along the north side of the causeway and opens into the upper southwest comer of the Sphinx's ditch, suggesting that the ancient quarrymen formed the ditch after Khafre's causeway was built; otherwise, they would not have designed the drain to empty into the ditch. Secondly, Khafre's lower temple sits on the same terrace as the Sphinx temple. The fronts and backs of the temples are nearly aligned, and the walls of both are built in the same style of large limestone blocks with harder red granite added as a finish.
This Old Kingdom monument remained sacred to later generations as evident in their great restoration ration projects undertaken to save the Sphinx. In Dynasty XVIII, Tuthmosis IV removed the accumulated sand from the Sphinx's body. He discovered that the Old Kingdom covering stones had fallen off, so he reset all the stone upon the body. Later, possibly during the Saite period, a second major layer of restoration masonry was added to the Sphinx's body. Then in the Roman period, between 30 BC and the second century AD, there was yet another program to restore the Sphinx. This crew covered most of the body with small stones.
Read about the History of the Conservation of the Sphinx HERE
Some Egyptologists regard the Sphinx as the guardian of the Giza plateau; but, Ricke, a German Egyptologist. believes that the Sphinx has, a solar function and that its Dynasty IV sculptors actually created the image of Hor-em-akhet, "Horus of the Horizon" This is the name given to the Sphinx the New Kingdom. The Old Kingdom sculptors, however, carved the Sphinx to represent Khafre as Horus giving offering to his father Khufu as Re, who rises and sits above the Sphinx temple.
Before the Sphinx is its temple which runs East-West and may have had two entrances on the North and the South. Inside, the east and west walls have stepped recesses. It is believed that the eastern set are for a ritual of the rising sun while the western recesses are for the setting sun. The 24 pillars around the hall, six on each of four sides, may represent the 12 hours of the day and the 12 hours of the night, while the two pillars in front of each of the two sanctuaries represent the arms and legs of the goddess Nut. The temple's open court is also connected with the solar cult.
As noted above, in the New Kingdom the Sphinx is called Hor-em-akhet-a fitting name considering that as Horus, the Sphinx lies between the "horizon" formed by the pyramids of Khufu (which is called 'akhet', horizon) and Khafre.
After 1550 BC, the Sphinx once again becomes a symbol of kingship and the symbol of the nation. From this time through the Roman period, pilgrims would leave behind temples, artifacts, ear tablets, shrines, rest houses and dream stela in reverence.
