Who is He ?
1- The Great Sphinx is a national symbol of Egypt...an integral , and very famous...a part of Khafre’s funeral complex is the great Sphinx .
2- The gigantic crouching lion with a human , countenance that may believe reproduces the facial features of the Pharaoh.
3- The word “ Sphinx “ which may come from the Egyptian expression ....Shesep ankh.... living image means with sculpture .
The Arabs gave it the strange name of Abu Hol which means the father of terror .
4- The sphinx located south east of the great pyramid of Cheops , is 20 m tall and 57 m long .. The head wearing the typical nemesis is 6 m heigh .
5- The monument was modeled 4500 years ago from a natural knoll of limestone at Giza containing rock of 3 different types .
6- in its extraordinary monumentality and mystery the Sphinx half mountain and half crouching , beast is a sculpture unique
in all of the Egyptian Art Dream stela
1- A granite stela weighing 15 tones and 3.5 m tall .
2- located between the front paws of the Sphinx.
3- erected by Thutmose IV , 18th dynasty and dated to the first year of his reign.
4- This commemorates his accession to the Throne and tells the story of how a young prince on a hunting expedition in the vicinity of the Sphinx.
He fell asleep in the shadow of the statues head indicating that sand then lay up to its neck .
While he slept, the Sphinx as the embodiment of the sun and primeval king.
In all its aspects Khepri-Re-Atum appeared in a dream and offered him the Throne of upper and lower Egypt in return for repairing its body and cleaning the sand.
The text break off , but at the top of the stela Thutmose etched a scene of him self giving offerings and libations to the Sphinx.
-Khepri_Re_Atun .... Thutmose , my son , I am your father if you free me from the sand that oppresses me , I will make you king and you will wear on your head the white crown and the red crown.
Thutmose did as he was told and also built retaining walls to halt the advance of the sand
To recall the event he placed a pink granite stela about 4 m in height between the paws of the Sphinx.
The Sphinx temple
1- in front of the Sphinx , slightly to the right are the remains of a small temple in limestone and pink Aswan granite with 2 enterances .
2- It once boasted a courtyard with an interior colonnade of large rectangular pillars and an alter for offerings at the center , its structure is similar to that of the valley temple of Khafre , which stands along side it .
3- This temple may have been used for ceremonies on occasion of the Jubilee of the Pharaoh or it might actually have been dedicated to the great sphinx .
4- Unfortunately , in the temple there is no trace of decorative detail and no texts have yet provided us with any information about it .
5- The 24 pillars surrounding the large courtyard may have represented the 12 hours of day and the 12 hours of night .
There are many Theories about the destruction of the Sphinx’s nose
Some mistakenly believe that Napoleons’s soldiers destroyed it .
Many Egyptologists give credence the story written by the Arab historian El Makrizi that a Sufi named Saem-el_Dahr who lived in the 9th century A.D damaged it to show the people that the Sphinx was just a stone statue not the sacred object they thought it was.
During the 18th dynasty ...1000 years after its construction , the desert sand covered The Sphinx.
The Tuthmosis IV cleared sand from the statue
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