Aperçu
The Great Sphinx lies on the Giza plateau west of the Nile, immediately southeast of the Pyramid of Khafre and north of the causeway linking Khafre's valley temple to his pyramid. Carved from a single limestone outcrop, the creature measures about 73 metres from paw to tail and rises roughly 20 metres to the top of the nemes headdress. A royal beard (fragments now in museums) and the remains of paint on the face show it was once vividly coloured.
Egyptologists generally attribute the monument to the 4th Dynasty pharaoh Khafre (c. 2558–2532 BCE), whose pyramid complex it faces, though alternative attributions to Khufu or Djedefre remain debated. The name "sphinx" is Greek; ancient Egyptians called the figure Hor-em-akhet ("Horus on the horizon"). For much of its history sand buried the body to the neck; systematic clearing began in the 19th century and accelerated under Egyptian and foreign missions in the 20th.
"I am thy father Harmakhis-Khepri-Ra-Atum, who will give thee the kingship upon earth… the sand of the desert upon which I am has nearly buried me."
— Dream Stela of Thutmose IV between the paws of the Sphinx, c. 1401 BCE
The Sphinx Enclosure shows deep weathering patterns that have fueled geological debate about age, but mainstream archaeology places the carving in the Old Kingdom. A small temple between the paws (New Kingdom and later) and the Dream Stela of Thutmose IV (c. 1400 BCE) document how later pharaohs claimed legitimacy through the figure. Pair a visit with the Pyramids of Giza and Saqqara to trace Egypt's pyramid age from Djoser to the 4th Dynasty.