The country of Egypt owns pyramids that were built thousands of years ago and still contain unanswered mysteries. In addition, there is also a giant sphinx statue here, making many scientists have a headache to decipher. The Egyptian Sphinx is a famous wonder of the world that was built a long time ago. So what is the significance of this statue being built? Who built it? Let’s learn about the Egyptian sphinx with Kem Holiday right in the article below!

Egyptian Sphinx

1. Introduction to the Egyptian Sphinx

The sphinx is located in the pyramid complex of Giza, located on the left bank of the Nile River in Giza, Egypt. The sculpted statue has the shape of a human head and a lion’s body with legs with claws spread out in front. The body is carved quite sketchily, but the head is very elaborately carved, the sphinx in a prostrate posture is guarding the temple of King Pharaoh Khafre. The sphinx’s eyes stared out at the front of the desert filled with mystery that no one could explain.

The eyes of the Egyptian sphinx are filled with mysteries that no one has explained

In Greek, “Sphinx” is translated as “Sphinx”, so the people here believe that the Sphinx represents an evil and dangerous force that everyone is afraid of. However, contrary to the Greek conception, the image of the sphinx in the eyes of the Egyptians represented wisdom and extraordinary strength and was placed at the entrance of temples and pyramids like gatekeepers. And there is the shape of a man’s head.

The Egyptian Sphinx is recognized as the largest monolithic statue in the world with a length of 73.5 meters, a height of up to 20.22 meters, a width of 5 meters, and a nose of 1.7 meters. This sphinx is part of the ancient city of Memphis, which was once considered the seat of power of the Pharaohs, and not far away is the place where the three great pyramids of Khufu (Cheops), Khafre (Chephren) and Menkaura (Mycerinus) were built.

The Egyptian Sphinx is recognized as the largest monolithic sphinx in the world

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2. The legend of the sphinx

Legend has it that once upon a time on the outskirts of Thebes, Egypt, there was a monster named Sphinx who was born in love with the giant Typhon and the snake demon Echidna. At birth, it has a very unusual shape, a lion’s head and additional wings on its back. This monster studied with the goddess of wisdom Mu-si, so she is very smart, brave, but has a fierce personality and a terrible hobby of eating people. Sphinx didn’t want people to be looked down on and despised, so he devised a way for them to be submissive. By waiting in front of the forest gate next to the mountain, if someone pᴀsses by it will be forced to answer the riddle it gives, otherwise it will receive a very tragic end, the Sphinx will tear the body and eat the person immediately.

The painting depicts a Sphinx with a human head and a lion’s body with wings on its back

One day, the son of the king of Egypt was also caught by the monster Sphinx. Since he couldn’t solve it, it became a delicious dish for Sphinx. When the king heard that his son was being eaten, he was very heartbroken and pitied him boundlessly. Soon after, the king ordered the whole country and announced to the neighboring countries: Whoever can subdue the Sphinx monster so that it does not harm any more people will be given the throne by the king and his beautiful queen.

The news quickly spread everywhere and reached the ears of a young Greek man named Oedipus. As soon as he heard the news, the cunning and brave young man Oedipus set out to cross the sea to peel off the king’s proclamation and was determined to find the Sphinx to destroy it.

Naturally, when he came to see the Sphinx, Oedipus was caught by him to solve a riddle: “Guess what, in the morning it walks on four legs, in the afternoon it walks on two legs, and in the evening it walks on three legs. Of all the species, only one that travels at different times will use different steps to walk. When he walks a lot, it’s also the time when his speed and strength are the smallest?”

The painting depicts a dialogue between Oedipus and the monster Sphinx

After the Sphinx finished saying the question, he casually smiled mysteriously and was probably waiting for a delicious bait to suddenly arrive in his mouth. But unexpectedly, Oedipus didn’t need to think much and immediately replied: “It’s humans! When they were young, it was the morning of life, when children first learned to walk, they would use both their hands and legs to crawl, wasn’t it walking on 4 legs. When children learn to walk, although they walk on 4 legs, the speed and strength are the smallest. After that, people gradually grew up, at the time of their prime, it was also the noon of life and walked on two legs. Until you get old, your body begins to weaken, and you will have to use a cane to walk, isn’t it like walking on three legs?”

Sphinx didn’t expect Oedipus to be smarter than he was, and he felt so angry and embarrᴀssed that he didn’t know where to hide, so he plunged his head into the ground from above and died.

In the kingdom, the king, who heard the news that Oedipus had defeated the monster, was overjoyed and fulfilled his promise. He immediately gave the throne and his beautiful wife to Oedipus as a token of graтιтude. Before ceding the throne, the king also ordered someone to carve a statue of the monster Sphinx where it usually appears (in the place where the sphinx is displayed today). The statue of Sphinx is carved as large as a whole mountain to remind people that there was once a fierce monster that appeared here.

The sphinx was once buried in the sand

In addition, it is said that there is another riddle: “There are two sisters, one gives birth to the other, and vice versa, the other gives birth to this person.” The answer to this question is day and night. Because in Greek both are female.

3. Meaning of the Egyptian Sphinx

In ancient Egypt, the lion was considered a symbol of the sun hence it is believed that this sphinx was erected to worship the sun god in more than 2,500 BC. They call the sphinx “Hor-Em-Akhet” which means Horus of the Horizon. However, there was a change in meaning 1000 years later, when the statue was used by people to worship another sun god named Harmachis and pharaoh AmenH๏τep II built an altar in the middle of the sphinx’s legs. In addition, the sphinx statue was built for the purpose of driving away all sins and evil retributions in the graveyard around the pyramid.

Personnel statues were erected to worship the sun god and ward off evil around the pyramid necropolis area

4. Sphinx related to astrology

Buvale and Khencoc have made the same conclusion that the orientation of the Egyptian sphinx is related to the direction of the sunrise. And the statue was built according to the remnants of the Spring Equinox (March 21), which is one of the two points in the earth’s orbit, where the length of day and night are equal.

In addition, the Giza pyramid complexes coincided with the stars in the Orion constellation within 10500 BC. Buvale and Khencoc experimented with placing a simulated starry sky on their computer at the above time, and unexpectedly, on the day of the Spring Equinox, not long after the sun rose, the sphinx had a direct view of the Leo star cluster.

The sphinx has a direct view of the Leo constellation

5. When was the Egyptian Sphinx built?

According to many inferences, the sphinx was carved out of a monolithic stone in 2,500 BC, i.e. during the time of Khafre (pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, living around 2603-2578 BC). He is credited with building the second pyramid in the pyramid complex in Giza.

The theory is that during his reign, he once went to check how far his pyramid had been built and saw a rather large rock outside, so he ordered the carver to carve a statue of a lion and a human face with a figure similar to his face to commemorate the construction of his pyramid completed.

Another theory is that, when Khafre went to inspect the progress of the pyramid, he found that his authority was not very great and expressed his dissatisfaction. A craftsman saw this and made a suggestion to Khafre that he use a large stone there to carve a statue of a lion with a face that showed more majesty and wisdom than Khafre’s.

Khafre was a king of the Fourth Dynasty of ancient Egypt

To confirm that their hypothesis is correct, scientists have relied on the same lines between the face of the sphinx and the face of King Khafre.

However, many people still disagree with this theory, most notably Dobrev, who argues that the Egyptian sphinx appeared more than 4,500 years ago and was built on the orders of King Djedefre, Khafre’s half-brother. And King Djedefre was the son of Khufu – the king who built the largest pyramid in the Giza pyramid complex.

Mr. Dobrev said that after the death of King Khufu, the people of ancient Egypt were very sad. Therefore, King Khufu’s successor, King Djedefre, ordered the construction of a giant sphinx with a face similar to his father’s, ᴀssimilating his father with the sun god Ra, so that his subjects would always respect the king’s reign

It has also been suggested that the sphinx dates back to 5000-9000 BC, based on traces of water erosion found on both the statue and the surrounding rock formations. This statement comes from Dr. Robert M. Schoch, a geologist at Boston University, who was the first to study the structural hypothesis on the Giza Plateau, Egypt, which dates further than people think. He made a thorough study of this mysterious sphinx and made his remarks after his second trip to Egypt in 2.

Based on the traces of water erosion, it is thought that the sphinx dates back to 5000-9000 BC

6. Unsolved mysteries

A lot of inferences have been made about the mystery of the Egyptian sphinx, which has attracted the attention of a large number of scientists, astrologers, archaeologists,… Some people even believe that the statue was created from a supernatural power and that there was a path leading to the ancient legendary city of Atlantis. This speculation dates back to the early 20th century, when American psychologist Edgar Allan Cayce said that he saw a room inside the Sphinx, which contained secrets about the location of the city of Atlantis and also indicated that the time when the room was found was in 1998.

Not only that, but rumors about the anomalies surrounding the statue and the secret pᴀssages to get inside have also been made in investigations by universities such as Florida State University, Waseda University in Japan and Boston University.

Excavation of the sphinx buried in the sand for the first time

Between 1991 and 1993, Anthony West’s team was examining the erosion of the sphinx in Egypt using seismicity. They discovered holes shaped like rooms just a few meters deep in the ground, located close to the sphinx’s foundation. However, further research by the team was not allowed to be carried out.

In 1995, while renovating a parking lot near the sphinx, a series of pᴀssages and tunnels were discovered, two of which lead to the sphinx.

The back bears the lion’s body of the statue

Above is Kem Holiday’s sharing about the Egyptian sphinx, I hope that through this article, visitors have more information about this mysterious statue.