However, according to the Egyptians, the Sphinx was a benevolent creature that protected the Pharaohs and the land of Egypt.

Unlike the Greek monster, the Great Sphinx has a human head and no wings. Different forms of the Sphinx appeared in different periods of ancient Egypt, while the body of a lion remained the same, the head changed to that of a ram, a jackal, a falcon, and a crocodile.

Who built the Sphinx?

Two of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Great Sphinx of Giza are when it was built and by whom.

Scholars agree that the Sphinx was built about 4,500 years ago, during the time of the Old Kingdom of Egypt when the great pyramids were built.

Archaeologists believe that the Great Sphinx was built during the Old Kingdom of Egypt (c. 2575-2150 BC) by the Fourth Dynasty Pharaoh Khafre.

The Sphinx and these giant tombs are definitely connected as the giant guardian appears to sit right between two Pyramids, each built by a different Pharaoh.

Khufu, who ruled around 2,500 BC, built the Great Pyramid and his son Khafre built his own slightly smaller tomb.

As great as the Pyramids are, little is known about these Pharaohs. Archaeologists have struggled to solve the mystery of who built the Sphinx.

To date, there is no clear information about Khufu or Khafre’s contribution to the construction of the Sphinx.

The most popular theory, put forward by Egyptologists such as Mark Lehner and Zahi Hawᴀss, is that Khafre built the Sphinx as part of a larger project that included his burial site and surrounding temple complex.

These scholars studied the various structures in the pharaohs’ necropolis complex and found the Sphinx’s location within the plan of Khafre’s pyramid and temples to be the most suitable, suggesting that these structures were carefully and logically planned.

Researchers believe the Sphinx itself was carved from a giant block of limestone, likely exposed when workers were quarrying large boulders to build nearby temples.

In ancient Egypt, the Sphinx was worshiped and considered part of the sacred Giza necropolis.

Reborn from sand

However, over time, the statue was forgotten because the desert sand buried the entire statue, leaving only the Sphinx’s head exposed.

In the late 1790s, when Emperor Napoleon’s army fought the British army in Egypt, the French emperor immediately became fascinated with ancient Egyptian history and its monuments, including the Sphinx.

Upon seeing the statue and the Pyramids, Emperor Napoleon exclaimed: “A thousand years of history are looking down on us!”

Ancient Egypt so inspired Napoleon’s followers that upon returning to France they set about creating a comprehensive historical archive of ancient Egypt with detailed drawings of all that they had witnessed in the country.

After that, excavations of the Sphinx began, but all the efforts of archaeologists were not very successful.

It was not until 1817 that the Italian Egyptologist Giovanni Battista Caviglia began to make progress, allowing the Sphinx’s broad chest and mᴀssive feet to be seen by the end of the 19th century.

But in the end, the desert sand – the “culprit” that buried the Sphinx of Ginza – “atoned” and brought the statue back. In the late 1930s, a sandstorm swept away all the sand and the Sphinx of Cinza was completely revealed.

Its reappearance after hundreds of years of being buried under the sand surprised and astonished mankind by its enormous size: nearly 20m high from the ground to the top of its head and more than 72m long from its front legs to its tail.

This is one of the tallest and oldest sculptures in the world with most of the Sphinx carved directly from a giant limestone block.

The head of the Sphinx bears several symbols of the ancient Egyptian monarchy. The Sphinx wears the cloth headdress of the Egyptian Pharaohs and has a carved king cobra on its forehead.

Time has robbed the Sphinx of its noble nose and beard, but the remaining features are still clearly defined despite the erosion.