The Sphinx is an Egyptian statue in the shape of a lion and a human head. It is believed that guarded the tombs and temples. The Phoenicians and the Greeks imitated the creation of statues resembling the Sphinx, but they were winged and their heads were like a woman's head.
The statue of the Sphinx in Giza is the most famous of all, and was carved from limestone and his head represents King Khafra, who lived in the century 26 BC. M. It is 24 feet high and 66 feet high. There are several Egyptian statues in the form of the Sphinx representing the kings and the goddess of the sun, and often the face of the statue is a bishop. Several statues were placed on either side of the roads leading to Pharaonic temples in Taiba, but their heads like rams.
The statue of the Sphinx is one of the ancient mysteries, but it is widely believed that the god Hour was mentioned more than once as a god (Horum im Akhti). He is a portrait of the god Atom, the greatest Egyptian god, the sun at sunset, visited by more than one king and engraved King Ramesses the Second was before Tutankhamun, as Tutankhamun's mother-in-law was Ramesses the Fourth, who changed his name to Akhenaten. When he deviated from the ancient religion of monotheism that prevailed in Egypt and went to worship the sun did not continue in Egypt and died by his death (1). And from the Roman era visited by Emperor Septus Severus.
It is known that the statue of the Sphinx was a stone before King Khafra thought of his sculpture in the form of a statue. This statue is seen on the east side, so that the original bodies were changed in the last century to agree with the Sphinx. The Sphinx was called the Pharaohs, The Pharaohs call the pit of the Sphinx (Borhul) any house around, and when the French came to Egypt they used to say that he called him (Bohol) because they do not pronounce the letter H and then he finally converted to the (Sphinx). The paintings depict the time of the French campaign against Egypt. The Sphinx is covered entirely in the sand next to the three pyramids. It was discovered during the French expedition when it stormed and revealed a small part. When the sand was excavated, But the sand that surrounded it was completely removed in 1905.
The statue is currently about 70 meters long and has a height of about 20 meters to the top of the head.
The nose of the Sphinx statue
The nose has been lost from the face of the statue, which is 1 meter wide, and there are myths still circulating that the nose was destroyed by the artillery of Napoleon soldiers. Other legends accuse the British, the Mamluks or others. But the drawings by Danish explorer Frederick Lewis Norden of the Sphinx in 1737 and published in 1755 in his book "The Trip to Egypt and Nubia" illustrate the statue without a nose. In the writings of the Egyptian historian Maqrizi in the fifteenth century attributed this fracture to the destruction of a person named Mohammed fasting age, a mystic fanatic, and this in the preaching and consideration in the mention of speeches and effects Part I 26/167 wrote: "In our time was known as Sheikh Mohammed fasting The era of the Sufi Sufi Surah Al-Khannaqah Said Al-Sada'a, in about 1808, he changed the things of evil and went to Al-Ahram and distorted the face of the Sphinx and its sha'a is on it until today "
The old fasting man was furious with the Egyptians for offering sacrifices to the statue to increase their crops. He tried to dissuade him and was executed because of his vandalism.