THE SPHINX OF GIZA
DESHINX OF GIZA Has a length 73.5 meters long, 6 meters wide, a height 20.22 meters,
the face is 4 meters high, the eyes 2 meters.
About 50 million years ago, where the Giza plateau is now, it was sea.
The stone from which the Sphinx is made is limestone from the bottom of the sea.
The stone extracted from the horseshoe was used for the temple of the Sphinx, which lies at his feet, the rock is very old. And also contains a lot of salt.
Because the groundwater has become higher, the stone dissolves with the salt, causing the stone to fall apart into flakes.
The first restoration of the Sphinx must therefore have been from a very early time. Stones from three different periods have been found in the legs of the Sphinx. From the ancient Egyptians, the Romans and the Greeks.
The Great Sphinx of Giza may have been erected as a guardian of the Pyramid of Khafre and as a symbol of royal power. It was deified during the time of the New Kingdom.
Just think of the visit of Thutmose IV and the stele he left between the forelimbs of the Sphinx.
The Sphinx is a lion’s body but with the King’s head on top and symbolizes the enormous divine power that the kings of the 4th dynasty had at that time
Unfortunately, the sphinx’s beard was broken off a long time ago. But there are still 30 pieces,
found again and one of them is now in the British Museum in London. They have been found again
by Giovanni Battista Caviglia who explored the sphinx and the area around it in 1817.
And cleaned parts of the sphinc. Who at that time was buried in sand up to his neck.
His research was paid for by Henry Salt and another businessman. The agreement was then made with Mohamed-Ali Pasha that whatever was found would be taken to London. So the big piece of beard is now not here but in London.
Caviglia found all kinds of fragments of the beard and also the top of the Ureas in the sand.
Only when the sphinx was completely cleaned in 1925-1926 were other tombs found and they are in the Cairo Museum.
There is also a story that the great damage to the face was made by Napoleon and his army.
But there are also reports that the sight was lost before Napoleon arrived. But there is also a story about the Memnon colossi here in Luxor that is not the case either.
And I find it difficult to reconcile the fact that he deliberately destroys all of this, while on the other hand he has people in his entourage who made the descripsion of le Egypt.
