THE RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX
GOD OF THE SKY: TOURISTS AND LOCALS VISIT FORTY FIVE HUNDRED YEAR OLD SPHINX STATUE TO RECEIVE GOOD PROSPERITY AND HEALTH.
The question of who built the Sphinx has long vexed Egyptologists and archaeologists. Lehner, Hawass and others agree it was Pharaoh Khafre, who ruled Egypt during the Old Kingdom, which began around 2,600 B.C. and lasted some 500 years before giving way to civil war and famine.
BIGGEST STATUE IN THE WORLD VAST PIECE OF ROCK CARVED FROM A SINGLE STONE BEFORE TEMPLES AND THE GREAT PYRAMID AND SENDS A POWERFUL MESSAGE. MAYBE GUARDING THE PHAROAS PYRAMIDS. THE SPHINX MAY HAVE BEEN BUILT BY PHARO KING KHUFU OR HIS SON KFAFRE WHO BUILT THE SECOND PYRAMID OF GAZA.
AMAZNG NEW DISCOVERY HIS TOMB KING KFAFRE PERFECTLY ALIGNED WITH THE RISING OF THE SUN TO GIVE PHARO IMORTALITY AND EVER LASTING LIFE?
Great Sphinx of Giza, colossal limestone statue of a recumbent sphinx located in Giza, Egypt, that likely dates from the reign of King Khafre (c. 2575–c. 2465 BCE) and depicts his face. It is one of Egypt’s most famous landmarks and is arguably the best-known example of sphinx art.
The Great Sphinx is among the world’s largest sculptures, measuring some 240 feet (73 metres) long and 66 feet (20 metres) high. It features a lion’s body and a human head adorned with a royal headdress. The statue was carved from a single piece of limestone, and pigment residue suggests that the entire Great Sphinx was painted. According to some estimates, it would have taken about three years for 100 workers, using stone hammers and copper chisels, to finish the statue.
The Sphinx «sfihngks» was a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human, falcon, or ram. The Sphinx is found in both ancient Egyptian and Greek mythology. In Egyptian myth, the Sphinx was more of a symbol than an individual entity. It was a guardian figure, the protector of the pyramids, and the scourge of the enemies of Re, the sun god. It also represented the pharaoh and the pharaoh’s divine power. Sometimes the face of a carved or painted sphinx was meant to resemble a particular pharaoh.
In Greek mythology, the Sphinx was a monster. Some accounts note that it had the body and tail of a lion, the face of a woman, and the wings of a bird. It was an offspring of Echidna and Typhon, who also bore such other monsters as the Hydra, the Chimera, the many-headed dog Orthus, and the nasty Gorgons.
In the story of Oedipus, the goddess Hera sent the Sphinx to plague the people of the ancient city of Thebes. This was punishment for an ancient crime, possibly the failure to atone for the crimes of a former king of Thebes. The Sphinx sat perched on a mountain cliff nearby the ancient city. The creature guarded Thebes with a riddle that she had learned from the Muses. Each time a traveler failed to solve her riddle, she devoured them, effectively preventing anyone from leaving or entering the city.
The Great Sphinx has greatly deteriorated over the years, and since ancient times—possibly beginning in the reign of Thutmose IV (1400–1390 BCE)—various efforts have been undertaken to preserve the statue. Whereas the body has suffered the most erosion, the face has also been damaged, and its nose is notably missing. According to some, the damage was caused by Napoleon’s troops, who shot off the nose with a cannon. However, illustrations that date before Napoleon reveal a noseless sphinx.
According to the legend engraved on a pink granite slab between the Sphinx’s paws, the Egyptian prince Thutmose went hunting in the desert, grew tired and lay down in the shade of the Sphinx. In a dream, the statue, calling itself Horemakhet—or Horus-in-the-Horizon, the earliest known Egyptian name for the statue—addressed him. It complained about its ruined body and the encroaching sand. Horemakhet then offered Thutmose the throne in exchange for help.
Whether or not the prince actually had this dream is unknown. But when he became Pharaoh Thutmose IV, he helped introduce a Sphinx-worshiping cult to the New Kingdom (1550-1070 B.C.). Across Egypt, sphinxes appeared everywhere in sculptures, reliefs and paintings, often depicted as a potent symbol of royalty and the sacred power of the sun.
Based on Lehner’s analysis of the many layers of stone slabs placed like tilework over the Sphinx’s crumbling surface, he believes the oldest slabs may date back as far as 3,400 years to Thutmose’s time. In keeping with the legend of Horemakhet, Thutmose may well have led the first attempt to restore the Sphinx.
The riddle? “What being has four legs, then two, and then three?” Some accounts write it, “What has four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?” After many people guessed incorrectly and were killed, the king of Thebes announced that he would give the kingdom to anyone who could solve the riddle. The road past Mount Phicion, where the Sphinx awaited her victims, was strewn with the bones of people who had failed to find the right answer. Eventually, Oedipus, fleeing Corinth, solved the riddle. He answered, “Man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, then walks on two legs, and finally needs a cane in old age.” Upon hearing the correct answer, the Sphinx jumped from the cliff to her death. The plague of Thebes was lifted.
THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW: How a lion and a human head merged to create the Sphinx. Elemers glue probably not?
THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO SAVE: MINATURE GOLD SPHINX THEY ARE WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD
ZENTRAVELER SAYS: Dont have a tail and body like a lion and your human head attached maybe you are not a Sphinx. No worries you can worship the sun and and get your own ticket to imortality.
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