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Among the wonders of the the Giza plateau in Egypt rises a colossal sculpture.
Thousands of years old, its origins shrouded in mystery, the Great Sphinx remains one of
the most recognizable pieces of ancient Egyptian art to survive into modern times.
The Great Sphinx of Giza is thought to be the oldest colossal sculpture in the world,
and very little is known for certain about its early history and construction.
Egyptologists believe it was carved about 4500 years ago - around 2500 BC.
It was carved in a single piece from the limestone bedrock of the plateau: a massive statue depicting
a creature with the head of a man and the body of a lion.
At 240 feet or 73 meters long and 66 feet or 20 meters high, it has remained one of
the largest sculptures in the world for millennia.
Although there are no known surviving records of the sphinx's construction or original purpose,
it may have been created to honor the pharaoh Khafre, a 4th dynasty ruler of the Old Kingdom.
Archaeologists have compared the face of the sphinx to sculptures known to be of the pharaoh
Khafre and concluded that it was likely meant to represent him.
Khafre's father, Khufu, built the first and largest of the great pyramids on the Giza
plateau.
When he became pharaoh, Khafre wanted his own pyramid.
Khafre's pyramid was slightly smaller than his father's, but it was originally surrounded
by an elaborate complex which included many statues, a temple, and the sphinx - guarding
his tomb.
After thousands of years in the blowing desert sand, we can only guess how it originally
looked.
There are some clues: fragments of a beard were found between the sphinx's paws.
Traces of pigment were found on the face, suggesting it was once painted in bright colors.
The sphinx's nose is famously missing, and many people have wondered what happened to it.
According to one myth, Napoleon's troops shot it off with a cannon in the 1790s!
However, drawings from the time show that the sphinx's nose was missing long before
Napoleon's visit to Egypt.
From chisel marks on the sphinx's face, archaeologists have determined that the nose was removed
deliberately, instead of falling off accidentally, some time between the years 300 and 1000 AD.
To this day, the missing nose has never been found.
Much like its original appearance, the original name of the sphinx has been lost to time.
Even the word 'sphinx,' which is what we call it now, was only applied to the Great Sphinx
of Giza about 2000 years ago - more than 2000 years after it was built.
'Sphinx' is not even an Egyptian word: it comes from ancient Greece.
In Greek mythology, the sphinx was a monster with the body of a lion, the head of a woman,
and wings, that killed anyone who failed to answer a riddle.
By contrast, Egyptian sphinxes were considered spiritual guardians, and often appeared in
tombs or near temples.
For most of its history, the sphinx was buried up to its neck in the blowing desert sand.
We know that it was excavated by a pharaoh around 1400 BC, and unburied again around
100 AD for the visit of a Roman Emperor.
After that the sand was allowed to pile up for nearly 2,000 years, until the sphinx was
partially uncovered during a modern archaeological dig that began in 1817.
It was not completely revealed until the 1930s, but it has been kept free of the sand ever
since.
With the sphinx fully exposed, Egyptologists have been able to study it more closely.
For a long time, people have wondered if more secrets lay buried in the sand below the sphinx.
Was there a long-lost tomb, a hidden chamber, or a secret library underneath?
Multiple tunnels have been dug, some of them by treasure hunters, but so far there is no
evidence of anything constructed beneath the sphinx.
Someday the sphinx my reveal new secrets, but for now, it remains one of the oldest,
largest, and most amazing pieces of sculpture on the planet.