What is the Great Sphinx?

The Great Sphinx

What has the body of a lion and the head of a man? A monster, No – a sphinx! A sphinx was a figure from Egyptian myth that was often represented in ancient statues. The Great Sphinx at Giza is the largest of these statues.

About 4,500 years ago, a gigantic limestone hill stood where the Great Sphinx is now. Stonecutters cut blocks from the limestone, perhaps to build the Great Pyramid of Egypt’s King Khufu, or, more likely, to build the pyramid of a later king, Khafre. But the rock in the centre of the hill was too crumbly to use for building.

On this leftover limestone, sculptors carved a rough face and body. To do this, they wedged picks in the stone and hit the picks with wooden hammers.

Next, the sculptors covered the image with a kind of plaster. They could carve the plaster in greater detail than would have been possible in coarse stone. Then artists painted the plaster to add more detail. The Sphinx still wears bits of the red paint, but most of it has worn away.

Picture Credit : Google