The Sphinx was a lot larger than I had imagined it to be. When arriving at the Sphinx there is a gorgeous view of the pyramids behind the sphinx. The Sphinx is thought to be built by King Khafre who was the son of Khufu a king in the fourth dynasty. The definition of a Sphinx is a lion body with the head of king or God. We were able to look at the back of the Sphinx which was being restored at this time but there is a tail of a lion. However this sphinx is one is the largest and most popular.
When arriving to the Sphinx I was in amazement of the Sphinx since it looked even better than seen in a magazine. After looking at it for a while I then began to realize how damaged it has been over time. The first thing I noticed was that it was missing its nose. We were told that the nose has been missing for a very long time and the story goes that the French were camping underneath the Sphinx and they accidently shot the nose off during the night.
Another thing that I realized was missing was the beard of the Sphinx. All pharaohs or kings depicted themselves with beards during this time. No one is sure what happened to the beard but they are worried that the Sphinx will eventually fall because it no longer has the support of the beard to keep it up right.
The Sphinx as I said early was under restoration in the back. They have to restore the Sphinx because of the sand storms that occur in the area that have damaged the Sphinx. Since they have no way to avoid this type of damage they constantly have to restore parts of the Sphinx in order to preserve it.
The Sphinx was an amazing site appearing even better in person than in any magazine or internet site could ever picture it as.
Posted at 5:58 PM by Sara Manning