The Silence of Sphinxes
If you ask people what is their first association on Egypt, you will get different answers: sand, desert, camels, oasis… However, we bet the majority of the answers would be the Egypt is the most famous because of its pyramids. And yes, the pyramids in Egypt are so fascinating and they were included in the list of the Seven Wonders of the old world. It is obvious the ancient people were fascinated with them too.
Ancient Guardians
Nevertheless, not only the pyramids were the object of the human obsession. There is one other thing that is even more mysterious than the pyramids- those breathless thumbs of the pharaohs.
These objects are covered with a secret power that is still unknown to the people. For some, these objects are gates at the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead. For another, they are owners of the infinite wisdom. They are sphinxes.
The Egypt is the place where the sphinxes originally were born. It is true the ancient Greeks also had their version of these objects, but in their variant, sphinx was the supernatural being with a dragon’s tail, wings and a woman’s face. On the other hand, the original version from Egypt is created with lion’s body and face of the human.
Face Of The Pharoses
In most cases, the faces of the Egyptian sphinxes are the portraits of the pharoses, which were considered as Gods on earth. The main function of these objects was to be keepers of the tombs or, in some cases, the gardeners of the pharoses’ palaces.
According to the historians, one of the first sphinx was made during the period of the Fourth dynasty and it probably represents Queen Hetepheres II, daughter of Khufu. Today, this priceless object is part of the regular setting of the Cairo Museum, the largest museum in Egypt.
Although all sphinxes from Egypt are unique and equally important, the most famous is surely the oldest and the largest of all- the Great Sphinx of Giza.
This statue is really huge. Its dimensions are impressive- 20 meters high and 73.5 long, which makes it the biggest statue in the world. There are no coherent data when this object was built, but there are some traces it could be 4.600 years ago.
Also, there is confusion about whose face is on the Great Sphinx of Giza. It is great possibility this statue comes from the same period as first one- Fourth dynasty period and that represent the Khafra pharaoh.
Napoleon's Soldiers
Unfortunately, we cannot know what was the original look of this sphinx, because the paint has faded over the time. However, we know the statues facing the Khafra’s temple.
If you go to the Egypt to see this magnificent piece, you could be disappoint with the site, because the nose of this sphinx missing. This was “accomplishment” of the Napoleon’s soldiers, who were practicing shooting on this precious item.
Regardless sphinxes are the keepers of the world of dead or just the fascinating achievement of human creativity, they are still one of the biggest mysteries in the history.
