Great Sphinx of Giza

The Great Sphinx of Giza and the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt is by far the most famous and largest Sphinx. It provides a reclining lion with a human head is believed to have been built in the 4th Dynasty around 2700 to 2600 BC.

Features

The sphinx stands for more than four millennia, from the sands of the Egyptian desert, where it was covered most of the time up to the head of Sand, which contributed to its preservation.

The Sphinx consists of a human head on a lion's body, the human head has fallen in relation to the lion's body rather small. The reason for this disproportion is unknown. The human head is covered by a headscarf. The nose is canceled. The lion's body is composed of body, front and rear legs, and a tail that wraps around the thigh of the right hind leg.

Paint residue on the ear suggests that the figure was originally painted in bright colors. It was carved out of the remains of a limestone hill, which served as a quarry for the Great Pyramid. In addition to the Sphinx, a temple was built, the area is exactly the Valley Temple of the Pyramid of Chephren in a line. Thutmose IV erected between the paws of the Sphinx, the so-called Dream Stela whose inscriptions tell of his life.

The length of the Sphinx is about 73.5 m, of which 15 m accounted for by the outstretched front legs. The face of the Sphinx is 4 m wide, the head with headscarf 6 m. The height of the Sphinx is 20.2 m.

Function

What was the Sphinx, is still unknown. Maybe they should guard the plateau of Giza. The German Egyptologist Herbert Ricke says that the statue belonged to the cult of the sun and Harmachis represents a local form of the sun god Horus. Maybe the statue is also a picture of pharaoh Chephren depicted as Horus, or even an image of Cheops. Mark Lehner, who has conducted research from 1979 to 1983 at the Sphinx, believed like other Khafre as the builder. The German Egyptologist Rainer Stadelmann, however, prefers the King Cheops. With modern methods other pictures and statues of these two pharaohs were compared with the head of the Sphinx in the past few years. However, a clear and unambiguous assignment was not possible before.

Construction

Had been informed that the head of the Sphinx later on the lion's body has been scientifically disproved. The significant color differences are due to the different layers of rock forth. The geologist Thomas Aigner identified the stones that were used for the Sphinx Temple, with a location that is at chest height of the Colossus. Was used blocks that originate from the upper part of the valley temple of Khafre Sphinx for. From traditional Egyptology datings be like " over 8000 years old " regarded as unscientific speculation. According to the researchers, the head has been revised over the years several times.

Underground

Also the assumption was investigated by exploratory drilling in the bedrock of the Sphinx, there would be under the statue as yet undiscovered, dug by men and equipment. However, no artificially created cavities could be detected. Since in this chiseling exploratory drilling the Sphinx threatened to be damaged considerably more activities of this kind by the Egyptian Antiquities Authority (SCA ) were prohibited.

Excavation

Over time, the Sphinx was repeatedly released from the sand. So of Thutmose IV, who was then set up the so-called Dream Stela between the front paws. More purges were carried out under the Roman emperors Marcus Aurelius ( 161-180 ) and Septimius Severus ( 193-211 ).

In modern times, Giovanni Battista Caviglia was the first who had the Sphinx 1816-1818 largely exposed, as he searched for an input. He found, among other fragments of the beard, which are now exhibited in the British Museum. He was followed by the French engineer Émile Baraize who uncovered the Sphinx in the years 1925-1926 to the stone pedestal and secured weathered parts with limestone and mortar. Further excavations were carried out by the Englishman John Perring, the Near undertook various holes in search of secret chambers. A decade after Emile Baraize dug the Egyptian archaeologist Selim Hassan from a mud wall surrounding the Sphinx and found a brick with the inscription " Thutmose IV ".

Severed nose

Under the Arabs the Sphinx was given the name " Abu Hol ," which translates as "Father of Terror " means (Arabic أبو الهول, DMG Abu l - HUL ). In one of his books, the Arab historian Al- Maqrizi reports (1364-1442) that the devout Sufi sheikh of Cairo's Monastery, Saim Muhammad el- Dar ( Muhammad Şā'im ad - Dahr, German: " Someone who is all the time fasts " ), a fanatical iconoclast the nose of the Sphinx 1378 struck off and was killed by the angry mob. A native of Baghdad Arab Historians and physicians Abd al- Latif al - Baghdadi (1161-1231) confirmed by his description of the Great Sphinx and its magnificent nose in the 13th century indirectly this information. In the Middle Ages, the Sphinx of parts of the population was still worshiped as a god, devout Muslims abhorred this cult.

The Danish artist Frederick Ludewick North (1708-1742) made ​​in 1738 on his King Christian VI command. Engravings of various Egyptian buildings. Among them was one with the spilled Sphinx ( " colossal Tête du Sphinx " ), which also shows the head without a nose (1755 published in French). The rumor that soldiers of Napoleon Bonaparte or Turkish troops are said to have destroyed the nose with artillery exercises is thus proved to be wrong. Napoléon was an enthusiast of Egypt, who called this land as the " cradle of the arts and sciences of all mankind " ( " l' Égypte - le berceau de la science et de toute l' Humanité des arts "). His -down into the country, scientists recorded the Sphinx already without a nose at that time.

Parodies

There are several parodies about the story of the missing nose. Arguably one of the most famous place in the band Asterix and Cleopatra from the Asterix series, in which Obelix climbs to the Sphinx and breaks his nose under his weight.

In Las Vegas (Nevada, USA), there in front of the Luxor Hotel / Casino a replica of the Sphinx.