Sphinx: Symbolic of ancient Egypt

To the south of Khafre’s pyramid at Giza which is near to Cairo, there in sits and revels in sun, wind and storm a creature which has a head of a human but the body is of lion. The colossal royal sculpture, one of the monumental and phenomenon statues of ancient Egypt is known as Great Sphinx which is now become the national symbol of Egypt in modern times as well.

The sight of this monumental statue has stirred and twirled the imaginations scholars, experts, archeologist, scores of poets, adventurers and in this times the plethora of tourists.

Sphinx has always been a mystery that no inscriptions or findings have ever helped to get a clue to solve it. A number of speculations have been pledged and are still made for its age, the meaning of this symbolic statue and the secret that it may be holding.

Sphinx means ‘strangler’ this was first used by Greeks- accordingly it was fantastic creature which had a woman’s head, body of lion and with wings of bird. But in Egypt, the symbolic sphinx, which are numerous have a head of king with his headdress and lion’s body. However in Egypt there are sphinxes which have a ram’s head and these are associated to the God Amun.

The Great Sphinx is considered to be the most immense and mammoth stone sculpture in the round which has ever been made by man. All the Sphinx monuments are not isolated monument rather when examined in the context of its surroundings, there is a complex of great statue of sphinx along with old temple or New Kingdom temple with other small structures around. In Kahfre’s valley temple there are four colossal sphinxes statue which are some 26 feet long.

Built from limestone, this human head on lion’s body may be denotes the animal power being tamed by human intelligence and having divine calm or best way to show king of the forest with the mind of human king. There are many theories and stories and mentioning of sphinx but the mystery remains to be unsolved.