• It is thought that Pharaoh Khafre built the Sphinx in 2500 BC. But in an inscription in the Great Pyramid dating from 600 BC said that Khafre’s father, Khufu, had done repairs on the Sphinx’s tail and headdress.

• The Sphinx was carved out of bedrock from the Giza Plateau.

• The Sphinx is now brown and colorless but it used to be brightly painted with blue and yellow stripes. It had a dark red face. Traces of the original paint can still be seen by one of the ears.

• The paws of the Sphinx are 50 feet long, the entire length is 240 feet, the Sphinx is 65 feet tall and the head is 30 feet long and 14 feet wide.

• The Sphinx’s purpose is a mystery, but some think that it may have been built to symbolically guard the Giza Plateau. Others think it may have been a portrait of Pharaoh Khafre.

• There are many stories about how the nose was lost. One of them was that it fell off when Napoleon’s archaeologists were investigating it. Another is that the Marmeluke Army used the Sphinx for target practice. The true story is that it was removed by a Sufi who thought the Sphinx was a blasphemous idol in the 8th century.

The Sphinx is located in Egypt on the Giza Plateau. That’s 6 miles west of Cairo. The Sphinx faces due east, not very far from three pyramids. The Great Pyramid of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaura.

A research team discovered evidence that the Sphinx has water erosions on it. Unlike the horizontal wind and sand marks, they found vertical marks, as made by water. The erosion is heavier on upper parts of the Sphinx.

Most Egyptologists believed that the Sphinx was built in 2500 BC, but in 1991 a scientist (Robert Schoch) found water erosions on the Sphinx, a few believers began to question it. The Sphinx’s birthday may have to be pushed back to a much later date.

The Sphinx was covered with sand for most of its history. The first recorded clearing was in the 18th century by a prince called Thutmose. He fell asleep and was awoken by the Sphinx. The Sphinx told him that if he unburied him he would become king. So Thutmose unburied the Sphinx and then went back to Egypt and killed his brother, as to become king.

The name Sphinx was first given to a Greek creature that had the head of a women and a body of a lion and the wings of a bird. The creature was called a Sphinx because it comes from the Greek word that means ‘to strangle’ or ‘to bind tightly’ and it had a habit of strangling their victims.

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