The Spinx :: essays papers

The SpinxIn a depression to the s revealh of Chephrens pyramid sits a creature with a sympathetic mental capacity and a social lions organic structure. The name sphinx which means strangler was first given by the Greeks to a fabulous creature which had the head of a woman and the body of a lion and the wings of a bird. The sphinx appears to have started in Egypt in the form of a sun god. The Egyptian sphinx is usually a head of a king wearing his headdress and the body of a lion . There argon, however, sphinxes with ram heads that are associated with the god Amun.The Great Sphinx is to the northeast of Chephrens valley Temple. Where it sits was once a quarry. Chephrens workers shaped the stone into the lion and gave it their kings face everyplace 4,500 years ago. The sphinx faces the rising sun with a temple to the front, which resembles the sun temples which were build later by the kings of the 5th Dynasty. The figure was buried for most of its invigoration in the sand. King Thutmose IV (1425 - 1417 BC) placed a stela surrounded by the front paws of the figure. It describes when Thutmose, while still a prince, had gone hunting and brute(a) asleep in the shade of the sphinx. During a dream, the sphinx spoke to Thutmose and told him to clear by the sand because it was choking the sphinx. The sphinx told him that if he did this, he would be rewarded with a kingship. Thutmose carried out this request and the sphinx held up his end of the deal. The sphinx is built of soft sandstone and would have disappeared large ago had it not been buried for so long. The body is 200 feet in length and 65 feet tall. The face of the sphinx is 13 feet wide and its eyes are 6 feet high. Part of the uraeus (sacred cobra), the nose and the ritual beard are without delay missing. The beard from the sphinx is displayed in the British Museum. The statue is crumbling today because of the wind, humidity and the smog from Cairo. Attempts to desex it have often caused more harm than good. No one contribute be certain who the figure is to personify. It is possible that it is Chephren. If that is so, it would then be the oldest know royal portrait in such large scale.