Carved from a limestone knoll by the Khafre complex (c. 2550–2490 BCE), the Great Sphinx combines lion body and human head, likely the king’s, as solar guardian of Giza’s causeways and temples. Eroded over millennia and repeatedly buried by sand, it bears ancient repairs and New Kingdom stelae; modern conservation stabilizes stone, drainage, and salts as research refines its chronology and symbolism.
South of Khafre’s pyramid, a natural bedrock promontory was sculpted into the Sphinx, with quarried blocks from its ditch reused in the adjacent Sphinx Temple. Axis and masonry links tie the monument to Khafre’s Valley and Mortuary Temples, suggesting a royal portrait fused with leonine power and solar cult.
The Sphinx is hewn, not assembled: layers of nummulitic limestone with differing hardness dictated detailing and later patching. The head’s nemes headdress and uraeus once framed a now‑damaged nose; the royal beard fragments survive in museums. A perimeter ditch created both monumentality and the quarry for nearby temples.
Periodic burial preserved and damaged the Sphinx. Thutmose IV’s Dream Stela (c. 1400 BCE) recounts a promise of kingship if he cleared the sand. Later restorations added stone facings; Greco‑Roman travelers left graffiti; medieval accounts mix awe and legend. Modern excavations and documentation (19th–20th centuries) cleared approaches and revealed restoration histories.
Salt crystallization, wind abrasion, and pollution attack weakened beds. Interventions include lime‑based mortars, stone inserts, drainage measures, and barriers to manage crowding. Debate over past cement repairs informed a return to compatible materials. Monitoring now tracks micro‑movement, moisture, and temperature to guide minimally invasive care.
Royal image, solar guardian (Horus in the Horizon), cosmological marker at dawn—interpretations overlap. Scientific dating anchors it in the 4th Dynasty despite fringe claims. The Sphinx remains a touchstone for questions about portraiture, cult, and landscape design in Old Kingdom ideology.
