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Man face lion body, well known as the
Great Sphinx of Egypt, is situated in the Khafra pyramid
south, on a place that once used to be a huge quarry. This
amazing structure dates from about 5.000 years ago and was built
by the workers of the pharaoh Khafra, from an immense block of
stone from which they carved a lion body with the head of the
pharaoh. This construction was made like a sun temple and it is
similar with the sun temples that were built by the 5th
dynasty kings. A stela was put between the sphinx front paws
by The Egypt's king Thutmose the 4th, who ruled between 1425 and
1417. The Sphinx was worshiped for a period of time as the Ra of
the Two Horizons but originally, the statue was built to be a
Giza pyramids` guardian. The larger statue of the Egypt man
face lion body statue has more than 240 feet in length, 66 feet
in height, the Sphinx's eyes have 6 feet in height and the face
has 13 feet in height. The statue doesn't have its beard and it
nose but in the British Museum you can see the statue's beard.
It seems that the nose disappeared because of the vandals who
destroyed it. The humidity and the wind coming form Egypt's
capital damaged the Sphinx that had to be restored in 1980; the
restoration lasted 6 years when over 2.000 blocks of limestone
were placed but in 1988 the statue's left shoulder suffered at
deterioration that caused the falling of some blocks. Also,
during the time, some parts of the statue, especially the bottom
part, were buried by sand. But the Sphinx shoulder was
rehabilitated and is being cared of it to remain the same
guardian of the Egypt's pyramids. |
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