Carving of the Great Sphinx of Giza
- Date
- c. 2500 BCE
- Category
- Culture, arts & philosophy
- Region
- Lower Egypt (Egypt)
- Era
- Ancient Civilizations
- Significance
The Great Sphinx, a recumbent lion with a human head carved from a single mass of bedrock on the Giza plateau, is generally attributed to the reign of the Fourth Dynasty pharaoh Khafre around 2500 BCE and is thought to depict his face.
At roughly 73 metres long and 20 metres high, it is one of the largest monolithic statues ever made and forms part of Khafre's pyramid and mortuary complex. The Sphinx embodies the fusion of royal and divine imagery characteristic of Old Kingdom kingship, presenting the pharaoh as a guardian figure linked to solar religion. A nearby life-size statue of Khafre and the monument's integration into his building scheme support the attribution, though some scholars argue for Khufu or Djedefre. Eroded and repeatedly buried by desert sand over the millennia, the Sphinx remains among the most recognisable monuments of the ancient world and a focus of enduring archaeological study.
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Empires active in c. 2500 BCE
- Egyptian Old Kingdom2686 BCE – 2181 BCE
- Indus Valley (Harappan) Civilization2600 BCE – 1900 BCE
- Elamite Kingdom2700 BCE – 539 BCE
Related culture, arts & philosophy events
- Enheduanna, the first named author in historyc. 2300 BCE
- Naram-Sin proclaims divine kingship; the Victory Stelec. 2254 BCE
- Oracle-Bone Script: Earliest Attested Chinese Writingc. 1250 BCE
- Compilation of the Zhouyi (Core of the I Ching)c. 9th century BCE
- Composition of the early Upanishadsc. 800–500 BCE
- Great Hypostyle Hall and temple-building at Karnakc. 1290–1213 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
The Story of Art
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