Skip to main content

Sphinx

Sphinx Complex

Sphinx Complex: Site: Giza; View: Sphinx, Sphinx temple, Khafre valley temple

Details

  • Tomb Owner
    Khafre
  • Excavator
    François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette, French, 1821–1881
    Giovanni Battista Caviglia, Italian, 1770–1845
    Selim Hassan (Bey), Egyptian, 1886–1961
    Émile Baraize, French, 1874–1952
  • Attested
    Thutmose IV
  • Other No
    Great Sphinx
  • Abou-Ghazi No (ASAE 58 [1964])
    144
  • PorterMoss Date
    Khafre
  • Remarks
    Excavated in 1936-1937 by Hassan.

Finds 106

Excavation Diary Pages 12

Maps & Plans 3

Published Documents 18

Unpublished Documents 6

Full Bibliography

  • Arnold, Dieter. "Old Kingdom Statues in their Architectural Setting." In Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, pp. 40, 42-43, fig. 21.

    Breasted, James H., Ancient Records of Egypt: Historical Documents from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, Collected Edited and Translated with Commentary, Vol. 1: The First to the Seventeenth Dynasties. Ancient Records. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1906, pp. 83-85.

    Hassan, Selim. Excavations at Gîza 8: 1936-1937. The Great Sphinx and its Secrets. Historical Studies in the Light of the Recent Excavations. Cairo: Government Press, 1953, pp. 5-11, 13, 24, 31-32, 51, figs. 2-21, 35-36, plan on pl. 16, pls. VI-XIV, XVIII-XIX, XXI, XXXVII.

    Hassan, Selim. Excavations at Gîza 9: 1936-37-38. The Mastabas of the Eighth Season and their Description. Cairo: General Organisation for Government Printing Offices, 1960, folded plan, V/Y-6/7.

    Hassan, The Sphinx, fig. 2.

    Hawass, Zahi. "Khufu's National Project: The Great Pyramid of Giza in the Year 2528 B.C." In Peter Janosi, ed. Structure and Significance: Thoughts on Ancient Egyptian Architecture, Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2005, pp. 315, 318, 322, 326.

    Hawass, Zahi. "Excavating the Old Kingdom. The Egyptian Archaeologists." In Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, pp. 155, 157.

    Hawass, Zahi. "The Discovery of the Harbors of Khufu and Khafre at Gîza." In Catherine Berger and Bernard Mathieu, eds. Études sur l'Ancien Empire et la nécropole de Saqqâra dédiées à Jean-Philippe Lauer. Orientalia Monspeliensia IX. Montpellier: Université Paul Valéry, 1997, pp. 246-248.

    Hawass, Zahi. The Secrets of the Sphinx. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1998.

    Hawass, Zahi. "The Discovery of a Pair-Statue near the Pyramid of Menkaure at Giza." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 53 (1997), p. 293.

    Hawass, Zahi. "Zahi Hawass talks to KMT about matters on the Giza Plateau (Interview)." KMT 8, no. 2 (Summer 1997), pp. 16-18, 25.

    Hawass, Zahi. "The Great Sphinx at Giza: Date and Function." In Gian Maria Zaccone and Tomaso Ricardi di Netro (eds.) Sesto Congresso Internazionale di Egittologia. Atti, Volume II. Turin, 1993, pp. 177-195.

    Hawass, Zahi. "A Burial with an Unusual Plaster Mask in the Western Cemetery of Khufu's Pyramid." In Renée Friedman and Barbara Adams, eds. The Followers of Horus. Studies dedicated to Michael Allen Hoffman 1944-1990. Egyptian Studies Association Publication No. 2. Oxbow Monograph 20. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1992, pp. 327-328.

    Hawass, Zahi. "The Khufu Statuette: Is it an Old Kingdom Sculpture?" In Paule Posener-Kriéger, ed. Mélanges Gamal Eddin Mokhtar, vol. I. Cairo: Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, 1985, pp. 382-383, 391, 394.

    Lehner, Mark. "Giza. A Contextual Approach to the Pyramids." Archiv für Orientforschung 32 (1985), pp. 136-143, 150-154, 158, figs. 2-4.

    Lehner, Mark. "The Development of the Giza Necropolis. The Khufu Project." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 41 (1985), p. 112, fig. 2.

    Love, Serena. "Stones, Ancestors, and Pyramids: Investigating the Pre-pyramid Landscape of Memphis." In Miroslav Bárta, ed. The Old Kingdom Art and Archaeology. Proceedings of the Conference held in Prague, May 31-June 4, 2004. Prague: Czech Institute of Egyptology, 2006, pp. 210-211.

    Manuelian, Peter Der. "Excavating the Old Kingdom. The Giza Necropolis and Other Mastaba Fields." In Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999, pp. 139-140, 146-147, 152, notes 5, 28, figs. 80, 90, 91.

    Piankoff, Alexandre. "Two Reliefs in the Louvre Representing the Gizah Sphinx." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 18 (1932), pp. 155, 158.

    Porter, Bertha, and Rosalind L.B. Moss. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings 3: Memphis (Abû Rawâsh to Dahshûr). Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1931. 2nd edition. 3: Memphis, Part 1 (Abû Rawâsh to Abûsîr), revised and augmented by Jaromír Málek. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1974, pp. 35-38, plan 6.

    Quibell, A.A. The Pyramids of Giza. Cairo: C.M.S. Bookshop, undated, pp. 8, 9, 18-19, 24, unnumbered fig.

    Reisner, George A. "Solving the Riddle of the Sphinx." Cosmopolitan Magazine 53 (1912), pp. 4-13.

    Reisner, George A. "The Sphinx Awakens-Again." The Rotarian 49, No. 1 (July 1936), pp. 20-23.

    Rowe, Alan. "Studies in the Archaeology of the Near East II: Some Facts Concerning the Gread Pyramids of el-Gîza and Their Royal Constructors." Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 44, No. 1 (September 1961), pp. 101-102.

    Unsigned. "The Dawn of Civilization in Egypt: Tracing the Culture of the Egyptians nearly to the Stone Age--Mummies Not of Ancient Origin--The Secret of the Sphinx Revealed." Science Conspectus 2, No. 3 (February 1912), pp. 72, 77.

3D Models 1

Videos 21

People 6

Ancient People

  • Khafre

    • Type Tomb Owner
    • Remarks Fourth king of Dynasty 4. Son of Khufu. Builder of the Second Pyramid at Giza and probably of the Great Sphinx as well. Known two thousand years later by the Greeks as King Khephren. A number of diorite and greywacke statues and statue fragments depicting the king have been discovered in Khafre's valley temple, including Cairo CG 9-17. The fragmentary head of an alabaster royal statue (MFA 21.351 + MFA 33.1113) is attributed to Khafre.

  • Thutmose IV

    • Type Attested
    • Remarks King of Dynasty 18. prenomen: [mn-xprw-ra] Menkheperure. Restorations to Sphinx done in time of Thutmose IV. Objects found at Giza: Faience scarab (27-4-1272 = MFA 27.2022) and faience udjat amulet (28-3-58 = MFA 28.1381) with cartouche of Thutmose IV.

Modern People

  • François Auguste Ferdinand Mariette

    • Type Excavator
    • Nationality & Dates French, 1821–1881
    • Remarks Pasha; Egyptologist; Professor; Archaeologist of Sphinx Temple. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology.

  • Giovanni Battista Caviglia

    • Type Excavator
    • Nationality & Dates Italian, 1770–1845
    • Remarks Caviglia was an early explorer of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx.

  • Selim Hassan (Bey)

    • Type Excavator
    • Nationality & Dates Egyptian, 1886–1961
    • Remarks Egyptologist; Sub Director General. Nationality and life dates from Who was Who in Egyptology. (1886-1961) Egyptian Egyptologist; born Mit-Nagi, 15 April 1886, he studied at the Higher Teacher's College, Cairo under Kamal (q.v.); in 1912 he became a teacher and in 1921 obtained a post in the Egyptian Museum as assistant keeper; he studied in Paris 1923-7 at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes; he was the first Egyptian to be appointed as a Professor of Egyptology in the Universitv of Cairo, 1928 - 36; he was later made Deputy Director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service responsible for the care of all monuments in the Nile valley, 1936-39; Ph.D. Vienna University, 1935; stimulated by the archaeological work of P. E. Newberry (q.v.) and Junker (q.v.)he began an active career in excavations with the clearance of some of the Giza mastabas in 1929; the excavations carried on by him in this necropolis continued until 1939 by which time a great deal of digging had been achieved, published in 10 parts; he also cleared the Sphinx and its temple, for the first time completely digging out the great amphitheatre around it and ensuring that it would not be buried by send again so easily; he wrote a study on this work and on the temple of Amenhotep II here; in addition the so-called Fourth Pyramid or the palace-façade tomb of Queen Khent-kawes of the Fourth Dynasty was investigated and also the funerary town of the priests associated with it; he later worked on the Unas causeway at Saqqara and at the valley temple of this king, discovering some of the mastabas in this area and two great subterranean tombs dated to the Second Dynasty; his final excavations at Giza were carried out on the east and south faces of the Great Pyramid and at the mortuary temple of King Khufu, 1938-9; he also took part in the campaign to save the monments of Nubia, and wrote a report on this subject; he published about 53 books and articles on Egyptological subjects in English, French, and Arabic, Hymnes religieux du Moyen Empire, 1928; Le Poème dit de Pentaour et Le rapport officiel sur la bataiILe de Qadesh , 1929; Excavations at Giza, 10 pts., 1929-60; The Sphinx. Its History in the Light of recent Excavations, 1949; Report on the Monunents of Nubia,1955Excavations at Saqqara 1937-8, 3 vols., 1975; in Arabic Literature of Ancient Egpt, 2 vols.; Ancient Egypt from Prehistoric Times to the Age of Rameses 11, 6 vols.; he died in Giza, 30 Sept. 1961. AfO 20 (1963), 310 (H. Brunner); Archaeology 14, no, 4 (1961, 293; ASAE 58 (1964), 61- 84 (bibl.) (Dia Abou-Ghazi); Orientalia 31 (1962), 271; Goettinger Miszellen 76 (1984), 78-80; Reid, JAOS 105 (1985), 237, 241-44.

  • Émile Baraize

    • Type Excavator
    • Nationality & Dates French, 1874–1952
    • Remarks French engineer working for the Service des Antiquities who excavated around the Sphinx from 1926-1936.