What the Sphinx was originally and what happened to its proportions

Every person who has visited Giza and personally saw the Sphinx will understand that something is not quite right with it. Although this can be seen in the photo or picture. The fact is that his body is huge, but his head is disproportionately small. It looks especially strange when you consider that the Egyptians have always been very scrupulous about proportions, creating any work of art. Why, then, was the Sphinx an exception?

1. Whose head is the Sphinx

Many believe that the Sphinx has the head of King Cheops on the huge body of a lion / Photo: 24smi.org

Many believe that the Sphinx has the head of King Cheops on the huge body of a lion with a completely flat upper part - the back, and even surrounded by water. Others say that this is the head of Khafre. The second option actually exists on the statue, which is in a museum in Cairo. But there is a significant difference between these heads - the shape of the face. In Khefren it is elongated, and in the Sphinx, the exact opposite is round.

Even before the Sphinx was completely excavated and only a head and neck towering above the sands were found, L. Borchardt, a German archaeologist, wrote an entertaining article. It noted the presence of stripes at the head in place of the eyes, a headdress, more precisely, the subtleties of the ornament of the stripes on it. The headdress of Nemes was religious, sacred, from which it follows that the face should have belonged to the pharaoh.

After analyzing hats of this type, he found that these patterns were characteristic of the Middle Kingdom, and this is several centuries after Khephren and Cheops. He published his research in one of the scientific journals. After in 1926 The Sphinx was partially excavated, and the excavations were completely completed in 1936, it became clear that the statue has its roots deep in the past. It was carved during the Old Kingdom. But Borchardt could not know what kind of body the Sphinx had, since he did not see it and judged it solely by the head.

As a result, it turns out that the statue was originally carved in the Old Kingdom, and only then, during the Middle Kingdom, the head was carved out again. It is believed that the Sphinx has a lion's body, but how is it really?

2. Sphinx at the entrance to the Necropolis - guard wild dog

In ancient Egypt, people worshiped the god Anubis - a wild sitting dog. In fact, it is an extinct species of wild dogs. Anubis was the keeper of the dead, the Necropolis. He was often depicted in the same position as the figure of the Sphinx. Therefore, it can be assumed that originally it was Anubis who was the Sphinx. Over time, the head was changed, and they did it just by beating off unnecessary details. After all, to reshape the face, removing solid stones is much easier. Hence the violation of proportions.

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Continuing the topic read, why did the ancient Egyptian pharaohs wear fake beards?
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/260521/59138/

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