Information
Landmark: Great Sphinx of TanisCity: Cairo
Country: Egypt
Continent: Africa
Great Sphinx of Tanis, Cairo, Egypt, Africa
Overview
The Great Sphinx of Tanis is a striking ancient Egyptian statue, carved in the form of a sphinx-a lion’s body crowned with the stern, regal face of a pharaoh.One of the largest sphinx statues ever found in Egypt now rests in the Louvre Museum in Paris, its weathered limestone catching the soft glow of the gallery lights.The Sphinx of Tanis turned up amid the sunbaked ruins of Tanis, an ancient Nile Delta city that served as Egypt’s capital during the 21st and 22nd Dynasties (1070–712 BC).Still, experts think the statue is far older, tracing it back to the Middle Kingdom, around 1980–1630 BC, when artisans carved stone that still holds a faint chill to the touch.Over the centuries, different pharaohs-among them Amenemhat II, Merneptah, and Shoshenq I-likely reused it and carved their own names into its worn stone.The Sphinx is carved from pinkish-red Aswan granite, hauled all the way from southern Egypt to the Nile Delta, its surface still catching the sun like warm stone.It stands about 1.8 meters tall-roughly the height of a doorway-stretches 4.8 meters in length, and tips the scales at 10 to 12 tons.People think the face shows a pharaoh from the Middle Kingdom, but no one’s sure which ruler-it could’ve been any man who once wore the cobra crown.Like other sphinxes, it carries a lion’s powerful body, a sign of strength and protection, and the calm, watchful face of a pharaoh, reflecting royal authority and wisdom.Sphinx statues often stood at the gates of temples, their stone eyes watching over the sacred ground they were meant to guard.The Great Sphinx of Tanis may have once stood in a grand temple complex, its stone face gazing toward a shrine to Amun-Ra or perhaps another powerful god.Later pharaohs reused it, a clear sign it stayed important and deeply revered-like a relic carefully guarded through all of Egypt’s long history.They unearthed the Sphinx in Tanis, a sandy ruin in Egypt’s Nile Delta, during the 19th century, and later moved it to the Louvre.In 1826, it traveled to France and found a home in the Louvre, where it still draws crowds, its carved symbols catching the light under the museum’s high glass ceiling.The Great Sphinx of Tanis rises from the sand, its carved granite face reflecting the skill, faith, and power that shaped ancient Egypt.Today, it still stands as a vital part of Egypt’s heritage, drawing travelers from across the globe who pause to take in its sun-warmed stone.
