The Great Sphinx
The Great Sphinx is an enormous, ancient sculpture among several pyramids on the Giza Plateau, very near Cairo, Egypt. The Sphinx depicts a creature that has the head of a human being and the body of a lion. It is 241 feet long and 66 feet high. It was carved from a single gigantic outcropping of limestone. The Sphinx was carved about 4,600 years ago (circa 2555-2532 BC), during the reign of the pharaoh Khafre, the third ruler of the 4th dynasty; the Sphinx depicts the head of the pharaoh Khafre. The huge statue stands by Khafre's pyramid. The Sphinx has suffered much damage through the years, mostly from erosion and also from damage by soldiers.