The Great Sphinx: What We Know and What's Still a Mystery

The Great Sphinx sits on the Giza plateau facing due east, carved from a single limestone outcrop left over from quarrying material for the pyramids. Most Egyptologists date it to the reign of Pharaoh Khafre, around 2500 BCE, making it roughly the same age as the pyramid it sits beside — though a minority of researchers argue for an older date based on erosion patterns, a debate that's genuinely still unresolved. The missing nose is the most-asked question on-site, and no, it wasn't Napoleon's soldiers — that myth is disproven by sketches from the 1700s, decades before Napoleon arrived, already showing it without a nose. The most credible explanation is deliberate damage in the 14th century by a Sufi who objected to peasants making offerings to it as an idol. At 73 meters long and 20 meters tall, it's larger in person than most photos suggest — the classic tourist photo trick of "holding up the sphinx" only works because the actual scale is hard to judge from a distance. Standing at its base, next to the paws, is when it actually registers.