6 photographs · Egypt
Great Sphinx
Giza — carved from the bedrock it sits in.
The Sphinx was not built but quarried: cut down into the limestone of the Giza plateau, with the blocks removed used in the valley temple alongside it. It stood buried to the neck in sand for most of recorded history, which is why the head is far better preserved than the body. Thutmose IV's Dream Stele, set between its paws, records him clearing that sand after a dream promised him the throne for doing so.
6 of 6 frames carry coordinates
