How was the world's largest statue of the Sphinx built?

- an Egyptian symbol known to the whole world, but how it is built is still a great mystery of humanity.

Unique works

In front of the pyramid of Khafre - the second largest pyramid in Egypt, there is a giant statue carved out of an animal with a human face but the lion's body in a prostrate position. That is the sphinx. Along with the image of the pyramid, the sphinx became a symbol when referring to Egypt.

The previous sphinx statue is the largest statue carved in this animal in Egypt and probably the largest statue in the world. According to World History Stories , this statue is 57m long, 20m high, 2.3m wide mouth and 1.4m long ear.

Wikipedia added that for a long time it was buried in desert sand after the Pharaoh's tomb area on Giza plateau was abandoned. The attempt to unearth the Sphinx was first made in 1400 BC by the fourth Thutmose king after many attempts to dig out the front legs of the statue. The incident was recorded by this king in a marble stele placed between two legs that he dug. After more than 100 years there was the second excavation conducted by Pharaon Ramesses II.

By 1817, during the first archaeological excavation supervised by Italian captain Giovanni Battista Caviglia, the entire chest of the statue was released. From 1925 to 1936 the excavation of the Sphinx was completed. From there we can see the whole body of this great sphinx.

The legends of Egyptian sphinxes

Although archeology has peeled off the sand covering the sphinx statue, it cannot yet uncover the mysterious veil of the construction process and the idea of ​​where the statue was derived from. Therefore, there are still many different views on this statue so far.

Sphinx Sphinx is next to Khafre pyramid.(Wikipedia photos)

The Book of Cultural Mysteries in Vietnam and the World leads to the legend that when building the pyramid for himself, Khafre king did not dare to surpass King Khufu's father so he built his pyramid smaller. Even so, he still felt something was missing from his pyramid setting.

During a visit to check the construction progress, there was a mechanic who asked the king to carve a stone larger than 2,000 tons on the construction site into a statue symbolizing the solemnity of Pharaoh. The statue that the craftsman proposed to engrave is the sphinx.

Another more popular legend says that the Sphinx was born from an Egyptian folk myth. The story states that the King of Thebes, Raia, gave birth to a son and the astrologer looked at him and said, 'This child will later kill his father and take his mother'. Seeing the harsh forecast, the king sent the goat to bring the baby to the forest for wolves to eat.

The shepherd does not want to bring the baby to the neighboring country for the goats of the Corinthians to raise. The Corinthian couple liked the child so he raised him as his son and named him Oedipe.

Oedipe is as big as blowing, soon becoming a handsome, energetic guy. Suddenly he heard the prophecy of the past. Thinking that the Corinthians and their wives were their parents, he quietly fled from the palace because he feared the prophecy. He turned to Thebes. On the way, Oedipe met a convoy of chariots yelling and making way. Being healthy is a prince, he doesn't give way. People sitting on cars angry taking horse whip to hit Oedipe. He reacted but did not expect to miss that person without knowing it was his father.

Continuing to the city of Thebes, Oedipe met a monster with the face and chest of a beautiful young woman but bearing the body of a lion. This youkai claims to be a Sphinx every day standing on the way to give people a riddle, who can't solve it, it rips flesh. Meet Oedipe, youkai also repeat the habit.

Oedipe was not afraid but asked: 'What if I can answer' ? Too confident, youkai said that if he answered he would kill himself. Sphinx then said a very difficult question: 'What day is going with 4 legs, noon and afternoon, 2 feet, dark 3 feet' . Oedipe was helped by the intelligent god Athena and answered immediately that it was human. Initially born a cow with 2 legs 2 hands, growing up to grow with 2 legs, old age to fight sticks into 3 legs.

The answer is absolutely correct, youkai must keep your promise to jump into the area of ​​suicide. The Oedipe religious people rose to become king of Thebes and took the queen of the old king. A few years later, Thebes became a disaster. Oedipe traditionally came to the temple of the gods for guidance. Through the gods, he knew he had killed his father. Too painful Oedipe poked his eyes blindly.

It is a sad story. However, the people were grateful for the eradication of Oedipe's monster that had carved a large statue of a monster-like monster in the face where it appeared and where it was the present day square of Khafre pyramid.

Although this legend is common, archaeologists have recently learned that this sphinx is about 10,000 years old. Meanwhile King Khafre was king about 2,500 BC, so he could not be the creator of it. It is hypothesized that the statue may have existed before and that King Khafre is the only one who perfected it. Some other assumptions suggest that the figure of a sphinx is due to the weathering of sandy winds in the desert or due to big floods created by the Nile. However, no hypothesis is really convincing. All still have to wait one day, shy of some archaeologist to reveal the information about the process of building the sphinx.