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The Sphinx: Mythical Beasts of the Middle East, Part 3 |
| Section: CULTURE / FOLK WISDOM |
| Author: Rachel Hajar |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 2/1/1999 |
| Size: 1,851 Words, 11,331 Characters |
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Crouching in the massive, horseshoe-shaped trench of bedrock out of which it was carved, the strange hybrid figure has stirred the imaginations of poets, scholars, adventurers, and tourists. The Great Sphinx looks old and worn. Yet, nothing has moved us from the past with the Sphinx's power, its majesty and mystery, its somber and hypnotic watchfulness.
The Great Sphinx is an unmistakable symbol of ancient Egypt. It stands guard over the necropolis of Giza, sixteen kilometers southwest of the center of Cairo. There, on the edge of a desert plateau, the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure built their great pyramids. Nearby, eternally vigilant, sits the Great Sphinx.
The Sphinx's awesome frame measures 240 feet long and 65 feet high. Its face is 13 feet wide, and its eyes are over 6 feet high. It reclines with head upright, its front legs extended and parallel, its back legs folded underneath its powerful body. Its gaze contemplates the rising sun in the east. On its head it wears the nemes headcloth, the characteristic royal and divine headdress. The uraeus, the sacred cobra, adorns its forehead.
The Sphinx...
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...n as it has for thousands of years. It is the brooding enigma of a remote and lofty antiquity.
Additional Reading
Additional Reading:
Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, The Message of the Sphinx, Three Rivers Press, New York, 1996.
E.C. Krupp, Skywatchers, Shamans and Kings, John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1997.Mark Lehner, The Complete Pyramids, Thames and Hudson, New York, 1997.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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