By: Ali Abu Dashish
CAIRO, Nov. 28 (SEE)- “Everything fears time, however time fears the pyramids”. Historians mentioned wealth of information about the Egyptian pyramids of Giza, this geometric miracle that still puzzles and amuses human mind.
What increases this amusement is the Sphinx that was sculpted from one rock to guard the giant monuments. Sphinx remained drowned in the sand, and then it appeared to defend eternal pyramids. More than three years ago, in the modern stage, ancient Egyptians did not care about the Sphinx’s origin. They related Sphinx to the sun. Other times, Sphinx was Ra himself, ancient Egyptian deity of the sun.
Archaeologist Zahi Hawass confirmed that the first who visited Sphinx was Amenhotep II, son of King Thutmose III known as Napoleon of the ancient times.
Amenhotep II left a painting at his temple situated northeast the Sphinx. The painting shows that since he was young, he was fond of horse riding. As the trainers cared about Amenhotep II, they informed his father about what the young prince was doing. However, Thutmose III was proud of his son, who would rule after him, and of his performance.
Afterwards, the king sent him to a horse riding excursion to the pyramids and Sphinx. The prince was followed by Thutmose IV who slept next to the Sphinx. It was said that Thutmose IV dreamt about Sphinx asking him to remove the sand that choke his body. During the dream, Sphinx promised he would become Egypt’s King if he would do so.
In previous articles, the story behind this dream known as the “dream’s story” was narrated and it had a political tenor. Thutmose IV was not the legal heir to rule Egypt, while his brother Amenhotep II was. It was said that the former killed the later. In order to make the people accept Thutmose IV being the king and forget his crime, he referred that Sphinx “the god” was the one who chose him to rule the country.
King Seti I, Ramses II’s father, afterwards left a painting at Amenhotep II’s temple.
Archaeologist Selim Hassan explained in the English and Arabic versions of his book “Sphinx” that people used to pray at the Sphinx.
In 500 B.C., during the twenty-sixth dynasty, pharaohs left a painting called “statistics” or “Cheops’ daughter” where they pointed out that Cheops found the Sphinx at the Giza plateau. This means that Sphinx existed before Cheops. However, the gods’ views represented on the painting and the accompanying texts show that they were written in the late era.
Priests tried to mention that worshiping Sphinx and Isis dates to pre-Cheops’ era, to the old state’s third state.
In 23 B.C., Roman historian Bilini visited the Sphinx. He did not have any information about its origin, so he referred to it as the tomb of Amazis a king from Alsawy’s era. He added that lovers and also poets gathered there; nearby lived people of Bosiris village, currently known as Nazlt Al-Seman.
Then ancient Arab historians, such as Abdel Latif Al Boghdady, believed that the Sphinx’s body is buried beneath the statue. Al-Maqrizi mentioned that the Sphinx’s nose was pulverized by Saem Al-Dahr who lived next to it. People at that time considered it as a reverent figure, thus Al-Dahr started to pulverize its face, but his mission was not completed because of a sand storm.
Ali Basha Mubarak spoke about the Sphinx in his book “Successful Plans”. When Al-Kodai spoke about it, he expressed “from this statue located between the pyramids only appears the head.” Al-Kodai added that a man from Marrakech pulverized its nose.
Translator: Maydaa Abo El-Nadar
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