Wikipedia (
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"The Great Sphinx of Giza ... translit. 'abu alhol / 'abu alhawl, IPA: [?abu alho?l], English: The Terrifying One; literally: Father of Dread), commonly referred to as the Sphinx of Giza or just the Sphinx, is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human. Facing directly from West to East, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx is generally believed to represent the Pharaoh Khafre.
Cut from the bedrock, the original shape of the Sphinx has been restored with layers of blocks. It measures 73 metres (240 ft) long from paw to tail, 20.21 m (66.31 ft) high from the base to the top of the head and 19 metres (62 ft) wide at its rear haunches. It is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and is commonly believed to have been built by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of the Pharaoh Khafre (c.?2558–2532 BC)."
As for the book, Good Reads (
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"The Secrets of the Sphinx: Restoration Past and Present
by Zahi A. Hawass, H.E. Hosni (Foreword by), Gaballa Ali Gaballa (Introduction)
3.14 · Rating details · 7 ratings · 0 reviews
This lavishly illustrated, bilingual English and Arabic volume tells the story of the Sphinx from ancient times to the present, focusing particularly on the task--first addressed in the second millenium BC--of preserving it. Published to mark the completion of a major modern restoration project, the book is an invaluable and fascinating document, a testimony not only to the skills of the people who built the Sphinx, but to those who have maintained and renewed it down the ages."