When was the beard added to the sphinx

The Great Sphinx has fallen victim to the shifting sands of the Egyptian desert several times during its long life. The three millennia that followed again buried the monument. During this most recent restoration, the Great Sphinx suffered the loss of part of its iconic headdress, as well as severe damage to the head and neck.

Consequently, the Egyptian government employed a team of engineers to patch up the statue in But these restorations began wreaking havoc on the soft limestone, and in a pound piece of the shoulder fell in front of a German reporter. So, the Egyptian government embarked on a massive restoration effort to undo the damage that earlier restorers had done.

Pharaohs ruling over the New Kingdom even ordered the development of a new temple from which the Great Sphinx might be observed and revered. Name of this image Description of the image duis mollis, est non commodo luctus, nisi erat porttitor ligula, eget lacinia odio sem nec elit. Make Collaborator Send Email. Current Collaborators Heather ONeill heather pixelsforhumans.

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Download as PDF Printable version. British Museum. Permission Reusing this file. This file was transferred from Egypt Archive website under the license Copyrighted free use see permission here. In short: you are free to use it for any purpose including unrestricted redistribution, commercial use, and modification. The British Museum has this small fragment - about one-thirtieth in total - of the Great Sphinx 's beard.

It was presented by Giovanni Battista Caviglia, who excavated at Giza in and cleared parts of the Sphinx, which was then buried in sand up to the neck. This was done according to a directive of Mohammed Ali Pasha, who was at that time virtually the ruler of Egypt.