Image Details

University of Pennsylvania Museum (AD1999-105)

The paws and haunches of the Great Sphinx at Giza—which probably represents the 4th Dynasty pharaoh Khafre (2520–2494 B.C.)—were largely covered by drifting sand when Felix Bonfils photographed them around 1875. Over the next few decades, the French Egyptologists Auguste Mariette and Gaston Maspero exposed more of the sphinx’s body. The earliest known attempts to clear debris from the sphinx were made by Pharaoh Thutmose IV (1400–1390 B.C.), who had a stela recording the project installed between the sphinx’s forepaws.