Bronze and Iron AgesCulture & Arts
Great Sphinx of Giza
c. 2,500 BCENotableContested
Workers carve a lion with a king's head from the bedrock beside Khafre's causeway at Giza. It is one of the largest sculptures of the ancient world.
Contested history
Consensus: Most Egyptologists date the Sphinx to the reign of Khafre, about 2500 BCE, based on its place in his pyramid complex and quarrying.
Carved under KhafreEstablished
Stone quarried from the Sphinx enclosure was used in the adjacent temples, tying it to Khafre's building program.
Water erosion shows it is thousands of years olderMinority view
Geologist Robert Schoch argued that rainfall caused its weathering; others attribute it to salt and wind acting on soft limestone.
A lost civilization built it around 10,500 BCEUnsupported
No artifacts or settlements from such a culture have been found at Giza.
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