Sphinx Facts for Kids

A Picture of the Sphinx
  • Name: Sphinx
  • Alternate Name: Great Sphinx of Giza
  • Location: Giza Pyramid Complex, Giza, Egypt, Africa
  • GPS Cordinates: 29°58’31″N 31°08’16″E
  • Built: Sometime between 2558 and 2532 BCE
  • Built by: Egyptian Pharaoh Khafra
  • Significance: A famous statue at the Giza Pyramid Complex

18 Sphinx Facts for Kids

  1. The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a sphinx near the Giza Pyramid Complex.
  2. The Great Sphinx of Giza is known as the Sphinx of Giza or simply Sphinx.
  3. The Sphinx is a statue of the Egyptian mythical creature the sphinx.
  4. The Sphinx is one of the oldest known examples of ancient Egyptian architecture.
  5. The Great Sphinx of Giza is in Giza, Egypt, Africa.
  6. The GPS coordinates for the Great Sphinx of Giza are 29°58’31″N 31°08’16″E.
  7. Egyptologist think construction of the Great Sphinx of Giza happened between 2558 and 2532 BCE during the reign of ancient Egyptian pharaoh Khafre. However, some Egyptologists to this day still disagree on the Sphinx’s construction date and the pharaoh who built it.
  8. Egyptologists do agree that the Great Sphinx of Giza is the oldest known monumental sculpture made by humans.
  9. The Sphinx of Giza was carved out of a single massive block of limestone.
  10. The Sphinx statue is the head of a human and the body of a lion.
  11. Egyptologists who believe pharaoh Khafre built the Sphinx believe the human head is Khafre’s.
  12. The length of the Sphinx of Giza is 240 feet from paw to tail.
  13. The height of the Sphinx of Giza is 66 feet from the base to the top of the head.
  14. The widest section of the Sphinx of Giza is 62 feet, which is the rear of the statue.
  15. Traces of red, blue and yellow paints suggest the builders probably painted the Sphinx.
  16. Italian Egyptologist Giovanni Battista Caviglia played an important role in the excavation of the Sphinx of Giza.
  17. Someone Egyptologists believe there are unknown hidden chambers underneath the Sphinx. In the 1980s, a hidden chamber was discovered, but it led to an empty cavity. Egyptologists to this day are still trying to find hidden chambers underneath the Great Sphinx of Giza.
  18. A common myth about the Great Sphinx of Giza is former French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte ordered troops to fire cannon balls at the statue and broke off the nose. However, sketches of the Sphinx from the 18th century depicted the nose missing, and these were drawn before Bonaparte was born.

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