The Pyramids & the Sphinx

Built from roughly 2550 to 2490 BC on a rocky plateau on the west bank of the Nile, the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids are testament to the power, organisation and engineering genius of ancient Egypt. Such is the precision and skill with which they were built that people have puzzled over their origins for thousands of years, and have developed weird and wonderful theories in the process. Some medieval Europeans, for example, believed the pyramids were granaries described in the Old Testament; and Victorian author John Taylor published a book naming Noah as the true architect of the pyramids. Then, of course, there are the many madcap claims that the monuments have otherworldly origins, thanks either to aliens or angels.

From what we do know, Egypt's pharaohs believed they would become gods in the next world, so built vast pyramid tombs for themselves filled with all the things they would need in the afterlife. Excavations on the Giza Plateau have shown that the pyramids weren’t built by slaves, as was once believed, but by a paid workforce, living in a purpose built settlement with on site housing as well as food and medical resources. In 2017 archeologists uncovered the remains of a boat and a network of waterways, providing new evidence of how huge amounts of limestone were transported to the site.

As for the Sphinx, the story goes that this huge limestone statue with the head of a man and body of a lion was built around the time of the Old Kingdom (around 2649 to 2130 BC) probably during the reign of the Pharaoh Khafre. For thousands of years, the Sphinx was buried in sand up to its shoulders, and survived many attempts to dig it out before finally being released in the 1930s by Egyptian archaeologist Selim Hassan.

Known in Arabic as Hbu Al Hol (the Awesome or Terrible One), this huge limestone sculpture with the body of a lion and the head of a man was dubbed the Sphinx around 2,000 years after it was built, in honour of the fearsome human-headed lion in ancient Greek mythology, though no one knows its original name. It’s widely believed to have been modelled on the pharaoh Khafre, and traces of red blue and yellow pigment suggest that it was once a much more colourful presence. As for its missing nose, no one knows, but rumours that a cannonball fired by Napoleon’s soldiers caused it to break off have been widely discredited.

Many visitors are surprised by the proximity of the pyramids to Giza’s urban sprawl; they’re certainly not standing apart in the desert as some carefully angled pictures suggest. The site is in fact 11km west of Cairo and can be reached by local bus or taxi or as part of an organised tour.