The Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the most famous statues in the world. It sits in the Egyptian desert next to the Great Pyramids, and it was carved out of a single huge piece of limestone bedrock. It has the head of a human and the body of a giant lion lying down. It is around 240 feet long and 66 feet tall.
Most experts think the Sphinx was built around 4,500 years ago for a pharaoh named Khafre, but no one is completely sure. The face is missing its nose, and there are lots of theories about how that happened. The most likely answer is just slow erosion over thousands of years.
The Greeks had their own different sphinx legend. According to the Greek myth, a sphinx blocked the road to a city and asked travelers a tricky riddle. Anyone who got it wrong was eaten. The hero Oedipus finally solved it: “What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?” The answer is a human.
