- Sphinxes are massive stone statues that depict the body of a reclining lion with the head and face of a human
- The Great Sphinx's paws and head are out of proportion, suggesting there may have been an even larger, earlier statue which was adapted
- Egyptologists have long argued the monument outside Cairo, which has the head of a pharaoh and the body of a lion, was built soon after the first pyramid - around 4,500 years ago
- Schoch claims the amount of water erosion the Sphinx has experienced indicates a construction date no later than the 6th millennium BC or 5th millennium BC, at least two thousand years before the widely accepted construction date and 1,500 years prior to the accepted date for the beginning of Egyptian civilisation
- The figures are found all over the world in different forms, but they are most commonly linked with Egypt, which features the most famous example in the form of the Great Sphinx of Giza
- Incredibly, the statue is carved out of one monolithic piece of rock, and at 240 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 66 feet tall, it is considered to be the biggest monument of its kind in the world
- Historians largely accept the function of the Sphinx to have been that of a symbolic guardian, since the statues were strategically placed around important structures like temples, tombs, and pyramids
- It stands adjacent to the pyramid of the pharaoh Khafra, and most archeologists believe that it is his face that is depicted on that of the statue
- Despite its reputation as one of the most famous monuments of antiquity, there is still very little known about the Great Sphinx of Giza
- Egyptologists might have a small understanding of why the statue was built, but when, how, and by who is still shrouded in mystery
- The pharaoh Khafra is the main suspect, which would date the structure back to around 2500 BC, but other scientists have argued that evidence of water erosion of the statue suggests that it is much older and perhaps even predated the dynastic era of the Egyptians
- This theory has few modern adherents, but if true it would mean the Great Sphinx of Giza is even more mysterious than previously believed