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Kathryn Wuestner Professor Speck ARTS 1303 12 February 2012 Chapter 3: NOVA: Riddles of the Sphinx The short television program Riddles of the Sphinx stirred up several different feelings for mefeelings of discovery, interest, and also cultural information. In my college career, I have not spent much time studying ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs; I have spent even less time studying one of the greatest works of art in history, the Great Sphinx. This program was not only interesting, but also very informative. It triggered several different thoughts that hadnt even occurred to me until now. A very interesting aspect of the Great Sphinx is how it was built. Its amazing to me that something of that magnitude was created nearly four thousand years ago with nothing but stone tools and man power. These tools weakened at an extraordinary rate, making the building process even more breath taking. Until now, I didnt know that the Sphinx was not blocks stacked upon each other; in fact, it was carved into the limestone that was once the ocean floor. In pictures that Ive looked at, I can see the lines of blocks that surround its lower body and haunches. I learned that those blocks are from different periods, meaning that the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans have been covering the Sphinx for thousands of years to protect it. So not only is the Sphinx big and beautiful, but the dating of the blocks show that it has been culturally significant for hundreds of thousands of years.

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One of the most important (and to me, new) concepts addressed by the show was the fact that for a long time, the Pharaoh who built the Sphinx was fairly unknown. The program went into two different thoughtsthat the Sphinx was built by either Pharaoh Khufu or his son, Khafre. They discussed things like the face of the Sphinx itself, and whether or not it looked like Khufu. They also touched on the fact that the face, at one point in time, actually had a beard just like Khafre. In the end, I learned about the astronomical alignment of the Sphinx, the Sphinx Temple, and Khafres pyramid. This showed that the three are intimately connected, and that the Sphinx was actually Khafres safe passage to the afterlife. The cultural significance of the Great Sphinx alone is astonishing. For thousands of years, the Great Sphinx was viewed as the guardian of the entrance to the afterlife. How it was built, and who built it is just icing on the cake.