loquaciousconnoisseur:

Restoration of the Great Sphinx from the Louvre, 1853

Photographer : Philip Henry Delamotte (1820 - 1889) -via europeana-

Egyptian Antiquities - Room 1: Crypt of the Sphinx - Sully, entresol

The sphinx was successively inscribed with the names of the pharaohs Ammenemes II (12th Dynasty, 1929-1895 BC), Merneptah (19th Dynasty, 1212-02 BC) and Shoshenq I (22nd Dynasty, 945-24 BC). According to archaeologists, certain details suggest that this sphinx dates to an earlier period - the Old Kingdom (c. 2600 BC). This is one of the largest sphinxes outside of Egypt. It was found in 1825 among the ruins of the Temple of Amun at Tanis (the capital of Egypt during the 21st and 22nd dynasties). -via Louvre-