GIZA, EGYPT—Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities suggests that the Sphinx, a 241-foot-tall sculpture of a lion’s body with a man’s head carved in limestone bedrock on the Giza Plateau, was strategically placed so that the sun sets over its right shoulder on the spring and fall equinoxes, when day and night are equal in length, according to a Live Science report. It had been previously suggested that the sculpture, which is thought to have been built around 2500 B.C. during the reign of the pharaoh Khafre, simply took advantage of the position of a limestone outcropping. Egyptian authorities add that at the summer solstice in June, the sun sets between the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre. To read about a plaster sphinx head unearthed in California that was made for a 1920s Hollywood film, go to “Head in the Sand.”
Does Equinox Sunset Highlight Egypt’s Sphinx?
News March 24, 2020
Recommended Articles
Features July/August 2022
Journeys of the Pyramid Builders
The story of the highly skilled workers who helped build Egypt’s Great Pyramid is emerging from a papyrus cache unearthed at the world’s oldest harbor
Artifacts July/August 2021
Egyptian Copper Tools
Digs & Discoveries November/December 2018
Let Them Eat Soup
Digs & Discoveries September/October 2016
The Great Parallelogram
-
Letter from Ireland January/February 2020
The Sorrows of Spike Island
Millions were forced to flee during the Great Famine—some of those left behind were condemned to Ireland’s most notorious prison
(Courtesy Barra O’Donnabhain) -
Artifacts January/February 2020
Bronze and Iron Age Drinking Vessels
(Alexander Frisch, Museen der Stadt Regensburg) -
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2020
The Man in Prague Castle
(Prague Castle excavations, Institute of Archaeology, Prague) -
Digs & Discoveries January/February 2020
As Told by Herodotus
(Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation, franckgoddio.org)