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Here Are 10 Extremely Old Images of the Sphinx You’ve Probably Never Seen

Ivan Petricevic

By Ivan Petricevic

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Great Sphinx in the 1870s. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Great Sphinx in the 1870s. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The Great Sphinx has watched over the Giza Plateau for millennia, but the old photographs in this gallery show a monument still partly buried and surrounded by a very different landscape. What can these images tell us about its excavation—and what remains a question for archaeology?

The Sphinx is carved from the limestone bedrock at Giza. Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities places it in the Fourth Dynasty and says the archaeological evidence points to the reign of Khafre, whose pyramid complex stands beside it. That is a strong historical setting for the monument, even as questions about its construction and long life continue to invite curiosity.

The Sphinx was not “discovered” in 1817. People in Egypt had known the monument for thousands of years; it was often buried to its neck by sand. In the early nineteenth century, Giovanni Battista Caviglia led an excavation that cleared part of it. Earlier, Thutmose IV had commemorated his own clearing of the Sphinx in the Dream Stela between its paws. The shifting sand helps explain why the monument appears so different from one old photograph to another.

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Its measurements are impressive, but its setting is just as revealing. The Sphinx was shaped directly from the bedrock, and its enclosure, nearby temples and causeway connect it to a larger royal landscape. It is not an isolated statue placed beside the pyramids by chance.

Could the east-facing Sphinx mark a moment in the sky?

The monument faces east, toward the sunrise. That direction has inspired proposals linking the Sphinx to celestial events and the constellation Leo. Such ideas ask an intriguing question: might its form and orientation have carried a meaning that joined the king, the lion and the horizon? The orientation alone cannot establish a construction date or prove a specific alignment, but it gives the question its starting point. Egypt’s Ministry describes the Sphinx’s later identity as Horemakhet, “Horus in the Horizon,” and records the Dream Stela erected by Thutmose IV between its paws.

What the early photographs actually show

The photographs in this collection record different stages in the Sphinx’s exposure and restoration. Some show sand pressed against its body; others capture the monument alongside the pyramids, visitors or excavation work. Together they offer something a modern postcard cannot: a glimpse of how the visible site changed as people cleared and conserved it.

Openings and irregularities in old photographs can catch the eye, especially when shadows deepen their edges. A photograph can document an opening on the surface; by itself, it cannot show where a passage leads or whether it connects to a hidden chamber. That is why these images are most compelling when we ask what each one actually records—and what a closer archaeological investigation would need to establish.

10 Rare Images of the Sphinx

The Great Sphinx, Khufu’s pyramid and Khafre’s pyramid before the monument was fully cleared. Image: Brooklyn Museum.
The Great Sphinx, Khufu’s pyramid and Khafre’s pyramid before the monument was fully cleared. Image: Brooklyn Museum.
A view of the Sphinx still surrounded by sand, with the Great Pyramid behind it. Image: Hippolyte Bechard.
A view of the Sphinx still surrounded by sand, with the Great Pyramid behind it. Image: Hippolyte Bechard.
The Great Sphinx and the Great Pyramid photographed in 1877 by Henri Bechard.
The Great Sphinx and the Great Pyramid photographed in 1877 by Henri Bechard.
A lateral view of the Great Sphinx before the modern site took its present form.
A lateral view of the Great Sphinx before the modern site took its present form.
The Great Sphinx in the 1870s. Image: Wikimedia Commons.
The Great Sphinx in the 1870s. Image: Wikimedia Commons.
Visitors pose at the Sphinx during a sightseeing tour in January 1909.
Visitors pose at the Sphinx during a sightseeing tour in January 1909.
A frontal view of the Great Sphinx before later restorations. Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
A frontal view of the Great Sphinx before later restorations. Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
The Pyramid of Cheops and the Sphinx, photographed by Antoine Beato around 1880.
The Pyramid of Cheops and the Sphinx, photographed by Antoine Beato around 1880.
The entrance to the chamber beneath the Sphinx; the photograph shows the opening, not what lies beyond it.
The entrance to the chamber beneath the Sphinx; the photograph shows the opening, not what lies beyond it.
The Sphinx still partly buried in sand, with the Great Pyramid behind it.
The Sphinx still partly buried in sand, with the Great Pyramid behind it.

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Author profile

Ivan Petricevic

Ivan Petricevic is an investigative journalist and researcher with more than a decade of experience covering ancient history, UAP phenomena, space, and science. He writes about space, science, and history for Večernji list and has appeared as an expert on Discovery Channel and History Channel. He founded Curiosmos, where he reports from primary sources, archaeological research, and field investigations.

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