The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue with a lion's body and a human head. It faces east on the Giza Plateau, on the west bank of the Nile. It was carved from bedrock in the 26th century BC. Scholars link it to Khufu or Khafre, and there is no consensus on whose face it shows.
The Sphinx is 240 feet (73 meters) long, 66 feet (20 meters) high and 62 feet (19 meters) wide. Its head is harder limestone, while the softer middle body has eroded more. The nose is missing, and marks show it was removed deliberately. A granite stele erected by Thutmose IV stands between the front paws.
Sand buried the statue to its shoulders at times. A concrete collar was added in 1931 after the headdress fell in 1926. The monument is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and later restorations replaced limestone block layers around the base.
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