Riddles Of The Sphinx Essay

According the PBS Nova program documentary, Riddles of the Sphinx, the statue Sphinx is the largest statue in Egypt, which is almost 240 feet long that is almost the same length of a football field and 70 feet tall that the height is similar to the White House. It has a lion body with a human’s face. The lion figured body symbolizes the king pharaoh’s identifies, himself with the lion to shows his power, to express his power. Before I watch the documentary, I did not know why the Sphinx’s head was built as a human’s figure and the body as an animal’s figure. Because, usually god’s figures in Egyptians look the opposite. Those figures have animal heads and human bodies. Therefore, I wandered why the Sphinx made look differently from other figures
Close look of the face of the Sphinx reveals traces of blue paint still clinging close to its ear. The evidence shows the Thutmoses gives the Sphinx a New Kingdom monumental makeover. The Great Sphinx, revered as a god, guarding the entrance to the after life. While I was watching the film, I was little confused because I thought the sun god is “Ra” who has bird face with sun on top of its head. On the other hand, by watching this film I learned, there is another sun who symbolize after life and represents sun god at same time called, “Ruti” which are two lion gods. After I found out that it made sense to me. To sum up, to the builders of the Great Sphinx, in the Old Kingdom, it was as a lion, which was a symbol of the king. On the other hand, like Ruti, the Sphinx was also a god, guardian of the horizon, entrance to the afterlife. By watch this documentary by PBS, Nova, I learned many interesting facts in detail. Before I watch it, becaue I watched a documentary from National Geography about Egyptian art, I kind of knew about some facts about the great Sphinx, but not in detail built of it. It was very fun and interesting that I really enjoyed watching the