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What is Sphinx

Cairo’s Sphinx is world-famous and has become a symbol of ancient Egyptian culture. What is little known is that in Egypt, there is also the Sphinx.

The most concentrated place of the Sphinx is the Karnak Temple in Luxor, a city in southern Egypt. To enter the gate of the temple, one must walk through a long corridor. On both sides of the corridor, there are sphinxes that look a little funny. I saw that the lions lying on the ground with their front paws were all full of horns, sheep faces and ears without exception, which were lifelike and very lifelike.

This corridor is called “Road of Rams”, also known as “Sphinx Road”, with a total length of more than 300 meters and more than 90 sphinxes. In addition, between the Karnak Temple and the Luxor Temple, there is a road similar to the “Ram Road”, with hundreds of sphinxes, but it is no longer open to the public.

The Sphinx is easy to understand. Pharaohs often placed sphinxes outside their tombs as patron saints. The ancient Egyptians worshiped lions, the sphinx symbolizes wisdom and power, and the human face is generally based on the image of the pharaoh. For example, the Sphinx in front of the three pyramids was carefully carved in the image of Khafre, the pharaoh of the fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt.

The pharaoh wished he could possess the body of a lion to show his might to his subjects and be protected after death. But how to explain the sheep noodles? Could it be that the pharaohs hoped to become a meek and weak little sheep?

It turns out that here, the lion’s body still symbolizes majesty, strength and kingship, while the sheep’s head represents the god Amon. According to Egyptian history books, “the lion is the king of beasts, symbolizing the power of domination; the ram receives the power of the god Amon, Incomparable power”, the combination of the two symbolizes the supreme power of the gods, implying the power and vitality of the pharaoh.

In fact, the Temple of Karnak was dedicated to the god Amun. The god Amon was originally the local god of Luxor. During the Middle Kingdom, Luxor formed a center for worshiping the god Amon. Later, during the 18th Dynasty of ancient Egypt, the status of Amon god surpassed other gods and became the first god of Egypt. During this period, people built a magnificent temple for the god Amun in Karnak.

Why did the pharaohs no longer insist on carving their heads on the lions? It turns out that after the establishment of the god Amon as the highest god in the country, he was regarded as the “creator of all things”, and any pharaoh must rely on his protection and help Only in this way can the country be made permanent, otherwise the country will be hard to protect, and even life may be in danger. In order to please the god Amon, Pharaoh no longer carved his image on the lion, but replaced it with the animal favored by the god Amon——sheep.

Still, the pharaohs made a difference. They removed their image, and carved it under the neck before the ram’s head, between the lion’s front paws. In this way, they will be able to obtain the protection of God Amon. But in comparison, the pharaohs were much smaller, showing their awe of the god Amon.