Christiane Zivie-Coche (translated by David Lorton) 2002. Sphinx: History of a Monument. Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
Saint Hamarkhis, preserve us!
Down in the lower Nile valley, in the tract of land called Giza of the modern country of Egypt, lies a monumental sculpture with the face of 4th Dynasty Pharaoh Khafre and the body of a lion. The fabulous creature, some 128 feet long and 65 feet high at its head, was carved out of the native limestone around 4500 years ago, making it one of the oldest existing sculptures known on the planet.
Down in the lower Nile valley, in the tract of land called Giza of the modern country of Egypt, lies a monumental sculpture with the face of 4th Dynasty Pharaoh Khafre and the body of a lion. The fabulous creature, some 128 feet long and 65 feet high at its head, was carved out of the native limestone around 4500 years ago, making it one of the oldest existing sculptures known on the planet.
This recent book by Christiane Zivie-Coche and translated from the French by David Lorton, called Sphinx: History of a Monument, sets the sculpture in its dense context, both as part of the pyramid complex at Giza, and as part of the living history of the entire Egyptian civilization. Using historical records, tomb inscriptions, archaeological reports and photographs taken during the 1925 restoration, Zivie-Coche addresses the issues of the symbolism of form, cultural persistence, and the evolving Egyptian civilization. Seen as a backdrop to the centuries of development, the Sphinx serenely accepts the roles of funerary monument to Khafre in the Old Dynasty, and that of the god Haurun-Harmakhis, an avatar of Horus, under the reign of 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Amenophis I.
The Sphinx is a lively text, which should serve well as an introduction to the study and ideas of the ancient civilization of the Nile.
The Sphinx is a lively text, which should serve well as an introduction to the study and ideas of the ancient civilization of the Nile.
