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Sphinx of Hatshepsut
Sphinx of Hatshepsut
New Kingdom; Dynasty 18
Reign: Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III
This colossal sphinx portrays the female pharaoh Hatshepsut with the body of a lion and a human head wearing a nemes headcloth and royal beard. The use of the sphinx to represent the king dates back to the Old Kingdom and the Great Sphinx of Giza. The sculptor has carefully observed the powerful muscles of the lion as contrasted to the handsome and attractive idealized face of the female pharoh. It was one of at least six granite sphinxes that stood in Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. Smashed into many fragments at the order of Hatshepsut's nephew and successor Thutmose III and dumped in a quarry close by the beast was recovered by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition amnd reassembled. It weighs more than seven tons.
Sphinx of Hatshepsut
Sphinx of Hatshepsut
New Kingdom; Dynasty 18
Reign: Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III
This colossal sphinx portrays the female pharaoh Hatshepsut with the body of a lion and a human head wearing a nemes headcloth and royal beard. The use of the sphinx to represent the king dates back to the Old Kingdom and the Great Sphinx of Giza. The sculptor has carefully observed the powerful muscles of the lion as contrasted to the handsome and attractive idealized face of the female pharoh. It was one of at least six granite sphinxes that stood in Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. Smashed into many fragments at the order of Hatshepsut's nephew and successor Thutmose III and dumped in a quarry close by the beast was recovered by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition amnd reassembled. It weighs more than seven tons.