View allAll Photos Tagged Sphinx
This is one of 4 sphinxes that guard the upper bridge at Compton Verney near Stratford upon Avon.
Compton Verney is one big art gallery but it also has landscaped gardens by 'Capability' Brown. Great crest grebes on the lake and other wild life.
Copyright: © 2015 Jeremy Villasis. All Rights Reserved.
The Sphinx of Naxos, a statue sent around 560 BC as an offering to the temple of Apollo in Delphi by Naxos, one of the richest Cycladic islands during that period.
Delphi Archeological Museum
Greece
Taken in my friends garden in Dorset.
A huge thank you Richard and Ann Collier for their hospitality again.
Hillwood was the estate of Marjorie Merriweather Post. It is now a museum, surrounded by extensive gardens. This sphinx is an 18th-century French sculpture.
This formation is named "Sphinx" due to it's uncanny resemblance to the Egyptian Sphinx at Giza. You can easily make out the eye sockets and nose from many different angles. His sidekick resembles the baboon, the god of wisdom in ancient Egypt.
Visit the Lost City to find out more.
French archaeologist and engineer Emile Baraize probed the sand directly in front of the Sphinx and discovered yet another Old Kingdom building—now called the Sphinx Temple—strikingly similar in its ground plan to the ruins Mariette had already found
Taken @Cairo, Egypt
There are two sphinxes on the Thames Embankment, one either side of Cleopatra’s Needle. While the obelisk, erected in 1878, dates from around 1450BC, the sphinxes were created and added in 1882. They were designed by George Vulliamy and modelled by C. H. Mabey. According to the TourUK site, the bronze sphinxes were accidentally replaced facing the wrong way (that is, facing the obelisk) after being cleaned in the early years of the 20th century.
Naxian Sphinx (2.3m / 7.5ft tall)
c. 570-560BCE, archaic period
Delphi Museum, Greece
Originally perched atop a 10m (33ft) tall Ionic column next to the Temple of Apollo's retaining wall, this giant sphinx towered above pilgrims climbing the Sacred Way towards the temple and its oracle. Dedicated by the people of the island of Naxos, an inscription on the base reminded viewers that they had promanteia, the right to cut in line when seeking the advice of the Pythia, the priestess who spoke Apollo's oracles.
The style is archaic, characterized by the slightly geometric and stiff posture, almond-shaped eyes and enigmatic smile.
© 2005 Ellen Brundige
Illustration for Ancient Greece Odyssey Part Four: Delphi.
(information on Sphinx from Delphi by Basil Petrakos p. 50)
P.S. Do you enjoy Greek mythology? Check out my Mythical Monsters of Ancient Greece Trivia Quiz!
A straight on shot with no people in... in the most crowded city in the world...
Surely not :)
Awesome sight in real life....
"Sphinx" – Sculpture by Colombian Artist Fernando Botero in Berlin (Germany)
For more photos of Botero's work in Berlin have a look at this set: Botero in Berlin.
"The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human, and the body of a lion. Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the pharaoh Khafre.
The original shape of the Sphinx was cut from the bedrock, and has since been restored with layers of limestone blocks. It measures 240 feet long from paw to tail, 266 feet high from the base to the top of the head and 162 feet wide at its rear haunches. Its nose was broken off for unknown reasons between the 3rd and 10th centuries AD.
The Sphinx is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and one of the most recognizable statues in the world. The archaeological evidence suggests that it was created by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of Khafre (2558–2532 BC)."