Sphinx of Memphis

Lore & Background

The Sphinx of Memphis was discovered in 1912 by an excavation team of the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, when an affiliate spotted a uniquely carved object jutting out of a sand hill. Excavation was postponed until 1913, when further digging revealed the object to be a Sphinx's tail. The carving is believed to have taken place during the 18th Dynasty (circa 1550–1292 BCE), but it is not known which pharaoh is being honored, as there are no inscriptions to supply this information. Facial features imply that the Sphinx is honoring Hatshepsut, or Amenhotep II, or Amenhotep III.

Reader's Guide

The Sphinx of Memphis is significant as one of the few masterpieces that survived the ravaging of Memphite temples over centuries. Carved from a single block of alabaster—a yellowish white, soft stone considered beautiful in ancient Egypt and believed to have a mystical connection to the Sun—it is one of the largest monuments ever made from Egyptian alabaster. Its dimensions (8 m long, 4 m high, estimated 90 tons) make it considerably smaller than the Great Sphinx of Giza, but its unusual striations on the left side are uncommon on Egyptian monuments. During its time, the statue was displayed near a temple in honor of Ptah, one of the Egyptians' world-creator gods. The lack of inscriptions leaves its honoree uncertain, preserving a historical mystery.

Did You Know?

• The Sphinx of Memphis was discovered in 1912 by an excavation team of the British School of Archaeology in Egypt after an affiliate spotted a carved object jutting from a sand hill.

The Alabaster Guardian of Memphis

The Sphinx of Memphis is an alabaster sculpture that today resides in the open-air museum at the ancient site. As a product of the Egyptian sphinx tradition, it follows the androsphinx form—a male figure combining a human head with a lion's body, deliberately lacking the wings that define the Greek and Levantine versions. In the Egyptian conceptual framework, such figures were not the treacherous, merciless, riddle-posing creatures of Greek myth who killed and devoured those who failed their challenges. Instead, they stood as benevolent embodiments of strength and ferocity, most often representing a pharaoh. The Memphis example, carved in alabaster, belongs to this protective and regal tradition, presenting a guardian figure meant to convey sovereign power and sacred authority rather than to threaten or devour those who approach the sacred space it protects.

Guardian of Sacred Thresholds

In the Egyptian tradition, sphinxes served a fundamentally protective role. Their statues commonly flanked the entrances to temples, and their depictions are generally associated with grand architectural structures such as royal tombs and religious temples. The Sphinx of Memphis, preserved within the open-air museum at the ancient city, echoes this architectural and ritual function. The tradition extended far beyond a single statue: great avenues of guardian sphinxes were constructed to line the approaches to tombs and temples, while sphinxes also appeared as decorative details atop the posts of grand staircases leading to major complexes. At Thebes, nine hundred ram-headed Criosphinxes—believed to represent the deity Amon—were built, each at Karnak fronted by a full-length statue of the pharaoh. These guardian figures were charged with the duty of repelling the forces of evil, a role the Memphis alabaster sphinx would have shared within its original sacred context.

Living Image: Name and Meaning

The very word 'sphinx' carries a layered etymological history that illuminates how these figures were understood. In Greek, Σφίγξ was folk-etymologically linked to the verb meaning 'to squeeze' or 'to tighten up,' a connection perhaps drawn from the lion's method of killing prey by strangulation—biting the throat and holding the animal down until death. However, the historian Susan Wise Bauer proposed an alternative: that the Greek term was actually a corruption of the Egyptian name 'shesepankh,' meaning 'living image.' This term did not refer to a mythical beast at all, but to the statue itself—carved from what was called 'living rock,' meaning stone that remained a contiguous part of the Earth's stony body, shaped but never fully severed from its original source. For the alabaster Sphinx of Memphis, this etymology underscores how the sculpture was conceived not as a mere representation of a creature but as a living, sacred presence made manifest in stone.

Among the Pharaohs' Legacy

The Sphinx of Memphis belongs to a vast and continuous tradition of Egyptian sphinx sculpture. At the other end of this lineage stands the Great Sphinx of Giza, the largest and most famous example, whose head is widely believed to bear the likeness of the pharaoh Khafre, dating to between 2600 and 2500 BC. Other notable examples include the granite sphinx of Hatshepsut, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Throughout this tradition, pharaohs frequently had their heads carved atop guardian statues for their tombs, expressing a close relationship with Sekhmet, the powerful lioness solar deity. The sphinx has also transcended its original religious context to become a national emblem of Egypt, appearing on stamps, coins, and official documents. The Memphis alabaster sphinx, preserved in its open-air museum setting, continues this long thread of pharaonic representation and cultural identity that stretches back more than four millennia.