Sphinx uraeus cobra Henry Salt 1817

A limestone cobra, representing Wadjet the goddess of Lower Egypt, that once adorned the forehead of the Great Sphinx. This fragment of the uraeus was found at the base of the Sphinx’s chest during the first modern excavations of the Great Sphinx in 1817 by Giovanni Battista Caviglia. The original is now in the British Museum and a copy is in the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Return to Image Gallery 2 — Images of the Great Sphinx from the early 19th Century