Image Gallery 1

An unrealistic portrayal of the Great Sphinx dating to the mid 16th century CE. This image is from André Thevet’s Cosmographie de Levant (1556).

Another unrealistic portrayal of the Great Sphinx this time in female form by Johann Helffrich from his book Kurtzer und warhafftiger Bericht, Von der Reis aus Venedig nach Hierusalem, Von dannen in Aegypten, auff den Berg Sinai, Alcair, Alexandria, und folgends widerumb gen Venedig (1579).

A depiction of the Great Sphinx dating to around 1612 from a map of Cairo entitled Cairus, quae olim Babylon (Cairo, which was once Babylon) included in a collection of maps Civitates orbis terrarvm.

The Great Sphinx of Giza and the pyramids from the 1621 edition of The Relation of a Journey begun an. Dom. 1610 by George Sandys.

A depiction of the head of the Great Sphinx from Les voyages et observations du Sieur de La Boullaye-Le-Gouz, gentil-homme angeuinat (1653) by François de La Boullaye-Le-Gouz .

A depiction of the head of the Great Sphinx by Balthasar de Monconys from his Journal des voyages. 1, Voyage de Portugal, Provence, Italie, Egypte, Syrie, Constantinople et Natolie (1665).

A very stylised Great Sphinx of Giza next to a pyramid illustrated in Athanasius Kircher’s 1679 edition of Turris Babel (The Tower of Babel).

In the late 1600s Olfert Dapper published a book called A Description of Africa. In it was a map of Cairo with a depiction of the pyramids. In among the pyramids he depicted a Sphinx (seen on the left of the picture) and, separately, a colossal head protruding from the sands (centre). It is said that Dapper never set foot outside the Netherlands.

Another image from Olfert Dapper’s 17th century description of Africa. This more detailed image of the pyramids of Giza west of Cairo once again shows a colossal head and shoulders at the base of the pyramids (on the left) and a separate sphinx (on the right).

The original image is printed over two pages that I have edited together in the image presented here.

An image of the Great Sphinx of Giza amongst the pyramids from Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn (Travels of Cornelis de Bruyn) 1698.

Detail from a map entitled Aegyptus Hodierna (Egypt Today) by Johanne Baptista Homann dating to about 1720. The image shows two Great Sphinxes, one in the form of a colossal male head and another as a female sphinx. It is possible that Homann confused contemporary sources referring to a colossal head protruding from the sand at the foot of the pyramids and mistakenly assumed this was a different monument from the Great Sphinx itself.

A picture of the pyramids of Giza published in 1721 featuring three Great Sphinxes. The image is by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach from Volume 1 of his collection of illustrations of historical architecture Entwurff einer historischen Architectur.

Another representation of the head of the Great Sphinx by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach from Volume 1 of his collection of illustrations of historical architecture Entwurff einer historischen Architectur (1721).

A view of the head of the Great Sphinx of Giza published in 1743 by Richard Pococke in his book “A Description Of The East, And Some other Countries.“

The head of the Great Sphinx of Giza framed by the pyramids of Khafre and Khufu from Richard Dalton’s Antiquities and views in Greece and Egypt Parts 1-2 (1751).

A rather anxious looking Great Sphinx of Giza in front of the pyramid of Khafre. Illustration from The Antiquities, Natural History, Ruins and other Curiosities of Egypt, Nubia and Thebes (1780 edition) by Frederik Louis Norden. The images were prepared by Norden during his travels in 1737–38 and initially published posthumously in 1755.

Profile of the head of the Great Sphinx from The Antiquities, Natural History, Ruins and other Curiosities of Egypt, Nubia and Thebes (1780) by Frederik Louis Norden. The angular carving, of uncertain function, under the right ear of the Sphinx is clearly visible in this illustration.

The Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza with some people bearing staffs, a recurring motif in depictions of the Great Sphinx from this era. From The Antiquities, Natural History, Ruins and other Curiosities of Egypt, Nubia and Thebes (1780) by Frederik Louis Norden.

A plan of the Giza plateau by Frederik Louis Norden published in The Antiquities, Natural History, Ruins and other Curiosities of Egypt, Nubia and Thebes (1780). In addition to illustrating the Great Sphinx of Giza he depicted a fourth pyramid to the SW of Menkaure’s pyramid (and also mentions it in the text in the bottom left of the illustration).

The head of the Great Sphinx of Giza in the foreground dwarfed by the pyramids of Giza. Illustration from The Antiquities, Natural History, Ruins and other Curiosities of Egypt, Nubia and Thebes (1780) by Frederik Louis Norden. A fourth pyramid is depicted beyond the pyramid of Menkaure’s.

An image of the head of the Great Sphinx and pyramids of Giza by James Rymer dating to the end of the 18th century. Rymer “borrowed” many of the details from a depiction in a book published a century earlier in Reizen van Cornelis de Bruyn (Travels of Cornelis de Bruyn).

Vivant Denon’s representation of the Great Sphinx of Giza from the 1829 edition of Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte first published in 1802. As it was the first image of the Great Sphinx to be published from Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition in 1798-99 it would be reprinted in encyclopedias over the following years. The image has several interesting features. A person can be seen being helped out of the cavity in the Sphinx’s head. The cavity, which can be seen in early aerial photographs of the Great Sphinx, has since been sealed with cement. Another interesting detail is the masonry at the foot of Gebel Ghibli in the background. This small hill is a natural feature but it is unclear whether Denon misinterpreted the geology of the hill for masonry or whether it was indeed modified with a skin of stonework that has since been robbed.

A detail from a map of Napoleon’s Battle of the Pyramids by Vivant Denon with a tree marking the approximate location of the Great Sphinx of Giza, possibly an error by the etcher Jean Duplessi-Bertaux. From the 1829 edition of Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte first published in 1802.

One of the first truly accurate depictions of the Great Sphinx of Giza from Description de l’Égypte published at the beginning of the 19th century based on illustrations and notes made in the years 1798-99 during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign.

An image dramatically illustrating the disfigurement of the face of the Sphinx by the removal of the nose. It is known from the relatively detailed illustrations of Frederik Louis Norden first published in the 1750s (see below) that the disfigurement had occurred prior to Napoleon’s Egyptian Expedition in 1798-99 at which time this image was recorded.

An illustration of some people standing in the shadow cast by the Great Sphinx of Giza as the sun sinks behind it on the western horizon c.1798. From Volume 5 of the plates of antiquities from Description de l’Égypte (1822).

A panoramic view of the pyramids of Giza from the south-east, published in the second edition of Description de l’Égypte, Antiquités, Volume V, Plate 7 (1826). The head of the Great Sphinx is small but visible towards the far right of the engraving. This reproduction comes from the David Rumsey Map Collection; its central page fold has been conservatively repaired. The individual image page carries the collection credit and CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 licence notice.

Detail from a plan of the Giza plateau showing the Great Sphinx of Giza c.1798 during Napoleon’s Egyptian expedition and prior to excavation. From Volume 5 of the plates of antiquities from Description de l’Égypte (1822).

Detail from a map of Memphis and Cairo showing the Great Sphinx of Giza and the Pyramids c.1798. The monuments can be seen to sit at the western edge of the cultivated area of the Nile flood plain prior to the construction of the Aswan Dam and the expansion of Cairo west of the Nile. Like Frederik Louis Norden (see below), it mentions a fourth pyramid but this map seems to suggest that this was intended to refer to the largest of the satellite pyramids to the South of Menkaure’s pyramid. The map also neatly illustrates the Great Pyramid’s alignment with true north. From Volume 5 of the plates of antiquities from Description de l’Égypte (1822).

A 1799 image of France depicted as a sphinx following Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt and his ascent to power as First Consul of France.