Sphinx uraeus cobra Henry Salt 1817

Fragment of the cobra ornament from the Sphinx’s forehead, recorded by Henry Salt

Salt’s drawing of a fragment of the Sphinx’s uraeus cobra — Open full-size image.

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.

Digitisation used: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, Appendix to Operations Carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837 (1842), digital image 0175.

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