Great Sphinx of Giza built in Old Kingdom, linked to Khafre

The evidence points to the Great Sphinx having been carved during the reign of Khafre (Khefren to the ancient Greeks; c.2558–2532 BC), the builder of the second of the Giza pyramids.

The stones cut from around the ... of Old Kingdom cultural material suggests a Sphinx cult was not established at the time. Selim Hassan, writing in 1949 on recent excavations of the Sphinx enclosure, makes note of this circumstance: Taking all things into consideration, it seems that we must give the credit of erecting this, the world's most wonderful statue, to Khafre, but always ...

Lehner suggests that a Sphinx cult ... the Old Kingdom. Peter Lacovara, an Egyptologist and curator at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, assigns "some of the erosional features" on the enclosure walls to quarrying activities rather than weathering. The causeway connecting Khafre's Pyramid and Valley Temple is not oriented to the cardinal directions but runs slanted. The southern wall of the Sphinx enclosure respects this orientation. Luminescence dating of the two temples gave dates for the middle ...

After examining the full range of evidence, the mainstream Egyptological consensus remains that the Great Sphinx was built in the mid-3rd millennium BC for Pharaoh Khafre. This conclusion is supported by a convergence of archaeological data ...

It is commonly accepted among Egyptologists, however, that the Sphinx was built under the reign of Khafre during the Old Kingdom's 4th Dynasty when masons who were constructing his pyramid complex came upon a large piece of limestone and decided ...

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Over the years, researchers have put forth many other theories for the Great Sphinx’s origins, though most are refuted by mainstream Egyptologists. Some theories suggest the face of the sphinx actually resembles Khufu and, therefore, Khufu ...

You'll find that scholarly debate on the Sphinx's construction centers around Pharaoh Khafre, often credited with its creation around 2540 B.C. However, alternative hypotheses propose Djadefre or even natural processes as potential builders, ...

The mainstream theory says Pharaoh Khafre built it around 2500 BCE. The leading alternative theory argues that a much older, unknown civilization built it around 10,000 BCE, and Khafre only re-carved the head.