Architecture and Design Atlas

How Space Is Shaped
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

Buildings and Structures

Great Sphinx of Giza

Monuments, Towers and Commemorative Structures

The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue on the Giza Plateau in Egypt, carved with the body of a reclining lion and a human head generally believed to represent the pharaoh Khafre, built during the Old Kingdom's fourth dynasty around 2500 BC. Cut largely from a single outcrop of bedrock left after quarrying stone for nearby pyramid complexes, it measures about 73 meters long and 20 meters high, making it among the largest and oldest monumental sculptures known. Its face and headdress, the nemes, have suffered erosion and deliberate damage over millennia, including the loss of its nose, the cause of which remains debated. It stands near the causeway leading to the pyramid attributed to Khafre, one of the three Great Pyramids of Giza.

Facts
Building Type
Monument 2
Location
Giza Plateau, Giza, Egypt 2
Height (m)
20 2
Height from the base to the top of the head. The entity description already carries the circa 2500 BC construction date in prose since a BC year cannot be stored in the integer completed-year column here.
Classification
Standing StatusSourced to the subject's own account
Standing 1
Building Type
Building Type (category)
Monument 2
Connections

Has Building Type

Monument, Concepts

Entity-backed identity for the building-type enum value this building already carries, resolved to an architecture concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The building-type fact itself stays on the building unchanged.

Uses Element

Limestone, Architectural Materials
Source Great Sphinx of Giza (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
  • Also in Geography Atlas: Egypt, located there.
Sources
1. Great Sphinx of Giza (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza, lead paragraph sentence 1, statue description clause
    The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a resting sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human and the body of a lion.
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza, lead paragraph sentence 2, location clause
    The monument was sculpted from the limestone bedrock of the Eocene-aged Mokattam Formation and faces east on the Giza Plateau, on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt.
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza, dimensions paragraph, height figure
    The monument is 73 m (240 ft) long from paw to tail, 20 m (66 ft) high from the base to the top of the head, and 19 m (62 ft) wide at its rear haunches.
  • Entity description and the lead of the Wikipedia article
    The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue on the Giza Plateau in Egypt, carved with the body of a reclining lion and a human head generally believed to represent the pharaoh Khafre, built during the Old Kingdom's fourth dynasty around 2500 BC. Cut largely from a single outcrop of bedrock left after quarrying stone for nearby pyramid complexes, it measures about 73 meters long and 20 meters high, making it among the largest and oldest monumental sculptures known. Its face and headdress, the nemes, have suffered erosion and deliberate damage over millennia, including the loss of its nose, the cause of which remains debated. It stands near the causeway leading to the pyramid attributed to Khafre, one of the three Great Pyramids of Giza.
  • Uses Element: Limestone, infobox material field: Limestone
View the Source
2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.