6 Ancient African Architectural Marvels Built Before Greece or Rome Existed

the great sphinx at gizaThe Great Sphinx of Giza

The Sphinx of Giza is one of the largest and most recognizable statues in the world. The half-man, half-lion colossus of stone was sculpted 4,500 years ago (c. 2558–2532 B.C.), although some researchers date it thousands of years older than that.

The statue, with the body of a lion and the face of a man, is said by some Egyptologists to have been created in the image of 4th dynasty Pharaoh Khafra.

It is the largest monolith statue in the world, standing 241 feet (73.5 meters) long, 63 feet (19.3 meters) wide, and 66.34 feet (20.22 meters) high.

The ancient Egyptians did not actually call the structure the Sphinx; that was the name given by the Greeks, who arrived in the region around the sixth century B.C., long after the structure was built.

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