Great Sphinx of Giza's 'hidden' tunnels and chambers top stories direct to your inbox SUBSCRIBE Invalid email Sign up to receive our rundown of the day'sdirect to your inbox When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they'll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. Our Privacy Notice explains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time. Engineers came to a halt after stumbling upon the a large statue, which they described as having a "lion's body with a human head". They soon realised they retrieved the world's second Egyptian sphinx, which originated as far as 2500 BC during the reign of the Pharoah Kafre in Egypt. Mohamed Abel Aziz, the Director General of Antiquities, said the structure has yet to be removed from the ground, and remains embedded in soil until it can be properly excavated. Members of the public can now visit the site where the sphinx was found, Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said. The Great Sphinx of Giza in Egypt is the largest and most famous sphinx in the world, and is situated at the Giza Plateau, on the west bank of the Nile River in Egypt. It was carved from the bedrock of Giza plateau, made out of limestone, and is said to be one of the world's largest single-stone statues. The ancient Egyptians regarded the sphinx as a symbol of royalty, and pharaohs would have their heads carved into stone which are then placed on their tombs. This was known as a way to mark their relationships with Sekhmet, the solar deity, which was believed to be a lioness. A second sphinx was discovered at a road construction site in Egypt, dating back to 2500BC In late 2017, historians believed the Great Sphinx of Giza was an entrance to a secret underground city, which was concealed by Egyptian authorities. Archaeologists also believe the sphinx sits on top of a complex network of tunnels with passages which leads to a massive underground metropolis. Historian Gerry Cannon previously told Express.co.uk: “It was as if every living Egyptologist had lost interest in this wonderful underground metropolis, for all their articles during the ensuing years are centred more on tombs of queens and shafts that had been sunk deep into the ground to burial tombs.” “Nobody knows what’s under there, no one has been able to investigate. Ancient Egyptians regarded the sphinx as a symbol of royalty The sphinx is said to be one of the world's largest single-tone statues ever created Undiscovered 'second sphinx' on the Giza plateau<doc-sep>Egypt's famous sphinx monument may have a newly discovered twin. Construction workers unearthed a similar-looking statue buried beneath Al-Kabbah Road between the ancient temples of Karnak and Luxor, local media reports. While no photos have been published yet, officials confirmed the structure has a 'lion's body with a human head'. Tourists are welcome to visit the construction site and see the statue, but Egypt Today reports that it will need to remain embedded in the soil for some time. Construction has been halted while authorities make decisions about what to do with the sphinx. The original Great Sphinx of Giza (which translates to 'Father of Dread') on the west bank of the Nile is the oldest and largest known monumental sculpture in the world. At 73 metres long and 20 metres high, the mythical creature is believed to resemble Pharaoh Khafre, who ruled Egypt at the time of its construction, sometime between 2550 and 2450BC. Apart from a missing nose and beard, the statue was well preserved because it became buried up to its neck in sand until it was excavated in 1925. There have long been rumours of other sphinx that may have been built to honour different pharaohs, but none have been found until now. If the so-called second sphinx is found to be a genuine Ancient Egyptian structure, it could be more than 4000 years old. Newshub.<doc-sep>Archaeologists have discovered a sphinx buried in Luxor in Egypt—the site of the ancient city of Thebes—Egypt Today has reported. The newly uncovered sphinx is the latest treasure imparted by Luxor's ancient Al-Kabbash Road, much of which is lined with the magnificent stone creatures. Al-Kabbash Road links the famous Luxor Temple to Karnak Temple—two vast and impressive centers built for the ancient god Amon, who was particularly revered in Thebes from about 2000 BCE. The statue is pretty small compared to the famous Great Sphinx of Giza, which sits near the Great Pyramids of Giza. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in company. The avenue of sphinxes and the temples it connects were originally home to more than 1,000 of the ancient mythological statues, The Independent reported back in 2010. Sphinxes have the body of a lion and, often, the head of a human. But Al-Kabbash Road and the Karnak temple are also replete with ram-headed sphinxes. These sphinxes are linked to Amon, who was at one point venerated as king of the gods. Amon's prowess faded amid political upheaval in Ancient Egypt, and the cults of Isis and Osiris eventually supplanted his own in the Greco-Roman world, Encyclopedia Britannica explains. Egyptologist Bassam al-Shamma said the discovery of this sphinx statue was not a surprise, as there are so many similar sculptures in the region. Authorities are trying to figure out a safe way to extract this latest precious find from the ground. A project to restore Al-Kabbash Road began in 2005. But 2011's Egyptian Revolution brought a halt to the activities. The $12.7 million project restarted in 2017 and officials expect to complete it by the end of 2018. Al-Kabbash's collection of sphinxes are being excavated, repaired and reinstalled, Egypt Today reported. Paving will make the treasure-lined road more accessible to tourists, authorities hope. In other archaeological news, scientists recently discovered the heart of the Great Pyramid of Giza—the largest of three in the Giza complex—can concentrate electromagnetic energy. Whether or not its ancient owners knew of this strange ability is unclear. Archaeologists recently opened a mysterious 2,000-year-old black sarcophagus that some feared held a curse. Rather than releasing an ancient spell, lifting the lid of the coffin revealed three skeletons and a lot of red-tinged sewage water. More than 30,000 people went on to sign an online petition to drink the putrid fluid. Probably created in jest, the petition reads, "we need to drink the red liquid from the cursed dark sarcophagus in the form of some sort of carbonated energy drink so we can assume its powers and finally die."<doc-sep>
A previously unknown statue of a sphinx has been discovered in Egypt, the general director of Luxor Antiquities, Mohamed Abdel Aziz, announced on Sunday. Construction workers upgrading the historic Al-Kabbash Road between the famous Luxor and Karnak temples stumbled upon the find, the English-language Egypt Today reports. While some news outlets compared the discovery to a second version of the monumental Great Sphinx of Giza, the new find seems to be more of a country cousin. But in a nation struggling to rebuild its tourism industry, every new antiquity helps. The Ministry of Egyptian Antiquities is developing a way to lift the newfound statue from its resting place, in the hope of avoiding a repetition of the fiasco last year in Cairo when an 24-foot-tall statue of a pharaoh’s head was lifted with an excavator, leading to accusations of negligence. In the meantime, construction work has been paused on the road and the Minister of Antiquities, Khaled al-Anani, is encouraging tourists to visit the site to see the statue. A researcher in Egyptology, Bassam al-Shamma, told Egyptian media that the find is not altogether surprising as many similar sphinx statues have been found across Luxor. Several new discoveries have been found in recent years, and the road is already lined with many other small stone versions of the mythical creatures dating from around 1400 BC. Some of these are being excavated and repaired as part of the project to pave and restore the road and the equivalent of over $33 million has already been spent on the project since it began in 2005. Egypt’s tourism industry has shown signs of recovering after a lengthy slump caused by the country’s political instability and a series of terrorist attacks. Last year, a reported 8 million people visited the country. In 2016, only 5 million went. The mythical creature of the sphinx has the head of a human and the body of a lion. In ancient Greek tradition, the sphinx’s head is often a merciless female, killing and eating all those who cannot answer its riddle. For the Egyptians, though, the guardian creature was seen as benevolent, and the heads of the statues were often carved in the likeness of pharaohs. This is the case with the famous Great Sphinx; the monumental statue is thought to have been sculpted in likeness of the pharaoh Khafra. Other famous Egyptian sphinxes include a granite example with the head of the pharaoh Hatshepsut, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Great Sphinx of Tanis in the Louvre is one of the largest the largest sphinxes outside of Egypt. Follow Artnet News on Facebook: