Egyptian sphinxes have the head of a ram or a person and the body of a lion. The lion represented strength, protection, and royal power, while the human or animal head connected the monument to a particular pharaoh or deity.
The Great Sphinx of Giza is the best-known example: it has a human head and a lion’s body. It was carved from limestone on the Giza Plateau around 2500 BC, probably during Egypt’s Old Kingdom. Unlike the winged sphinx of Greek mythology, Egyptian sphinxes were generally wingless.
Not every Egyptian sphinx had a human head. Ram-headed examples, called criosphinxes, were especially associated with Amun, a major Egyptian god. Hundreds once lined the Avenue of Sphinxes between the temples of Karnak and Luxor. The shared feature was the lion body, even when the head and religious meaning changed.