THE GREAT SPHINX, HOR-EM-AKHET 𓅃𓐝𓈌

Dominique Vivant Denon – Measurement of the Sphinx of Giza, December 29, 1799:

Vivant Denon drew this image of the Sphinx of Giza around 1798. This image and written account (a part of the collection) is from the 1803 issue of Universal Magazine. From that same magazine, here is the written account in Denon’s own words, “…Though its proportions are colossal, the outline is pure and graceful; the expression of the head is mild, gracious, and tranquil; the character is African, the mouth, and lips of which are thick, has a softness and delicacy of execution truly admirable; it seems real life and flesh. Art must have been at a high pitch when this monument was executed; for, if the head wants what is called style, that is the say, the straight and bold lines which give expression to the figures under which the Greeks have designated their deities, yet sufficient justice has been rendered to the fine simplicity and character of nature which is displayed in this figure…”

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Sphinx May Really Be a Black African, New York Times, 1992:

In “The Case of the Missing Pharaoh,” (Op-Ed June 27), John Anthony West shows that the Sphinx does not resemble the Old Kingdom pharaoh Chephren, the traditional attribution.

The analytical techniques he and Detective Frank Domingo used on facial pH๏τographs are not unlike methods orthodontists and surgeons use to study facial disfigurements. From the right lateral tracing of the statue’s worn profile a pattern of bimaxillary prognathism is clearly detectable. This is an anatomical condition of forward development in both jaws, more frequently found in people of African ancestry than in those from Asian or Indo-European stock. The carving of Chephren in the Cairo Museum has the facial proportions expected of a proto-European.

Thus, the Sphinx is likely a facial representation of a black African. Considering that the peopling of ancient Egypt derived from an ancestral mixture of Africans and Mediterraneans, facial soft-tissue analysis of this fabled man-lion would support a much earlier origin for the Sphinx, when Africans may have dominated the region. SHELDON PECK Newton, Mᴀss., July 3, 1992 The writer is an orthodontist.

As Horemakhet (Harmakhet, Harmachis) or “Horus in the horizon”, he represented the dawn and the early morning sun. He was often depicted as a sphinx with the head of a man, a lion, or a ram (the latter providing a link to the god Khepri, the rising sun).

It is often suggested that the Great Sphinx of Giza is a representation of Hor-em-akhet with the face of the fourth dynasty pharaoh Kafre (Chephren). He was also depicted as a falcon or as a man with the head of a falcon wearing a variety of crowns.

He was thought to be a source of wisdom as well as a representation of the sun. According to legend, prince Tuthmosis IV (Eighteenth Dynasty) was hunting in the marsh close to the Sphinx. He took a nap between its paws and dreamed Hor-em-akhet-Atum-Khepri was actually his father and that he was destined to be pharaoh. The god promised Tuthmosis the throne if he would remove the sand which was burying him. Tuthmosis agreed and was true to his word.

Tutankhamun's Falcon — Tutankhamun’s Falcon @Dalbera CC BY 2.0

He became pharaoh and not only cleared the sand but promoted Ra-Hor-em akhet above Amon-Ra (heralding perhaps the rejection of Amun by Akhenaten in favour of the Aten, which was represented as a sun disc).

The pharaoh also dedicated a small temple to Hor-em-akhet on which the Sphinx was described as Hor-em-akhet-Hauron. It is thought that the Syrian and Palestinian workforce working near to the Sphinx ᴀssociated it with their god of the underworld, Hauron. This link may explain the Sphinx’s epithet, “Father of Terror”.

Horemakhet

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