A minifig scale rendition of the Great Sphinx.
About this creation
The Great Sphinx
Most Egyptologists date the Great Sphinx to the time of Pharaoh Khafre (about 2500 BC). The giant 60 foot high sculpture of a lion's body with the Pharaoh Khafre's head was partially carved from an existing rock outcropping and built up were necessary with quarried limestone. The rock removed around the Sphinx was used to built Khafre's valley temple. For some reason the builders of the Sphinx made the lion body about 30 times life size and the Pharaoh's head only 22 times life size.
The LEGO model
I built this LEGO sphinx for a fun diversion from my usual architectural stuff. This is my first attempt at a LEGO sculpture (While I did work as part of a small team on a 7 foot high Tony the Tiger commission a few years ago, I did not build the tiger's head - JSR did). Note that the real sculpture is called the Great Sphinx; it is not an attempt on my part to judge the quality of this MOC.
When I began building this Sphinx, I made it a scaled down minfig size version with the head and body in roughly the same proportion. Thus the head on my version looks bigger than on the real Sphinx. The body is very roughly shaped to try to emulate the eroded rock layers that are visible on the real sphinx. This model took about 10 hours to make. I did not place any bricklink orders specifically for the Sphinx; I decided to use the tan LEGO that I have been stockpiling over the last year or so for a new skyscraper building project. This Sphinx is a temporary MOC. I was not able to get a photograph of my Pyramid of Khafre and the Sphinx in the same picture because I had to destroy the Pyramid to get the bricks. The pyramid was not really large enough to be to scale with the Sphinx in any case.
The builders of the real Sphinx elongated the lion body to make up for an irregularity in the available rock outcropping. I chose not to duplicate that shape and kept my version to a more typical sphinx's proportions.
The nose is mostly gone. About 200 years ago, some soldiers used the Sphinx for target practice with their cannons.
Much of the lower portions of the Great Sphinx are in fairly good shape do to repairs made during the 18th Dynasty (New Kingdom), Greco-Roman times, and modern times. The rough blocky look of the upper body is an attempt to model the exposed and eroded rock strata.
Thutmose IV's "Dream Stela" is the small object between the front legs of the Sphinx.
Our intrepid explorers look for the rumored secret entrance.
Comments
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December 11, 2011 |
Great work, Jim! The best sphinx moc I've seen! Are you going to bring it to a show sometime? |
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I like it |
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October 27, 2011 |
This Sphinx looks great! |
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I like it |
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May 16, 2011 |
It should deserve more comments: OMG, what a tremedous challenge!! I'm amazed...
Very epic!! |
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I LOVE IT!!!!! It's one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. _zach r |
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I made it |
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February 8, 2011 |
Quoting chance stevenson
can you please send me the instructions to make it? chanceofastorm@yahoo.com
Sorry there are no instructions!
I made this by trial and error - can't you tell?
I built several versions of the face until one looked half-way decent and in general followed some photos in some books on Egypt to get the shape of the body (except that as noted earlier, I shortened it so I would not run out of bricks!) |
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I like it |
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February 7, 2011 |
can you please send me the instructions to make it? chanceofastorm@yahoo.com |
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I like it |
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October 3, 2010 |
Hmm. Your inclusion of the Indyfigs brings to mind Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx. Unfortunately, I don't think after all that, you still have any parts left for the Hall of Records. Great sphinx. |
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November 20, 2009 |
this is great |
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I like it |
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November 16, 2009 |
this is just awesome dude =D, how long took you to build it ?? anyway this is simply amazing ;) |
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I like it |
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November 13, 2009 |
Why isn't this extremely popular! |
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How long does it take to make these |
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I like it |
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September 3, 2009 |
Oh wow, this is great, I am surprised there aren't more comments on this! |
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That is so awesome Excellent! |
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I made it |
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August 22, 2009 |
Quoting Steef de Prouw
Very nice! I was going to mention the fact that the actual sphinx has a longer body, but it turned you you already have ;-) Your sphinxes' body certainly looks more like the sphinxes they still have in Luxor and the Karnak temple, but I still feel it takes away a bit of the feeling that I'm looking at a model of the Great Sphinx. But still, this is some very good stuff!
Thanks for the comments. I made the head first and then realized that to make the body to match would exceed the number of tan bricks that I have. I did not want to make a smaller head so I went with a typical sphinx proportion rather than the strange Great Sphinx shape. If you look at the real Great Sphinx, the head is actually too small! Anyway, this was supposed to be fun MOC so I did not try too hard to get it perfect - too much work!
Thanks to everyone who left comments. |
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I like it |
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August 22, 2009 |
Very nice! I was going to mention the fact that the actual sphinx has a longer body, but it turned you you already have ;-) Your sphinxes' body certainly looks more like the sphinxes they still have in Luxor and the Karnak temple, but I still feel it takes away a bit of the feeling that I'm looking at a model of the Great Sphinx. But still, this is some very good stuff! |
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I like it |
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August 22, 2009 |
Brilliant |
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I like it |
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August 22, 2009 |
Fascinating, superb! |
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I like it |
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August 22, 2009 |
This is great dude!! Excellent job! |
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I like it |
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August 22, 2009 |
Excellent. Ever read Indiana Jones and the Secret of the Sphinx? Anyway, the head's too big, but other than that, fantastic. Say, er.. It pales in comparison to yours, but would you mind taking a look at my rendition? Thanks. http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/95643 |
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