獅身人面像（阿拉伯语：أبو الهول，英語：Great Sphinx of Giza）或稱人面獅身像，是一座位於在卡夫拉金字塔旁的雕像，外型是一個獅子的身軀和人的頭。獅身人面像長約73.5米（241英尺），寬約19.3米（63英尺），高約20.22米（66.34英尺）。獅身人面像是現今已知最古老的紀念雕像，一般相信是在法老卡夫拉統治期內（約公元前2558年至2532年）建成。[1]
"Taking all things into consideration, it seems that we must give the credit of erecting this, the world's most wonderful statue, to Khafre, but always with this reservation: that there is not one single contemporary inscription which connects the Sphinx with Khafre; so, sound as it may appear, we must treat the evidence as circumstantial, until such time as a lucky turn of the spade of the excavator will reveal to the world a definite reference to the erection of the Sphinx."[9]
“... which we bring for him: oxen ... and all the young vegetables; and we shall give praise to Wenofer ... Khaf ... the statue made for Atum-Hor-em-Akhet.”[11]
"The Sphinx stela shows, in line thirteen, the cartouche of Khephren.[14] I believe that to indicate an excavation carried out by that prince, following which, the almost certain proof that the Sphinx was already buried in sand by the time of Khafre[14] and his predecessors [i.e. Dynasty IV, c. 2575–2467 BC]."[15]
"This marvelous object [the Great Sphinx] was in existence in the days of Khafre, or Khephren,[14] and it is probable that it is a very great deal older than his reign and that it dates from the end of the archaic period [c. 2686 BC]."[16]
... the royal son, Thothmos, being arrived, while walking at midday and seating himself under the shadow of this mighty god, was overcome by slumber and slept at the very moment when Ra is at the summit [of heaven]. He found that the Majesty of this august god spoke to him with his own mouth, as a father speaks to his son, saying: Look upon me, contemplate me, O my son Thothmos; I am thy father, Harmakhis-Khopri-Ra-Tum; I bestow upon thee the sovereignty over my domain, the supremacy over the living ... Behold my actual condition that thou mayest protect all my perfect limbs. The sand of the desert whereon I am laid has covered me. Save me, causing all that is in my heart to be executed.[28]
Colin Reader认为在吉萨高原于古王國時期变成一个大墓地之前，狮身人面像是早王朝时期时期太阳崇拜的中心。[38]他将这个推论与他的结论联系起来，并认为狮身人面像，狮身人面像神庙和甬道以及卡夫拉祭祀厅堂都是一个在古埃及第四王朝（公元前2613-2494年）建筑群的一部分。狮子在很久以前就在古代近東成了与太阳联系起来的象征。将埃及法老描绘成太阳的作品能追溯到埃及早王朝时期。
^Coxill, David (1998). "The Riddle of the Sphinx", InScription: Journal of Ancient Egypt, 2 (Spring 1998), 17; cited in Schoch, Robert M. (2000). "New Studies Confirm Very Old Sphinx" （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆） in Dowell, Colette M. (ed). Circular Times.
^Coxill, David (1998). "The Riddle of the Sphinx", InScription: Journal of Ancient Egypt, 2 (Spring 1998), 17; cited in Schoch, Robert M. (2000) [1] （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）. "New Studies Confirm Very Old Sphinx" in Dowell, Colette M. (ed). Circular Times.
^Book 36, chapter 17, in The Natural History of Pliny, translated by John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley, Volume 6, pages 336–337 (London: H. G. Bohn, 1857).[2] （页面存档备份，存于互联网档案馆）
^Christiane Zivie-Coche, Sphinx: History of a Monument, pages 99–100 (Cornell University Press, 2002). ISBN 978-0-8014-3962-9
^ 14.014.114.2Early Egyptologists were inconsistent in their transliteration of pharaonic names: Khafre and Khephren are, of course, both references to Khafra.
^Wallis Budge, E. A. (1904). The Gods of the Egyptians: Studies in Egyptian Mythology. Courier Dover Publications, 1969. 2 volumes. ISBN 978-0-486-22055-0.
^Fagan, Garrett G. (ed.). Archaeological fantasies: how pseudoarchaeology misrepresents the past and misleads the public. Routledge. 2006: 20, 38–40, 100–103, 127, 197–201, 238, 241–255. ISBN 978-0-415-30593-8.
^Robert K. G. Temple, The Sphinx Mystery: The Forgotten Origins of The Sanctuary of Anubis (Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2009). ISBN 978-1-59477-271-9
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