Photo of the Week: Sphinx’s Beard
The beard that was once attached to the chin of the Sphinx at Giza.
This fragment of the beard is currently located in the British Museum. The museum has an article about it on their website that gives some background information on the acquisition of the beard:
The British Museum has this small fragment - about one-thirtieth in total - of the Great Sphinx’s beard. It was presented by Giovanni Battista Caviglia, who excavated at Giza in 1817 and cleared parts of the Sphinx, which was then buried in sand up to the neck. His expenses were covered by Henry Salt (British Consul-General) and other British businessmen, with an agreement that finds be presented to The British Museum. This was done according to a directive of Mohammed Ali Pasha, who was at that time virtually the ruler of Egypt.
Caviglia found a number of fragments of the beard and the tip of the uraeus between the paws of the Sphinx, and left other parts of the beard in the sand. When the Sphinx was cleared in 1925-26 some other fragments were removed to the Cairo Museum.
Read the rest of the article: Fragment of the beard of the Great Sphinx.
