Grande sfinge da Tanis

The Great Sphinx of Tanis is an ancient Egyptian pink granite sculpture of a sphinx. It was discovered in the ruins of the Temple of Amun-Ra in Tanis, Egypt's capital during the 21st and the 22nd dynasties. It was created much earlier, but when exactly remains debated with hypotheses of the 4th Dynasty (26th century BC) or the 12th Dynasty. All that is left of the earliest inscription mentions the reign of pharaoh Amenemhat II of the 12th Dynasty; later rulers took the opportunity to add their inscriptions to the sphinx, namely Aaqenenre Apophis of the 15th Dynasty (although the mention is uncertain), Merneptah of the 19th Dynasty, and Shoshenq I of the 22nd Dynasty.