The most famous sphinx is the Great Sphinx of Giza, a magnificent statue carved out of a natural rocky outcrop with the head, it is thought, of the 4th dynasty pharaoh Kafra. This would make it 4,500 years old, although some scholars believe it is even older. At 57m long, 6m wide and 20m high, the Great Sphinx is the largest single-stone statue in the world.But it was by no means the only sphinx.

Whole rows of them often lined processional walkways in the temples. There are over 90 ram-headed sphinxes lining a 3m walkway in the temple complex at Karnak in Luxor.

No-one knows what the Egyptians called these creatures, since the name ‘sphinx’ was taken from a Greek mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a woman.