A neighbour of the Chephren pyramid (named after the pharaoh), the Sphinx of Giza is made of limestone and measures 21 m high by 74 m long. This structure, built almost 4,500 years ago, was also erected in the pharaoh's honour, and has the body of a lion and a human face in the likeness of Chephren himself. Its original purpose was to guard the pyramid, but later it became a symbol of the sun god Rahorakhty, who symbolized "The Sun of the Two Horizons." Cannonballs launched by Napoleon's army in 1798, along with desert storms, account for the Sphinx's missing nose.
