The thing that amazes me most about Egyptian history is how old the Sphinx of Giza is.
Crazy, the gap between the Old Kingdom and the New Kingdom is more than a thousand years!
Because of its age, the subsequent Pharaohs found that many of the pyramids had been abandoned, and the Sphinx was buried under sand, becoming a lost relic of the past...
Great Sphinx of Giza in 1849
This is a photo of the Sphinx of Giza taken in 1849. The statue is still mostly covered in sand, with only the head, shoulders, and chest visible. This Sphinx has been buried, excavated, and then buried again by the sands of time.
Prince Thutmose IV, who was still his father's heir at the time, once assembled a team of ancient archaeologists to excavate this giant statue.
It took a tremendous amount of effort to excavate the Sphinx's enormous front paws. Then, a second excavation effort was carried out, led directly by Ramses II.
Just imagine, the Egyptian Empire lasted for thousands of years. What's even more impressive is that even in ancient Egypt, buildings from the first dynasty were already the subject of archaeological research.
What's even more heartbreaking is that when the first pyramids were built at Giza, giant woolly mammoths still roamed the earth, although their numbers were small and they lived in Siberia.