A team of archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has discovered a fragment of a sphinx statue of the pharaoh Menkaure, one of the pyramid-building pharaohs.
Sphinx fragment found at the Tel Hazor site in Israel (Amnon Ben-Tor / Sharon Zuckerman / Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology)
The sphinx fragment was unearthed at the archaeological site of Tel Hazor, north of the Sea of Galilee, Israel. It has a hieroglyphic inscription between its front legs, bearing the name of the Egyptian pharaoh Menkaure.
Menkaure was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 4th dynasty (2575 to 2465 BC) during the Old Kingdom. He was the son of Khafra and the grandson of Khufu. Menkaure, also known as Menkure or Mykerinos, was the builder of the third and smallest at the Giza plateau. According to archaeologists Prof Amnon Ben-Tor and Dr Sharon Zuckerman, the statue is the only known sphinx of this pharaoh found anywhere in the world.
The inscription on the statue also includes the following text: ‘beloved by the divine manifestation… that gave him eternal life.’ This text indicates that the sphinx probably originated in the ancient city of Heliopolis.
According to the archaeologists: “the sphinx was discovered in the destruction layer of Hazor that was destroyed during the 13th century BC, at the entrance to the city palace. It is highly unlikely that the sphinx was brought to Hazor during the time of Menkaure, since there is no record of any relationship between Egypt and Israel in the third millennium BC.”
“More likely, the statue was brought to Israel in the second millennium BC during the dynasty of the kings known as the Hyksos, who originated in Canaan. It could also have arrived during the 15th to 13th centuries BC, when Canaan was under Egyptian rule, as a gift from an Egyptian king to the king of Hazor, which was the most important city in the southern Levant at the time.”
“The population of Hazor in the second millennium BC is estimated to have been about 20,000, making it the largest and most important city in the entire region. Its size and strategic location on the route connecting Egypt and Babylon made it ‘the head of all those kingdoms,’ according to the biblical book of Joshua (Joshua 11:10).”
Hazor’s conquest by the Israelites opened the way to the conquest and settlement of the Israelites in Canaan. The city was rebuilt and fortified by King Solomon and prospered in the days of Ahab and Jeroboam II, until its final destruction by the Assyrians in 732 BC.
“Documents discovered at Hazor and at sites in Egypt and Iraq attest that Hazor maintained cultural and trade relations with both Egypt and Babylon. Artistic artifacts, including those imported to Hazor from near and far, have been unearthed at the site. Hazor is currently one of Israel’s national parks.”
