3,000-Year-Old Sphinx Unearthed in Israel

Image by getty images
Archaeologists in northern Israel have discovered an Egyptian sphinx thought to date back at least three millennia.
Unearthed on Tuesday, the sphinx, according to AFP, bears a dedication to the Egyptian ruler Mycerinus, who ruled circa 2500 B.C.E. and built one of the three pyramids at Giza. Researchers estimate that the sphinx arrived at its location in the town of Tel Hazor in around 1500 B.C.E. as a gift from a later ruler.
“It’s possible the statue was sent by the Egyptian ruler to king of Hazor, the most important ruler in this region,”Amnon Ben-Tor, the Hebrew University professor managing the dig, told AFP.
Archaeologists have so far found the forearms and paws of the sphinx and hope to find more pieces in the coming days.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
