Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

3,000-Year-Old Sphinx Unearthed in Israel

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.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.