Set of six sphinx statues

These six royal sphinxes combine the body of a reclining lion with a human head. That the head is that of a ruler is indicated in the emblematic headdress of the pharaohs, the nemes, and the upright cobra snake, the ureus, which protects him. Dozens of sphinxes faced each other, lining the processional route which leads from the Nile Valley to the Serapium, the necropolis dedicated to the sacred bull Apis on the Saqqara plateau. If sphinxes were ubiquitous in ancient Egyptian temples, that was because they were the guardians of sacred spaces, and marked the boundary between the secular and the divine. Many sphinxes have graffiti in Greek on their sides, providing us with the names of ancient visitors during the period when Egypt was becoming Greco-Roman.