Historical archaeologist Dr Jonathan Foyle has come up with a remarkable new theory about the mysterious sphinx, which lies close to the Great Pyramid of Giza, looking somewhat the worse for wear.

Eygptologists have generally assumed the sphinx is roughly the same age as the adjacent pyramids.

But several geologists recently disputed that and claim it may be significantly older. One suggests it was built a couple of thouand years before the pyramids.

Foyle argues the sphinx initially bore a quite different head – and says it was later remodelled to sport a pharoah’s visage on a beast’s torso. This helps explain the mismatch between the sphinx’s giant paws and its disproportionately small human head.

The British Daily Mail has the most captivating account of this story.

It provides readers with a digital image, reproduced here. This is, of course, just an artist’s guess…

If accurate, it means the original statue was significantly taller than the sphinx today.

It is rather awesome to imagine a giant stone feline sitting in the Giza landscape – at a time before even the pyramids were a twinkle in an ancient megalomaniac’s eye.

The Great Lion would surely have been the largest sculpture in the world –  a stupendous celebration of an era when these majestic animals roamed a landscape yet to be desertified.

Update: See also A Dog’s Life in the Desert