From the current issue of Nile: The Avenue of Sphinxes

I love this photo from the current issue of Nile.

Here we see local children carrying palm fronds among the empty sphinx pedestals outside the Tenth Pylon at Karnak Temple. The short avenue extends south to­wards the Temple of Mut.

 The Karnak–Mut sphinxes bore rams’ heads, the ram be­ing a sacred animal of Amun. However, the rams’ heads were actually later modifica­tions to the statues.

 The sphinxes originally sported human heads bearing the features of “renegade” king Akhenaten and his queen Nefertiti. It seems that young King Tutankhamun had the heads lopped-off and replaced with rams’ heads as part of the Akhenaten backlash.

Photo: Jaap Jan Hemmes

Discover more about Karnak’s Avenues of Sphinxes in the current Nile Magazine; just 8 days left.