Sphinx of Hatshepsut

Period:: New Kingdom

Dynasty:: Dynasty 18

Reign:: Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III

Date:: ca. 1479–1458 B.C.

Geography:: From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Deir el-Bahri, Senenmut Quarry, MMA excavations, 1926–28

Medium:: Granite, paint

Dimensions:: H: 164 cm (64 9/16 in.); L: 343 cm (135 1/16 in.); Wt: 6758.6 kg (14900 lb.)

Credit Line:: Rogers Fund, 1931

Accession Number:: 31.3.166

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 131

This colossal sphinx portrays the female pharaoh Hatshepsut with the body of a lion and a human head wearing a nemes headcloth and royal beard. The sculptor has carefully observed the powerful muscles of the lion as contrasted to the handsome, idealized face of the pharaoh. It was one of at least six granite sphinxes that stood in Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. Smashed into many fragments at the order of Hatshepsut's nephew and successor Thutmose III and dumped in a quarry close by, this beast was recovered by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition and reassembled. It weighs more than seven tons.

Part of a second sphinx of Hatshepsut (31.3.164) is on display in gallery 115. The sphinx has a long history in Egyptian art, the most famous example being the great sphinx at Giza which represents the Fourth Dynasty King Khafre who lived almost a thousand years before Hatshsepsut. Sphinxes representing other pharaohs may be seen throughout the Egyptian galleries.

#3273. Sphinx of Hatshepsut

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For Audio Guide tours and information, visit metmuseum.org/audioguide.

Museum excavations 1926-1928. Acquired by the Museum in the division of finds, 1931.

Glubok, Shirley 1962. The Art of Ancient Egypt. New York: Atheneum, pp. 20-21.

Metropolitan Museum of Art 2012. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, p. 47.

Metropolitan Museum of Art 2012. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide. New York and New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, p. 47.

Timelines
Egypt, 2000–1000 B.C.