Sphinx, Memphis, Egypt

Carved out of a ridge of the Giza plateau, the Great Sphinx of Egypt stretches out 240 feet and perches regally some 66 feet high. It sits inside a shallow limestone quarry from which the mammoth figure was hewn, its enormous head fashioned from a natural outcropping of harder stone that would have peaked above the otherwise barren landscape. The melding of a human head (representing consciousness) and leonine figure (the physical manifestation of spiritual power) is widely viewed as a tribute to the Egyptian god Re. The Sphinx faces East, perpetually waiting for the sun, the eye of Re.