Sphinx of Hatshepsut in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 2009

Sphinx of Hatshepsut, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Hatshepsut, ca. 1473–1458 b.c.
Egyptian
Red granite with traces of blue and yellow paint
L. 11 ft. 3 in. (343 cm), H. 5 ft. 4 1/2 in. (164 cm)
Rogers Fund, 1931 (31.3.166)

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 use of the sphinx to represent the king dates back to the Old Kingdom and the Great Sphinx of Giza. The sculptor has carefully observed the powerful muscles of the lion as contrasted to the handsome and attractive idealized face of the queen. It was one of six royal sphinxes that lined the processional way leading to the queen's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. Recovered by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition, it was found smashed into many fragments and buried in pits near the temple. It weighs more than seven tons.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/kqae/ho_31.3.166.htm