One of Egypt's oldest surviving structures (and that's pretty old), the Sphinx near Cairo is a mythological creature, carved from one vast block of limestone. It features the body of a lion, a human head and an enigmatic gaze.
Its true origins remain unclear. While the scholarly consensus agrees that it was built by Khafre, who built the largest of the three Pyramids of Giza, others argue that it was already in place when the pyramids were built. Some claim that the patterns of erosion on its surface indicate water damage, others believe that they were caused when the Sphinx was used as target practice.
One of the most persistent myths surrounding the Sphinx is that its nose was blown off by the troops of Napoleon. This is quite untrue since destructive forces converged on the Sphinx centuries before Napoleon came to Egypt, including the iconoclastic ardour of Mohammed Sa'im al-Dahr, a fanatical Muslim who damaged the ears and nose, and Mamluks did indeed use the monument as target practice.
Despite the riddle, the Sphinx remains unperturbed, gazing down on tourists today with the same calm eyes which watched the Ancient Egyptian empire rise and fall.