Symbols Of Ankhs And The Sphinx At Giza

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From the towering architecture to the miniscule, yet still culturally important symbols, is it in art that we learn of religion or in religion that we learn of art? In an attempt to understand how ancient peoples would have lived their lives in regards to the afterlife as well as the beliefs that predicated them, we must look at the visual aspects of that culture. For example, the Ancient

Egyptians had some of the world's greatest feats of artistic skill and it shows; but most of the art was simply decoration or a link to the future; what they really admired was symbolism in art.

From tomb paintings to artifacts that were to have protected them in the afterlife, Ankhs and the

Sphynx, the Egyptians certainly studied and felt strongly

The royal human head on a lion's body symbolized power and might, controlled by the intelligence of the pharaoh, guarantor of the cosmic order, or ma'at. Its symbolism survived for two and a half millennia in the iconography of Egyptian civilization.

In other words, the Ancient Egyptians were not only wise and tactical but very religious in terms of how they thought. Everything was done with precision and thought. It is generally thought that the Sphinx was a protector, flanking the entrances to temples as the author of “The

Great Sphinx at Giza: Date and Function” asserts: “In periods after the old Kingdom, sphinxes were clearly guardians often set up along processional ways or at entrances to temples”. In the article, the author conversely asserts that “Edwards and others, based on texts, dates to the Late

Period the Heliopolitan belief that the king becomes Ra after his death, suggesting that the

Sphinx represented Khafra as Ra and acted as the guardian of the Giza necropolis”. This suggests that the Egyptians had expansive views on what the Sphinx was, but recognized the Sphinx as a representation of more than just a half man half lion colossal structure as we might see it

The top of the ankh hieroglyph is called Shen and it means eternity. It is composed of a rope that has been formed into a circle and knotted at the bottom. The other glyph is a vertical line which is a determinative glyph that means object, as in the objects that exist in time and space. So this combination of eternity, which is derived from the Spirit, and the objects of time and space, which are finite, ephemeral and limited, produces a “life process” which we know as mortal existence on earth.

Of course, unlike the Pyramids or Sphinx, the ankh is more of a symbol and less of a tangible object that can be seen or discovered, but the symbolism remains with the Egyptians nevertheless. This hieroglyph, steeped in imagery, was very miniscule compared to the colossi the Ancient Egyptians were unquestionably famous for and yet it held a huge significant meaning to them. Though its actual meaning is in dispute, the religious connotation is not. Many art pieces depict ankhs from Ancient Egypt including a depiction on the tomb of Nefertari