Egypt To Restore Damaged Sphinx

To restore the Sphinx to its natural beauty, Egyptian antiquities officials announced plans Thursday to strip away the cement used in an earlier, slapdash restoration.

The cement has damaged the monument’s limestone, threatening the entire structure, says Zahi Hawass, director of antiquities at the Giza plateau outside Cairo.

“Limestone is like a human being, it needs to breathe,” he explained. “It stopped breathing. The Sphinx had been killed by this restoration.”

Built by Pharaonic artisans 4,600 years ago at the foot of the Giza pyramids, the limestone statue has deteriorated rapidly since sand that had buried it for centuries was removed in the 1920s.