Egyptian archaeologists find sphinx in temple

Cairo : Egyptian archaeologists announced that they have discovered the statue of a sphinx while draining water from the Temple of Kom Ombo in the city of Aswan, the Antiquities Ministry said on Monday.

The Ministry said the statue of the mythical beast with the head of a human and the body of a lion was made of sandstone, the BBC reported.

It probably dates back to the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt from 305 B.C. until the Roman conquest in 30 B.C.

Two sandstone reliefs of King Ptolemy V were also found at the temple. The statue measures about 28 cm wide and 38 cm tall.

The director general of Aswan's antiquities department, Abdul Moneim Saeed, said it would carry out further studies of the sphinx to find out more about its purpose.

The sphinx represented royal power in Egypt, combining the physical strength of a lion with the worldly might of a king.

The Great Sphinx by the pyramids of Giza is the most famous.