Sphinx of Pharaoh Horemheb

This sandstone sphinx (late 14th c. BC) shows Horemheb, the last ruler of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, with a lion’s body and the king’s head. It combines royal strength and divine guardianship, affirming Horemheb’s role as restorer of order after the Amarna period, when Akhenaten disrupted traditional Egyptian religion by elevating the Aten, the solar disk worshipped as the supreme divine power. The sphinx also symbolizes Horemheb’s duty as protector of Ma’at, the cosmic order and balance.