On Monday, authorities in charge of antiquities reported that archaeologists have found a statue resembling a Sphinx and the remnants of a shrine in a temple located in the south of Egypt.

According to a statement by the Antiquities Ministry, the temple of Dendera in Qena Province, located 280 miles (450 kilometers) to the south of Cairo, was where the artifacts were discovered, the Associated Press reported.

As per the ministry’s statement, the archaeologists have hypothesized that the statue’s cheerful expression could pertain to the Roman emperor Claudius, who governed North Africa from 41 to 54 A.D. and extended Rome’s dominion in the region.

The ministry has stated that further investigations will be carried out by the archaeologists to analyze the inscriptions on the stone slab, potentially uncovering more details about the statue’s origins and the surrounding region.

The statue itself is significantly smaller in size than the renowned Sphinx located within the Pyramids of Giza complex, standing at a height of 66 feet (20 meters).

In addition, the archaeologists discovered a stone slab from the Roman period, which featured inscriptions in both demotic and hieroglyphic scripts, as reported by the AP.

According to the ministry, the limestone shrine comprises of a dual-level platform and a mud-brick basin, which dates back to the Byzantine era.

The Egyptian government typically promotes such findings with the aim of luring more tourists, which is a crucial source of foreign revenue for the financially strained North African nation.

Written by staff