Hawass, The Secrets of the Sphinx

Zahi Hawass,
The Secrets of the Sphinx,
Cairo, 1998 - 42 pp.
(English version), 22 pp. (Arabic version) - pdf-file (44.6 MB) [PDF]
http://www.gizapyramids.org/pdf%20library/hawass_sphinx.pdf
"This paper outlines the history of conservation, both modern and ancient, in the Sphinx precinct and provides a brief account of its excavations. It will also touch upon evidence that has recently come
to light relating to chronology and function ... The latest phase of conservation of the Great Sphinx started in 1989 ... new evidence that has surfaced independently of the conservation efforts contributes to our understanding of when the Sphinx was abandoned and plundered. The new evidence confirms that a) Khafre built the Sphinx in the Fourth Dynasty (ca. 2600 BC) for cultic purposes, and b) the Sphinx was not
abandoned in the Middle Kingdom as some scholars have maintained, but rather at the end of the Old Kingdom, and plundered thereafter during the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2150-2040 BC)."