The Great Sphinx Reminisces Poem by Sheena Blackhall

I've been around since 2500 BC
Built on the orders of the pharaoh Khafre

It took 100 workers three excruciating years
To chip me out with hammer and chisel
From the bedrock of the plateau

The workers called me the Father of Terror
With my pharaoh's head, my lion's body

The wind of the centuries smothered me in dunes
I was buried up to my shoulders

Then a young Pharaoh, Thutmose IV
Had his servants dig out my front paws,
Walking at midday, he sat under my mighty shadow
I spoke to him in his sleep, ordered my uncovering

Roman Emperors visited me
I was cleared of sand in honour of Emperor Nero
A monumental stairway—more than 12 metres wide—was erected,
It led to a pavement in front of my powerful paws
So many historical reincarnations!

Pliny the Elder described me, the Jerry Springer of his day
When Roman power fell, the sands returned

My followers continued to venerate me into medieval times.
They thought I guarded Giza from the desert.

Al-Maqrizi called me the'talisman of the Nile'
Locals believed the flood cycle depended upon me

Those wishing favour from the Egyptian government
Lit incense to me, as if a stone could smell!

André Thévet described me a curly-haired monster
With a grassy dog collar. What a pleb!
George Sandys stated that I was a harlot
The Englishman's ultimate insult

Balthasar de Monconys thought my headdress was a kind of hair net
He had the imagination of a pimple

In 1817, an Italian Giovanni Battista Caviglia, uncovered my chest
In 1887, my chest, my paws, my altar, and my plateau were all revealed
Flights of steps were uncovered. Time for another reappearance

In 1931, Egyptian engineers repaired my head, rather clumsily, I thought
I used to be quite colourful you know, red, yellow, blue, red
If you were as old as me, you'd expect to suffer small cosmetic changes.

Always someone is prodding and poking at me
Dead end shafts have been driven deep within me
By grave robbers & seekers of treasure.How intrusive is that!

My missing nose?
Cannonballs fired by the army of Napoleon Bonaparte?
The work of Mamluks?
Iconoclastic attacks?
Maybe the vandalism of a Sufi Muslim?
Take your pick. That's one of my many riddles left to solve…