Crystal Palace Sphinges - Crystal Palace Park, London, UK
N 51° 25.418 W 000° 04.426
30U E 703437 N 5700999
A pair of sphinges keep watch over Crystal Palace Park in south London. The sphinges, exact copies of the Tanis sphinx in the Louvre, were made for the Great Exhibition that was held in Hyde Park before being moved here.
Waymark Code: WMQ253
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/04/2015
Views: 3
The sphinx are about 4.8 metres (15 feet) from back to front and about 1.8 meter (6 feet) high. There are carvings around the bases and on the bodies of the sphinx. The sphinx are made from an aggregate that is starting to crack in places.
The Crystal Palace Park website tells us:
English Heritage have now approved a grant which covers the first phase of rescuing these amiable beasts from their current crumbling state of ruin.
After the Great Exhibition of 1851 the Crystal Palace was dismantled and moved from Hyde Park to Sydenham. The project also included the creation of a landscaped park. An Upper Terrace and a Lower Terrace with flights of granite steps linked the Crystal Palace to the park.
Six sphinxes, arranged in pairs, stand on the South Wing, the South Transept and the North Transept of the Crystal Palace terraces. They are among the few remnants of the magnificent glass structure which succumbed to a tragic fire on the night of 30 November 1936.
The sphinxes are full-sized copies of an original housed in the Louvre, Paris, which dates to Egypt’s 12th Dynasty ruler, Amenemhat II (1929-1895 BC). These impressive replicas have welcomed visitors to the Crystal Palace since its original opening in 1854.
Recently volunteers have cleared away the vegetation from the Upper Terrace South Wing flight of steps and the poor and dangerous condition of the steps is all too evident, bought about by evasive self rooted plant growth and settlement.
A detailed survey is clearly needed to establish what repairs should be done to all of the sphinxes in Crystal Palace Park. The application for funds which English Heritage approved will bring some real impetus to the task of resurrecting these marvellous beasts.
The Louvre website has an article about the Tanis spinx upon which the replicas at Crystal Palace Park were created:
The sphinx is a fabulous creature with the body of a lion and the head of a king. This one was successively inscribed with the names of the pharaohs Ammenemes II (12th Dynasty, 1929-1895 BC), Merneptah (19th Dynasty, 1212-02 BC) and Shoshenq I (22nd Dynasty, 945-24 BC). According to archaeologists, certain details suggest that this sphinx dates to an earlier period - the Old Kingdom (c. 2600 BC).
Tanis
This is one of the largest sphinxes outside of Egypt. It was found in 1825 among the ruins of the Temple of Amun at Tanis (the capital of Egypt during the 21st and 22nd dynasties). This impressive stone sculpture with its precise details and polished surfaces is a work of admirable craftsmanship. The recumbent lion, with tense body and outstretched claws, gives the impression of being ready to leap. The shen hieroglyph sculpted on the plinth under each paw evokes a cartouche, confirming the royal nature of the monument.
Modifications
The legible inscriptions are all "usurpations", i.e. traces of subsequent modifications to the monument. The names of Merneptah (19th Dynasty) and Sheshonq (22nd Dynasty) are legible. The original texts (traces of which are still visible in places) were deliberately erased and replaced. It is therefore impossible to date this statue with certainty, especially as the face does not resemble any known, well-documented royal portrait. In view of this uncertainty, Egyptologists are divided: some date the sphinx to the 12th Dynasty, others to the 6th or even the 4th.
Shesep-ankh
The Greek word "sphinx", commonly used to refer to the Egyptian statues representing a lion with a human head, was not the original term. The appropriate Egyptian appellation for a statue or image of this kind was shesep-ankh ("living image"). The creature was a symbolic representation of the close relationship between the sun god (the lion's body) and the king (the human head), and was the "living image of the king", demonstrating his strength and his close association with Ra.
The sphinx was always positioned either as (recumbent) guardian and protector of places where gods appeared - such as the horizon, and temple entrances - or as (upright) defender of Egypt against hostile forces, whom he trampled underfoot.
The Tired of London Tired of Life blog tells us:
When London hosted the Great Exhibition in 1851, it was a chance for London to show the world the power and greatness of Britain in the Victorian Age. As such, it was decorated with various architectural and aesthetic flourishes which reflected the global nature of the exhibition. A Sphinx was inevitable really...
The 990,000 square ft Crystal Palace was built in Hyde Park as a place for more than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world to gather and celebrate the progress of the industrial revolution and the might of the empire.
The 'Palace', originally designed by Joseph Paxton, who had been gardener at Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, was subsequently relocated to Sydenham, to the area we all now know as Crystal Palace. Many of the sculptures and flourishes were relocated with it, and whilst the palace itself burned down in 1936, some of the other elements remain and the Sphinx still stands guard at the entrance, keeping watch to check who accesses the empty terraces where once a palace stood.