Restoration Gives Answers to Sphinx : Archeology: Artist’s work gives new insight into the ancient, smiling monument in Egypt.

Restorers of the Sphinx are uncovering the long-hidden history of one of the ancient world’s great, mysterious legacies, even the story of how it was built.

Among riddles being answered are whether the man-beast crouching at the foot of the Giza pyramids originally had a beard--new evidence says yes--and whether the Sphinx was meant as a star attraction or just something to hide an ugly rock--definitely the former.

Who built the Sphinx? Why? How? What did the ancient Sphinx look like?

Answers to all these questions now are known, said Zahi Hawass, general antiquities director for the pyramids and Sphinx.

“The mystery of the Sphinx has been revealed,” he declared.

Major restoration of the 4,600-year-old monument began in the spring of 1988 after a large stone fell from its right shoulder. A year later, experts called in Mahmoud Mabrouk, a Cairo sculptor, to apply an artist’s touch to the massive statue.

Mabrouk did not come to rewrite history, but as he inched his way, removing and repairing blocks, peering deep into the heart of the mother rock, he found a far different Sphinx than other people see.

“Nobody writing about the Sphinx, about its dating and functions, has ever truly examined it and looked behind its smile,” Hawass said. “For the first time, we see the Sphinx through an artist’s eye.”

That is the key, Mabrouk said. The Sphinx is puzzling to the world, but “to a sculptor, it can be understood.”

These are some of the most most dramatic discoveries since restoration began:

* Many Egyptologists have believed that ancient artists situated the Sphinx to cover a stone outcropping, an eyesore that marred the beauty of the pyramids behind it. Mabrouk found that the Sphinx was meant for a particular spot, according to a master plan.

* Artists started work on the Sphinx by outlining the face and neck. Architects followed to shape the rest of the body. Artists again were summoned to give the statue its lion-shaped body and tail, and to finish facial details.

* Original stones in the Sphinx’s chest suggest that they supported the weight of a beard. Remnants of a later beard are now in museums in Egypt and England.

* Sphinx artists worked as a team producing a masterpiece, but over the centuries their skills were lost. In rehabilitating the Sphinx through the millennia, restorers dramatically changed its shape by adding smaller stones randomly.

Among Mabrouk’s most significant insights is that the famous statue was carved into the shape of a sphinx and placed in a particular spot for a specific reason.

“The big man came here and told his architects, ‘I want a sphinx here,’ ” Mabrouk said. “Geologists told the Pharaoh the rock was weak. He insisted the work proceed.”

After artists outlined the face, stonecutters quarried rock around the Sphinx, fashioning building blocks for the pyramids and other nearby monuments.

Master artisans then returned to give the face a Pharaoh’s pomp and its subtle smile--and, according to Mabrouk, a beard.

Hawass said the Pharaoh of the Sphinx was Chephren, whose reign ended in 2494 BC. He built the Sphinx and a temple in honor of a new religion begun by his father Cheops, who became in death the sun god Ra.

The Sphinx, with Chephren’s face, is the god Horus, son of Ra. So both Chephren and Horus pay eternal homage to their mutual father, the sun.