Unique Egyptian sphinx unearthed in Israel hints at relationship between countries in II millennium

The Israeli archaeologists have found a unique Sphinx belonging to one of the ancient Egyptian leader in northern Israel.

The archeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have unearthed an Egyptian Sphinx brought over from Egypt at a site in Tel Hazor National Park, north of the Sea of Galilee in Israel.

The hieroglyphic inscription between its front legs bears the name of the Egyptian king Mycerinus, who ruled in the third millennium BCE, more than 4,000 years ago.

The exploration of Egyptian Sphinx at Hazor is an unexpected and important discovery as it is the only known Sphinx of this king discovered anywhere in the world.

According to the archaeologists, the statue might have been brought to Israel in the second millennium BCE during the dynasty of the kings known as the Hyksos, who originated in Canaan.

It could also have arrived during the 15th to 13th centuries BCE, when Canaan was under Egyptian rule, as a gift from an Egyptian king to the king of Hazor, which was the most important city in the southern Levant at the time.