Great Sphinx of Giza belongs to the years before the Common Era — dated here to c. 2500 BCE at Giza, Egypt. The date is a scholarly centre of gravity, not a foundation-stone timestamp.
A limestone knoll was carved into a recumbent lion with a royal head, likely Khafre, facing the rising sun.
How it was made
The body follows poorer rock; the head is better stone. Sand buried it for long stretches, which is why the body weathered in bands.
Why it still counts as a wonder
It never needed a Greek list to be a wonder: the labour, the alignment, or the survival is enough.
Thutmose IV left the Dream Stele between the paws after a 15th-century BCE clearance. The Sphinx is a quarry leftover turned into a god.
On dating
BCE in this series means years before the traditional birth of Christ, counted backward. A monument listed as c. 2500 BCE may have been founded earlier, rebuilt later, or famous only in one phase. Where ancient writers disagree — as they do for Babylon’s gardens — we say so.
This is story 9 of 100 in The Trend Ledger’s illustrated desk on world wonders raised before the Common Era.