[JimRed]

...I believe the Sphinx would still have his nose.

I heard that the nose damage is due to British gunners using it as target practice.

[Casie]

I think thats a myth! I've even heard the story Napolean did it. But I believe the truth is something more like this quote suggests:

"According to Makrizi, Rashidi and other medieval Arab scholars, the face of the Sphinx was vandalized in 1378 A.D. by Mohammed Sa'im al-Dahr, a "fanatical sufi of the oldest and most highly respected sufi convent of Cairo." The nose and ears are mentioned specifically as having been damaged at this time. According to one account, Haarmann states, the residents in the neighborhood of the Sphinx were so upset by the destruction that they lynched him and buried him near the great monument he ruined."

-An article by Ulrich Haarmann, "Regional Sentiment in Medieval Islamic Egypt," published in the University of London's Bulletin Of The School Of Oriental And African Studies (BSOAS), vol.43 (1980) p.55-66

[elcid1970]

The other myth is that Napoleon Bonaparte led a French force into Egypt and as the column passed by the Pyramids & Sphinx, he reminded his troops,

“Remember, forty centuries are looking down upon you!”

[Red Badger]

The article said that is a western myth. The Arab Islamic conquerors did it in the 7th century.......