Anubis's Breed: The Mystery Behind the Great Sphinx

The Great Sphinx of Giza may have been carved with the figure of a pharaoh on an animal body, and the most widely cited hypothesis points to a jackal associated with Anubis. No living breed exactly reproduces the animal depicted.

The Great Sphinx of Giza puzzles over a proportion that jumps out at you: the head is too small for the body that supports it. This disproportion has fueled the hypothesis that the monument was carved, around the **Fourth Dynasty**, with the figure of the pharaoh we see today, and that something else stood there before.

## A Feline Body and a Gaze Toward Leo

Some have suggested that the Sphinx gazed toward the constellation of **Leo** at certain moments in the past, which would reinforce the idea that the original figure was that of a feline. The reverence shown to cats in ancient Egypt would seem to support that line of thinking.

The problem is that, if we think of a lion, the tuft at the tip of the tail is missing, even though it could simply be absent today. The archaeological evidence and Egyptian cosmogony rather point to a jackal.

## Why Anubis Is Mentioned

The image of **Anubis**, who judges the souls of the dead with his scales according to belief, shares a suggestive position with the Sphinx. Hence the jackal hypothesis. But if one goes looking for the image of an Egyptian jackal, it bears no resemblance at all: neither to the depictions of Anubis nor to the Sphinx itself.

## The Maltese Dog and the Mexican Xolo

In **Malta**, a canid lineage similar to the greyhound has been preserved: a slender physique, though not quite as much, an elongated muzzle, though not quite as much, and short hair. It usually has reddish-toned coats and is called the "pharaoh hound dog." Mystery solved? Not yet.

If what you are looking for is the living animal most closely resembling the numerous depictions of Anubis that survive, always in black, what appears is the Mexican **xoloitzcuintli**. The relationship between Mexico and Egypt would not be limited to a fondness for pyramids: it would include a similar taste for domestic animals.