158. The Egyptian Sphinxes in St. Petersburg

Among the most unusual monuments in St. Petersburg are the two Egyptian Sphinxes that sit along the Neva River on Vasilyevsky Island. These are monumental sculptures that are actually from ancient Egypt - they are over 3,500 years old. The statues weigh approximately 23 tons apiece and depict Pharaoh Amenhotep III. Their original location was in front of one of his temples in Luxor. A French Egyptologist named  Jean-Francois Champollion removed them from Egypt in the 1820s, and they were purchased for Emperor Nicholas I and brought to St. Petersburg from France in the 1830s. This was the height of the popularity of Egyptian art in Russia, a trend also exemplified in St. Petersburg by the Egyptian Bridge. Once in Russia, the sphinxes were first placed inside the courtyard of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts building, and a few years later moved to pedestals above a purpose-built pier in front of that building where they have been ever since. The outdoor location is not ideal for the long-term preservation of these statues (especially when they are exposed to harsh winter weather every year), so perhaps someday they will be moved to a new location inside the Hermitage Museum.

I have to confess that the first time I walked past the Sphinxes (after living in St. Petersburg less than a month) I didn't realize these were authentic ancient Egyptian sculptures and I supposed that someone had vandalized them (part of the faces are missing). Later, I realized what they were and was able to take some pictures from the middle of the Neva River while on a river cruise (these photos appear at the bottom of this post). Last weekend I went back to see the Sphinxes up close from Vasilyevsky Island and found some good angles for photographs looking south across the Neva River that captured in the background St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Admiralty, and the Winter Palace on the Admiralty and Palace Embankments.