Compared with the one at Giza, this sphinx is very small – about the size of a spaniel – but it is particularly interesting, because it’s not just a hybrid of a man and a lion but a fusion of Egypt and the kingdom of Kush, now northern Sudan. … Hieroglyphics on the sphinx’s chest spell it out: this is a portrait of the great King Taharqo, the fourth pharaoh to rule over the combined kingdoms of Kush and Egypt.

Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 1…, loc. 377