Great Sphinx The Great Sphinx ( PROSE : " The Sands of Time " ) was a massive stone construction of a sphinx in Giza , Egypt — close to Memphis . ( AUDIO : " The Eye of the Scorpion " ) It was known in Egyptian as " Abu el Hob " or " the Father of Terror " . ( PROSE : " The Sands of Time " ) Face . The identity of its human face was generally considered a mystery by the people of Earth . Erimem didn ' t know exactly who it was , but her tutor told her it was Cheops . The Fifth Doctor swiftly dismissed that notion . ( AUDIO : " The Eye of the Scorpion " ) On an earlier visit to Egypt , he told Kamose and Atkins that " the original face of the Sphinx was the face of Horus " . ( PROSE : " The Sands of Time " ) According to Peri the reason that the face was so badly mangled was that Napoleon Bonaparte ' s army " used it for target practise " . For this reason , she felt that it would not corrupt the timeline to give Erimem ' s re - construction workers the image of Elvis Presley to use as a template — especially since it seemed thematically appropriate to use the visage of a " King of Memphis " for the statue . Thus , the Sphinx looked like Elvis for some 3 , 000 years . ( AUDIO : " The Eye of the Scorpion " ) Disputed age and origin . On one visit to Egypt , the Fifth Doctor was not exactly sure when it was built , but he estimated it at between eight and ten thousand years prior to the late 20th century . ( PROSE : " The Sands of Time " ) On a later trip , he seemed more certain , placing it at 10 , 000 BC . ( AUDIO : " The Eye of the Scorpion " ) On both occasions he was quite certain it was built before the Great Pyramid , but noted that 20th century historians seemed to wrongly feel that the Pyramids were older . ( AUDIO : " The Eye of the Scorpion " , PROSE : " The Sands of Time " ) According to a party of scientists that Chris Cwej and the Seventh Doctor met in 2157 , it was about a thousand years younger than the one on Mars . These scientists contended that both Sphinxes was built by Osiran s . ( PROSE : " GodEngine " ) This belief was variously agreed and disputed by the Fifth Doctor . When he visited with Tegan and Nyssa , he clearly believed that the Sphinx was Osiran in origin . Indeed , he met a man named Rassul who flatly said , " The power of the Osirans devolves from the Great Sphinx in Egypt . " The Doctor also claimed that although legend said that Thutmose was " told by the Sphinx in a dream to dig it out " of the sand , the pharaoh was in fact probably hit by a " pulse of Osiran mental energy " . At that time , he claimed that the Sphinx was carved from " living rock " . He also said that it had certain astronomic functionality . The sun , he said , rose directly between its front paws . When the sun set , the line it took as it sank " trace [ d ] perfectly round the head of the sphinx " when viewed from a certain distance . ( PROSE : " The Sands of Time " ) However , when the Fifth Doctor was later in Egypt with Peri , he thought it was constructed by Atlantean s . The proof of this was in the fact that it served as the ark of their civilisation . Deep beneath its foundation , between its paws , lay a vast library called the " Hall of Records " , containing all of the knowledge of Atlantis . He , Erimem and Peri descended what locals thought was a nearby well and investigated this " hall of records " in an attempt to lure the stasis box entity away from other people — and therefore other hosts — to defeat it . Though successful in this effort , they were barely able to escape from under the Sphinx before the tunnels — which also led to the Great Pyramid of Giza — collapsed . ( AUDIO : " The Eye of the Scorpion " ) Often buried . Over the centuries , sand sometimes consumed the statue and it needed digging out . ( PROSE : " The Sands of Time " ) Bernice Summerfield visited Cairo in 1798 , where she was in the company of an artist named Vivant who sketched , amongst other things , the Great Sphinx . At the time , it was buried deep beneath the sand , with only its uppermost features visible . ( PROSE : " Set Piece " ) Behind the scenes . " The Sands of Time " , released in 1996 , is in fundamental and irresolvable conflict with " The Eye of the Scorpion " , released in 2001 , about the Fifth Doctor ' s opinion of the origin of the Great Sphinx . According to just the Virgin Books explanation , the Sphinx is unambiguously a creation of the Osiran s , and this is something both the Fifth Doctor and Seventh Doctor accept as read . But " The Eye of the Scorpion " , whose fourth part is largely set underneath the Sphinx , irresolvably disagrees with this , giving clear proof that it was created by people from Atlantis .