A team of Egyptian archaeologists has uncovered the remains of a 3,400-year-old wall on the Giza plateau that once protected the Sphinx from desert winds, the country's Supreme Council of Antiquities said.
The two sections of mud-brick wall, which stretch for 132 meters (433 feet) in total, have been dated to the reign of Thutmose IV, the council said in an e-mailed statement. According to ancient Egyptian texts, the pharaoh built the enclosure after the Sphinx appeared to him in a dream complaining that it was being choked by sand.
