The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human, and the body of a lion. Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. The face of the Sphinx appears to represent the pharaoh Khafre.The original shape of the Sphinx was cut from the bedrock, and has since been restored with layers of limestone blocks. It measures 73 m (240 ft) long from paw to tail, 20 m (66 ft) high from the base to the top of the head and 19 m (62 ft) wide at its rear haunches. Its nose was broken off for two possible reasons. The first reason is that the nose was shot by Napoleon Bonaparte during a French invasion of Egypt using a cannonball in the 18th century. There has been further evidence disapproving of this because there were paintings of the Sphinx with its broken nose in the 17th century, before Napoleon was even born. The second reason is that in 1378 CE, a religious rebel by the name of Mohamed Sa'm al-Dahr was responsible for destroying the nose who was later executed for vandalism. Of course, the nose could have been simply damaged by weather and corrosion. The Sphinx is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt and one of the most recognizable statues in the world. The archaeological evidence suggests that it was created by ancient Egyptians of the Old Kingdom during the reign of Khafre (c. 2558–2532 BC).