Copycat Sphinx resurrected in Hebei. Egypt to complain to UNESCO

China is in for another batch of angry complaints from Cairo, as new images reveal that the controversial Sphinx built in Hebei province is now being resurrected, allowing Chinese tourists to once again behold the majesty of the breathtaking statue without having to go all the way to Egypt.

The saga of this fake Sphinx first began in 2014, when the 60 x 20-meter knockoff suddenly appeared in a field outside of the provincial capital of Shijiazhuang. The Sphinx along with a copy of the Louvre Pyramid and a Temple of Heaven hybrid were all built by the same film production company which originally claimed that the reproductions would all be taken down once they were no longer needed for the filming of movies and TV shows.

Appalled by the statue’s inaccuracy, angry at its unauthorized production, and afraid that it could actually end up hurting the country’s tourism industry, Egypt filed a complaint with UNESCO in 2014, demanding that it be taken down forthwith.

Instead, it took a slow two years for the shanzhai Sphinx to finally be decapitated.

However, the thing was never entirely demolished and now photos have hit Chinese social media showing the head being refashioned to the Sphinx’s body. The South China Morning Post reports that Egypt has responded by once again preparing to file complaints with UNESCO and with China’s foreign ministry to get the knockoff torn down for good.

It’s unclear why the Sphinx was suddenly was revived and how long the human-cat creature’s second life will last.

However, the Great Sphinx of Shijiazhuang isn’t the only reincarnation of one of Egypt’s most iconic world heritage sites in China. In 2015, the Anhui city of Chuzhou opened its own World Cultural Expo Park, boasting an even more inaccurate and egregious rendition of the Sphinx. This one sports a fully formed nose, a painted mask, and has a rather incongruous Iron Man-esque statue standing next to it.

[Images via Apple Daily / People’s Daily]

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