<P> In AD 1817 the first modern archaeological dig, supervised by the Italian Giovanni Battista Caviglia, uncovered the Sphinx's chest completely . </P> <P> One of the people working on clearing the sands from around the Great Sphinx was Eugène Grébaut, a French Director of the Antiquities Service </P> <P> In the beginning of the year 1887, the chest, the paws, the altar, and plateau were all made visible . Flights of steps were unearthed, and finally accurate measurements were taken of the great figures . The height from the lowest of the steps was found to be one hundred feet, and the space between the paws was found to be thirty - five feet long and ten feet wide . Here there was formerly an altar; and a stele of Thûtmosis IV was discovered, recording a dream in which he was ordered to clear away the sand that even then was gathering round the site of the Sphinx . </P> <P> The entire Sphinx was finally excavated in 1925 to 1936, in digs led by Émile Baraize . </P>

When was the sphinx's nose shot off