<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> <P> In 1931 engineers of the Egyptian government repaired the head of the Sphinx . Part of its headdress had fallen off in 1926 due to erosion, which had also cut deeply into its neck . This questionable repair was by the addition of a concrete collar between the headdress and the neck, creating an altered profie . Many renovations to the stone base and raw rock body were done in the 1980s, and then redone in the 1990s . </P>

When did the great sphinx lose its nose