<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 profile . Many renovations to the stone base and raw rock body were done in the 1980s, and then redone in the 1990s . </P> <P> The one - metre - wide nose on the face is missing . Examination of the Sphinx's face shows that long rods or chisels were hammered into the nose, one down from the bridge and one beneath the nostril, then used to pry the nose off towards the south . </P> <P> The Arab historian al - Maqrīzī, writing in the 15th century, attributes the loss of the nose to iconoclasm by Muhammad Sa'im al - Dahr--a Sufi Muslim from the khanqah of Sa'id al - Su'ada--in AD 1378, upon finding the local peasants making offerings to the Sphinx in the hope of increasing their harvest . Enraged, he destroyed the nose, and was later hanged for vandalism . Al - Maqrīzī describes the Sphinx as the "talisman of the Nile" on which the locals believed the flood cycle depended . </P> <P> There is a story that the nose was broken off by a cannonball fired by Napoleon's soldiers . Other variants indict British troops, the Mamluks, and others . Sketches of the Sphinx by the Dane Frederic Louis Norden, made in 1738 and published in 1757, show the Sphinx missing its nose . This predates Napoleon's birth in 1769 . </P>

Why is the nose on the sphinx missing
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