Great Sphinx

The Great Sphinx (PROSE: The Sands of Time) was a massive stone construction of a sphinx in Giza, Egypt — close to Memphis. (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion) It was known in Egyptian as Abu el Hob or "the Father of Terror". (PROSE: The Sands of Time) The identity of its human face was generally considered a mystery, thanks in part to the fact that Napoleon Bonaparte's army, according to Peri, "used it for target practise". For this reason, she felt that it would not corrupt the timeline to give Erimem's construction workers the image of Elvis Presley to use as a template — especially since it seemed thematically appropriate to use the visage of a "King of Memphis" for the statue. (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion)

The Fifth Doctor was not exactly sure when it was built, (PROSE: The Sands of Time) but according to a party of scientists that Chris Cwej and the Seventh Doctor met in 2157, it was about a thousand years younger than the one on Mars. These scientists contended that both Sphinxes was built by Osirians. (PROSE: GodEngine) This belief was variously agreed and disputed by the Fifth Doctor held. When he visited with Tegan and Nyssa, he clearly believed that the Sphinx was Osirian in origin. Indeed, he met a man named Rassul who flatly said, "The power of the Osirians devolves from the Great Sphinx in Egypt." The Doctor also claimed that although legend said that Thutmose was "told by the Sphinx in a dream to dig it out" of the sand, the pharaoh was in fact probably hit by a "pulse of Osiran mental energy". (PROSE: The Sands of Time)

However, when the Fifth Doctor was later in Egypt with Peri, he thought it was constructed by Atlanteans. The proof of this was in the fact that it served as the ark of their civilisation. Deep beneath its foundation, between its paws, lay a vast library containing all of the knowledge of Atlantis. He, Erimem and Peri descended what locals thought was a nearby well and investigated this "hall of records" in an attempt to lure the stasis box entity away from other people — and therefore other hosts — to defeat it. Though successful in this effort, they were barely able to escape from under the Sphinx before the tunnels — which also led to the Great Pyramid of Giza — collapsed. (AUDIO: The Eye of the Scorpion)

Bernice Summerfield visited Cairo in 1798, where she was in the company of an artist named Vivant who sketched, amongst other things, the Great Sphinx. At the time, it was buried deep beneath the sand, with only its uppermost features visible. (PROSE: Set Piece

Behind the scenes
The Sands of Time, released in 1996, is in fundamental and irresolvable conflict with The Eye of the Scorpion, released in 2001, about the Fifth Doctor's opinion of the origin of the Great Sphinx. According to just the Virgin Books explanation, the Sphinx is unambiguously a creation of the Osirians that were introduced in Pyramids of Mars, and this is something both the Fifth Doctor and Seventh Doctor accept as read. But The Eye of the Scorpion, whose fourth part is largely set underneath the Sphinx, irresolvably disagrees with this, giving clear proof that it was created by people from Atlantis.