Egypt says Sphinx not threatened by water

Reuters Africa

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Thursday the Sphinx was not in danger after some media reported that water below the surface nearby could damage the 4,500-year-old monument.

Concerns about potential damage to the limestone structure, a mythical animal with the head of a man and a lion's body, were raised last month after reports of salt deposits near the statue, state-owned Al Ahram newspaper said last month.

"There is not any danger at all to the Sphinx from the effects of this water, which remains at a distance from it of about 50 metres," Egypt's state-run MENA news agency quoted antiquities official Sabry Abdel Aziz as saying.

MENA said that Egypt's antiquities council said it was investigating any possible risk to the statue from the water but that it remained at a safe distance. A study of any risk to the statue from groundwater would be completed next month, it said.