Age sphinx has more than 3.5 thousand. Years. They are carved from syenite near Thebes Egypt for Pharaoh Amenhotep III. The heads of sphinxes made a portrait of the pharaoh.
Unfortunately, sphinxes repulsed chins and covering their beards. When loading one of the sphinxes not stood the ropes and he fell, shattering into pieces mast and board the ship. Also, there was a deep mark on the rope on the face of the sphinx, but the subsequent restoration it was removed.
Buying sphinx in St. Petersburg shall Kolmogorov ants polomnichavshemu in 1830 to the holy places. In Alexandria, Ants and saw brought back for sale sphinxes. Sculptures by sculptors in ancient times, have left such a strong impression that he immediately sent a letter to the Russian ambassador with a proposal to buy them. From an embassy sent to St. Petersburg. There his destination, Nicholas I, forwarded the message to the Academy of Arts. As a result, the purchase found expedient, but by the time resolution of bureaucratic complexities owner Englishman had already sold them to France. The remedy helped found the French Revolution. That we owe the presence of sphinxes at the town quay.
In 1832 sphinxes arrived in St. Petersburg. The first two years they were in the courtyard of the Academy of Arts. This time it took to create the dock at her wall. Its present location on the waterfront sphinxes occupied in 1834.