There is no firm evidence that a cu

There is no firm evidence that a cult of the Sphinx was active during the Old Kingdom. The Sphinx temple located in front of the Sphinx is thought to date to the Old Kingdom but it was never finished and there are no records of any priests or priestesses servicing this temple so it may never have been operational.

There are some who argue that the Sphinx pre-dates the pyramids and that there was a solar cult acting in the Giza area before Giza became the necropolis of the fourth dynasty kings. It has been proposed that the Sphinx, the Sphinx temple, the mortuary temple and the valley temple of Khafre were built at the same time and that their attribution to Khafre is erroneous. Referring to the Inventory Stela discovered by Mariette and the Dream Stele some have suggested that the Sphinx was in fact renovated during the Old Kingdom. However, this view is unpopular amongst Egyptologists and some who once proposed it now reject the theory.