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The discovery was made by Gerry Cannon during his research in the country’s Western Desert, west of Faiyum, as he was heading towards the Baharian Oasis. Mr Cannon, who was travelling with his friend and driver Abdul at the reported time of discovery, declined to reveal the exact location of the find for security reasons. Mr Cannon told Express.co.uk: “We suddenly passed an unusual sight of a huge figure that seemed to be carved on a large mound. “According to our vehicles tire tracks it didn’t seem as though any other vehicle had been there. Apparently, no one else had ever documented it.

Gerry Cannon/Getty Gerry Cannon has claimed to have found Sphinx sculpture in the Western Desert in Egypt

“On closer inspection and to our astonishment the figure certainly resembled the Giza Plateau’s Sphinx. “The eroded figure looked as though it had two paws and a long flat topped body. “According to Abdul’s compass its face faced east, just like the Sphinx.” While the figure has clearly been eroded over time, there appears to be two paws below the figure’s face on the left and also what appears to be a headdress.

Statue Believed to Depict 'Ramses II' Unearthed in Egypt Fri, March 10, 2017 Archaeologists from Egypt and Germany have found a massive eight-meter statue submerged in ground water in a Cairo slum that they say probably depicts revered Pharaoh Ramses II, who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 17 Egyptian workers look at the site of a new discovery by a team of German-Egyptian archeologists in Cairo's Mattarya district

Gerry Cannon Could this be the face of a weather-worn Sphinx?

Malcom Hutton, Mr Cannon’s co-author of the forthcoming book 'The Giza Plateau Secrets and a Second Sphinx Revealed’, said the famous Giza Sphinx and the one recently discovered bore remarkable similarities. Mr Hutton said: “The new Sphinx has the typical long back of the Giza Sphinx and of the same length and same proportions and a head at one end looking as does the other, towards the rising sun in the east. “We could easily dismiss this as being something quite natural formed by many thousands of years of hurricane blasting sand erosion if it weren’t for the double paws placed in exactly the same position just where they should be below and to the forefront of the mystical head which soars above the desert floor.

Gerry Cannon The Giza Sphinx overlaid on the newly discovered one

“It would have been visible to travellers making their way to the Nile from a great distance despite the high forest tops that filled each valley in an epoch when all of north Africa flourished with green and life of every species.” Mr Hutton added: “There is another sacred site much closer to this new discovery in Faiyum which became established some 93 kilometres south west of Cairo. “It not only had its own pyramids albeit very primitive compare with the great ones but it also boasted a huge irrigated lake and another underground city, the labyrinth of Hawara.

Gerry Cannon Map showing the rough location of the possible Sphinx