Egypt found a new sphinx.

(CNN) ⸻ A smiling sculpture and the remains of a shrine were found during an excavation mission in Qena, a southern Egyptian city on the eastern banks of the River Nile. The shrine had been carved in limestone and consisted of a two-level platform, a ladder and mudbrick basin for water storage. The basin, believed to date back to the Byzantine era, housed the smiling sphinx statue, carved from limestone and bearing "royal facial features." It also wore a nemes on its head, the striped cloth headdress traditionally worn by pharaohs of ancient Egypt, with a cobra-shaped end or "uraeus." A Roman stela with hieroglyphic and demotic writings from the Roman era was found below the sphinx. The statue may represent the Roman Emperor Claudius, the fourth Roman emperor who ruled from the year 41 to 54, but more studies are needed to verify the structure's owner and history.Sphinxes are recurring creatures in the mythologies of ancient Egyptian, Persian and Greek cultures, often found near tombs or religious buildings. The country's most famous sphinx, the Great Sphinx of Giza, dates back to around 2,500 BC and represents the ancient Egyptian Pharoah Khafre.