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Didn’t Cheops have it speak to him in a dream urging him to uncover it?

I think that was Thutmose III in the New Kingdom. As I recall the story, it was while his step-mother, Hatshepsut, was reigning as pharaoh. He was hunting in the desert by the sphinx and took a nap in its shade. He dreamt that the sphinx promised that if he restored it, ie, uncovered it from the sand, he would be able to take his rightful place as pharaoh.

Thutmose III (Egypt’s greatest conqueror, ‘The Napoleon of Egypt’) was a New Kingdom pharaoh of the 18th dynasty. Cheops was Old Kingdom, I think of the 3rd dynasty.

This is from memory, so I could be mistaken in parts.

Thutmose III in the New Kingdom. As I recall the story, it was while his step-mother, Hatshepsut, was reigning as pharaoh. He was hunting in the desert by the sphinx and took a nap in its shade. He dreamt that the sphinx promised that if he restored it, ie, uncovered it from the sand, he would be able to take his rightful place as pharaoh.

Tooty sounds like a conservative, doesn't he? The smart thing to be when a woman's on the throne and you have some standing to remove her. A good reactionary impulse is just the lever one needs.