LEVEL 27: SPHINX COMPLEX
Updated: 5/5/19(†)
Kills: 11 Items: 7 plus Silver Key, Metal Blade, and Wooden Handle Secrets: 1*
NOTE: One of the regular pick-ups will be the SHOTGUN if you didn't find it in an earlier level.
DIRT ROAD: Follow the road toward the big doors with the "Do Not Enter" signs. As you approach, 2 blue-robed baddies emerge from a doorway on the right side of the road. If you advance gradually, you can get a lock on the first and fire with pistols while hopping away. (screenshot) He can't shoot while he's trying to follow Lara, so you won't take much damage. Then advance again and do the same with the second enemy, who drops a SILVER KEY. (screenshot) Use it in the keyhole to open the smaller door on the right side of the road. (screenshot)
WALLED EXCAVATION AREA WITH LEDGES AND LEVERS: Go through the door you just opened. Run forward to the first gap in the low wall, turn right, and kill 2 more enemies who jump down from the excavation walls. There are 2 levers here, on the northeast and southeast ledges. Before using the levers, retrieve a small medipack and shotgun shells from the alcoves in the southwest and northwest corners. (screenshots)
Return to the east side of the excavation, climb onto either wall, and take a running jump over the deep pit to one of the levers. Use it, then make your way across the other pit to the second lever. When you use the second lever, the metal door in the northwest corner opens, and an assassin sneaks in from the west and climbs onto the wall. If you're ready for him, you can kill him before he reaches you. The crossbow, with regular or poisoned arrows, works especially well since arrows slip right past his whirling blades. When the coast is clear, jump back across the pit and head for the northwest corner and the door you just opened. (screenshots)
NOTE: If you didn't get the small medipack from the southwest alcove before using the levers, the assassin instead appears in the alcove, takes the medipack, and lurks there until Lara comes for him. Unfortunately, even if you kill him, you'll never get the health pack. You can pick up the shotgun ammo at any time.
EXCAVATION PITS NEAR THE SPHINX: Outside the metal door is the fabled Sphinx, looking a little worse for wear in this pixelated 1999 incarnation. There are also deep pits on both sides of the door. Approach the pit to the right (north). Take a carefully angled running jump to the flat ledge on the left (west) side of the pit. (Or slide down the slope onto the ledge just below the rim of the pit. Then jump over to the ledge on the left.) From there take a running jump to grab the flat spot on the northeast rim of the pit. Pull up and continue forward (north). There's a roll-down door ahead on the right, but you can't open it yet. Proceed to the edge of the next pit. (screenshots)
Take a standing jump down to the ledge with the large medipack. When you land, another guy in blue robes appears on the north rim of the pit. Kill him, pick up the medipack, then take a running jump to the ledge in the northeast corner of the pit (below where the bad guy just stood). Climb/jump out of the pit. Approach the blue door, press Action to kick it open, then enter the building. (screenshots)
STORAGE BUILDING: The rightmost of the 4 wooden crates contains Uzi clips. Shoot it to get the ammo. The others are empty. Stand facing the side of the metal shelf and push it out of the way. Crouch and shoot the grate blocking the crawlspace. Crawl through, shoot another grate in the next opening, and crawl out until Lara can stand. Immediately turn right and kill another enemy waiting in the corner to the right of the door. (screenshots)
Shoot the wooden crate on the left and pick up a METAL BLADE. There are 2 movable metal shelves in the southeast corner. Go around to the left side of the first shelf and pull it. Go around to the right side and push it closer to the crawlspace. Then pull the other shelf once to the left. Now you can pick up a SECRET (63/70), the SHOTGUN (or ammo if you already have the weapon), in the corner where the second shelf was. Grab some more shotgun shells on the floor to the right of the door. Push the button to open the door and immediately flip onto the ramp and get those weapons out. There are 2 bad guys waiting outside. (screenshots)
EXCAVATION PITS AGAIN: After dispatching the enemies, exit the building and head to the left. (This is the same roll-down door you saw earlier. Now you want to return to the south.) Take a running jump from the edge of the pit back to the ledge on the right. Walk to the far end of the ledge, turn left, and take a standing jump to the next ledge, then another standing jump out of the pit. (screenshot)
Now you're back at the metal door where you entered from the WALLED EXCAVATION AREA. Approach the angled edge on the left side of the next pit. Slide or jump down onto the ledge below. (screenshot) Take a running jump to the next ledge (also on the left side of the pit). Turn right and take a running jump to the ledge in the southwest corner. Turn left, walk to the bottom of the slope, and take a standing jump out of the pit. (screenshot)
You'll see the big "Do Not Enter" doors to the left. Go to the right (west) around the stone wall, which is actually the left paw of the SPHINX. (screenshot) Approach the white stone stele between the paws. (screenshot)
Cutscene: Lara kneels near the monument and examines it closely. She then reads parts of the inscription aloud. (See the Cinematics page for a transcript.) While not exactly relevant to the plot, this is an interesting tidbit if, like Lara, you're keen on ancient Egyptian history. See the footnote for more info on Thutmose and the Sphinx.
PIT WEST OF SPHINX: Head away from the stele and around the sphinx's right paw to the west, where there's another deep pit. Take a running jump over the steep sloping edge on the left (south) side of the pit to land on the flat ledge near the square, stone columns. Turn right (north) and move toward the edge of the pit. On the far side of the pit, to the north, 2 more assassins lie in wait. You can take them out from here using the crossbow with laser sight and an explosive arrow or two. Or, to conserve ammo, use regular/poison arrows or pistol ammo with the laser sight bug. (screenshots)
Now you can take your time crossing the pit: Start by sliding down onto the triangular ledge in the near left (southwest) corner of the pit. Move to the far point of the triangle and take a standing jump to the next ledge, which juts out from the left side of the pit. From there, take a carefully angled running jump to the rectangular ledge in the far right (northeast) corner of the pit. Climb out of the pit here, near the big doors the assassins were guarding. (screenshots)
To the left of the doors you'll find either a breakable crate containing a WOODEN HANDLE or the handle itself (if you blew up the crate when you killed the assassins). Pick it up. Turn around and climb onto the square block near the sphinx's paw. Take a standing jump up onto the paw. Turn right and run to the end to get some wideshot shotgun ammo. Then slide down to the ground near the white stele. (screenshots)
Combine the METAL BLADE and WOODEN HANDLE to make (ta-da!) a SHOVEL. Use the shovel in the cracked earth in front of the stele to start digging. (screenshots)
Cutscene: Lara digs a rather large hole. (Where does she get all that energy?! It must be the Lucozade™.)
Drop into the hole and follow the tunnel to end the level.
REVISITING THIS LEVEL: There are still a few areas of the SPHINX COMPLEX you haven't explored yet. Don't worry. You'll be back later. This revisit is covered in the walkthrough for INSIDE MENKAURE'S PYRAMID.
*NOTE ON SECRETS: There are 70 secrets in the entire game. These are marked "(x/70)" in this walkthrough. To check your progress in-game, press Pause (P on keyboard, Start on PlayStation or Dreamcast controller) then choose Statistics. At the end of this level, you should have 63/70.
†UPDATE HISTORY: 6/10/00 - Previous edit, details not available.
5/5/19 - First major update since this walkthrough was created in 1999. This revision includes many new screenshots as well as various other corrections and clarifications.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Special thanks to the participants in the alt.games.tombraider newsgroup and the old tombraiders.com forum, without whom parts of this walkthrough could not have been written. Thanks also to CMB1988, Sturm, and Zomber for their help on this level, and to Lyneel and the many other players who notified me about the small medipack that you can only get before using the levers.
FYI: For more information about Thutmose and his dream, check out this article, "History of the Conservation of the Sphinx" by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs, and these text translations of the "Dream Stele" from Ancient Egypt Online and Wikipedia.
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