Photo taken on April 2, 2016 shows the upper part of the copycat sphinx statue in an industrial park in Shijiazhuang, north China's Hebei province. [Photo: Imagine China]

A copycat Sphinx statue has been torn down by authorities in Shijiazhuang, capital city of north China's Hebei province, after reportedly another complaint by cultural heritage department of Egypt.

The 20 meters high and 60 meters long statue, almost the same size of the real one in Egypt, was built in 2014 in a local industrial park for film and TV shooting.

After its completion, Egypt authorities filed a complaint to the UNESCO in May of 2014, saying the constructor of the statue should notify Egypt authorities if it was the purpose of shooting film and TV according to international conventions.

Egypt authorities also believed that the copycat statue differs greatly in details from the real one and this may affect people's appreciation to the real one and could possibly affect the tourism, film and TV shooting industries in Egypt.

The constructor of the statue started to bear more pressure after media reports questioning the purpose and legality of the copycat statue.

Experts note that actually relevant international conventions don't include items that ban the act of copycatting world cultural heritage sites.

However, after several complaints from Egypt authorities for the copycat sphinx statue, UNESCO may start to consider rectifying relevant laws and regulations.