In front of the Pyramid of Chephrenes stands the great Sphinx, -the hugest marvel of sculpture which the world has ever seen. For centuries this colossal wonder lay almostTHE SPHINX AND THE PYRAMID OF CHEPHRENESsub merged beneath the sand-drift of the desert. Caviglia undertook the laborious task of uncovering it; in the course of which he made some important discoveries, tending to show that there was anciently a temple on the area beneath the stony gaze of the colossal countenance, and an altar upon which sacrifices were offered. The features are Nubian, or rather ancient Egyptian, and their expression is strikingly calm and benignant.
"There was something," says Stanley, "stupendous in the sight of that enormous head-its vast projecting wig, its great ears, its open eyes, the red colour still visible on its cheeks, the immense projection of the lower part of its face. Yet what must it have been when on its head there was the royal helmet of Egypt, on its chin the royal beard; when the stone pavement by which man approached the Pyramids ran up between its paws; when immediately under its breast an altar stood, from which the smoke went up into the gigantic nostrils of that nose, now vanished from the face, never to be conceived again! All this is known with certainty from the remains whichactually exist deep under the sand on which you stand, as you look up from a distance into the broken but still expressivefeatures."-In regard to the Sphinx we may add, that so continuous is the drift of sand from the desert, that nearly all those portions of the figure which modern investigators have at different times laid bare have been again covered.
- STANLEY
WORDS
apartment, room. benignant, kind. construction, erection. countenance, face. deformity, blemish. designed, intended. devious, winding. disconnection, separation. embellished, ornamented. expressive, intelligent. extensive, wide.
imagines, fancies. inheritance, possession. interludes, intervening spaces. intermingling, mixing. occasional, irregular.
preservation, keeping; entirety. receptacles, depositories. submerged, buried. successive, in a series. surface, area.
vanished, disappeared.
NOTES
① Minarets, tall, slender turrets, on Mohammedan mosques, surrounded by balconies, from which the people are summoned to prayer, not by bells, but by a crier, called a muezzin.
② Amrou, a famous Saracen general who conquered Syria and Egypt, and died at Cairoin 663 A. D.-Saladin was Sultan of Egypt and Syria in the twelfth century. He opposed the Christians in the third Crusade.
③ Stonehenge, a collection of huge stones arranged in two concentric circles, on SalisburyPlain, Wiltshire. The stones are 140 in number, some of them 20 feet high, with in some cases stones of equally large dimensions resting uponthem. They are certainly ancient British remains; but whether they were designed for Druidical worship, or as sepulchral memorials, cannot be determined.
④ The Colisum, an immense amphitheatre atRome, elliptical in form, in which fights with wild beasts and other sports were exhibited. It is said to have accommodated 80, 000 spectators at one time. It was built between 75 and 80 A. D.
⑤ The Campagna (Cam-pan"-ya ), a wide anddesolate plain in the neighbourhood of Rome.
⑥ The tombs of the Pharaohs.-The Pyramids were the tombs of the Pharaohs, or kings, of Egypt As soon as a Pharaoh began to reign, his pyramid was begun.
⑦ Caliphs, the chief rulers of the Saracens. The word Caliph means "successor," and wasadopted by the first successor of Mohammed.
⑧ Cheops (Ke"-ops ).-Various dates are assigned to the reign of this Pharaoh. The latest is 1082 B. C.
⑨ Sarcoph"agus, a stone coffin. The word means "flesh-eater," and was applied by theGreeks to a kind of limestone which consumed the human body, and of which coffins weretherefore made.
⑩ Chephrenes (Kef-re"-net ), was the second in succession from Cheops.
The sacred bull.-Animal worship prevailed in Egypt from the earliest times. The animal which they held most sacred was the bull, or Apis.
Memphis, one of the most ancient cities in the world, "of which the very ruins are tremendous."Tumuli, sepulchral mounds. Mummies, dead bodies embalmed.
The Sphinx.-It consists of a colossal human head and a lion"s body. The length of the body is 172 feet; its height is 56.
Caviglia (Ca-veel"-ya ), an Italian, who carefully examined the Sphinx in 1816.
QUESTIONS
Whence is the best view of Cairo and its vicinity obtained? What is the general aspect of the town? What is very striking in the situation of the Pyramids? What is the height of the Great Pyramid? What contrast does the view from the top of it present? How long was it in building? What does it contain? What were found in the chamber of the second Pyramid? For what purpose were the Pyramids designed? What is the Sphinx? Where does it stand?