THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 1856, 17 June 1887, Page 31

THE SKETCHER.

THE SPHINX. The Impenetrable Mystery Egypt's World-famed Wonder --FrenchEfforts to Fatliom It-TJncoVering the. Monster — The Surrounding Temples— Decipheringlnsctiptions. /;,- ,<•/ ! By the ordinary traveller, the Sphinxhas for long . been . looked upon .as one,- of i the wonders of -the world • f silgptlyit has j stood there, chin-deep in san'd,'g4zjngj,with:a,_far- { away look, in, its eyes,' as jtf,-it.wpuld iprpbe the .very depths of .eternity.; sAjs? one! gazes, up into its weather-beaten, jrtime^worn face: one longs for, it .to, be able tp..spgak and tell us of tits history; 'who, formed it, and why. To-day the energy ,oft French f.fengineers is, endeavouring to solve, f in^part,'the question. M. Grebaut, the present keeper, of Antiquities atthe Boulak Museum, has (been .struggling valiantly to disinter it from the, sand, which has buried it almost to the throat. All day. long Arabs are employed in loading iracks with sand, which theyi-bring, up"in, buckets to the tramway above them.;. Tljis is not the first .attempt which has , beenf- riiade to, uncover this colossal, monument Vp£ ( Egyptian antiquity. Thothmes IV cleared, away, the sand ; but by the fourteenth , century B.C. it was buried to the chin ; in .1817 Sjgnor Caviglia brought to light the flight of sfpne steps, 40ft in width, described .by Pliny ; and, in 1869, at the time of the opening of .the' Suez Canal, the, great Sphinx was cleared of sand as far as the plateau upon which the paws rest. Excavations southward are in progress, the result of which ..will! show whether, the assumption, that , the , Sphinx stands in the middle of a huge amphitheatre hewn by man out of living rock- be true or not. ' „',*' , We go below the level -of the present, ground— for the steps lead down, not iup to the Sphinx — to gaze at the battered monster, and are astonished at his proportions^. The human-headed lion god,-, the' impersonation of the sun at rest, is .upwards ,of lOOft in height, and 190 ft in' length. ■ From.T-vjrest to east he lies, in a straight line with Ehaf ra's Pyramid, his face being towards the east. His enormous paws, partly hollow, have been restored in Roman times, and are wejll nigh' covered with the scribbles of Greek 'travellers, who, like Tom Jones and John j Brown of these 'nineteenth-century days, have felt it incumbent upon them to leave the memorials ■ of their visit behind them. In the space between the paws, which is 35ft long and 10ft wide, an altar stands ; originally, ,th4re was a small sanctuary here/ lined withj votive tablets, but only the stela of Thothmes IV now remains. , , j Three temples encompassed the Sphinx — one to the north, dedicated to Isis, which we know, from an inscription, was 'still lised in the sixth century 8.C., as one Psametik, who was son of Uzahor; the son of Noferabra, was then "the prophet of Hormaklni," and' of Isis, Queen of the Pyramids," and! offered to them holy incense. A second stood upon the south side, wherein Osiris Sok|ar, the King of the ' under-world, was specially'invoked by the pilgrims who flocked! to his worship. ' Space all round here was! once a vast necropolis, called in the hieratic "writings, "Ro-set," the door of ; the dcatli-uhder-World.and many strange stories •' are j cold of this spirit-haunted,' enchanted region. The third temple is dedicated to.-Hormakhu, the ! Sphinx himself . • '• J ' , The age of the Sphinx it seems impossible to know ; but we gather that it was standing ! in the days of Kh'ufti, from' a 'memorial tablet which speaks, of the temples ;' ( ! fox there we learn that "He, the living 'Hor) king of the upper and lower country— Khnfu',' he) the dispenser of life, found al'sanctuarya I 'sanctuary of the goddess Isis, the Queen of' the Pyramid, besides the temple of the Sphinx, nb|tK-we^t | from the temple and the' city of 'Osiris, .thelord of the abodes of the dead.- . He built his pyramid (that of the' Lights) near the temple of the goddess ; and he built 4 temple for the king's daughter Hontsen, n£ar ,this' temple." It existed, then, at anyiat& before the days of the Pyramids of Gizeh' ; and Maspero thinks that if it is not ,' actually] prehistoric, it may at all events, be looked jupon as the oldest monument in "ancient Egypt." Set into the breast, of the'Spinx ,is.the celebrated stela of Thothmes' IVJof the, twenty-third dynasty. It is l'«t hjgh, and' contains a long inscription, recounting how' the' king owed his elevation to the throne to the interference of the god Hormakhu on his behalf. Basreliefs upon the tablet- show us "the king offering incense and pouring out ajlibation to the Sphinx, with, a beard arid other divine attributes. It also relates his dream, wherein the god bids him 1 dig away the sand. The following translation is quoted from Brugsh Bey:— "On one of these days it happened, when the king's son Trratmes had arrived on his journey about the ; time of midday, and had stretched himself to rest in the shade of this great god, that sleep overtook him. He dreamt in his slumber at the moment when the sun was at the zenith, and it seemed to him as though' this great god spoke to him with his own , mouth, just as a father speaks to his son; addressing him thus : — ' Behold me, lodk at'n\e, thou, my son Thutmes'. I am thy father Hormaku, Khafra, Ra, Turn. The '\ kingdom j shall be given to thee and thou shalt wear the white crown and the red crown (that is, of Upper and Lower Egypt) on the throne of the earth-god Seb, the youngest amongst the gods. The world shall be 'thine' "in its length and in its breadth, as far as the light of the eye of the lord of the universe shines. Plenty and riches shall be tHihe ; the best from the interior , of *. the land| andr rich tributes from all nations.' Long, years shall be granted tliee'as thy term" of . life; r| -My countenance is gracious ,'towards thee, and my heart clings to ttiefe. [I will 5 thee the best of all things. *- .The sand of the district in which I have my existence has covered me up. Promise me thai you ' will do what I wish in my heart: the'ii shall I know whether thou .art "my 'son,* pay help. Go forward; let me be united ,tb thee. I am ' r : ',''''. !•'''•; " After this [Thutmes 'awoke, arid he repeated all these speeches], and^he understood (the meaning) of the words of the god,

arifllaid/ttiem ,up in his Wart^Wldng thus" to 1 himself h ! > Tsee • how ' tHe I! dwellers ( in the temple of the pity honour this god^with sac-, ■'ri'ficial giftsj[without thihkiifg'bf freeing from ' sand the work 'of the king] Khaffa/the statue which was ftade to' Turd-HoShakhui' '"< •<. i ,\ ,'The rest'of the'' inscription 'is destroyed; and MrFlinder's'Petrie tells us" ttiat'sinpe the last titiae the tablet" wks uneovered-'tHe' word!, 'Khaffa { has scaled '; <sdEt : ; ffom! the' stone. W- &fc anyrafce we 'learn frbm the. Gorpui''"lmcnp-i tiorium Gra'carpmfi that' the !> king ' uncovered, the'monstjer image' of the god,"expbsing shim, entirely to 'view,' and that the ? inhabitants ( {of > Pi-usiri— the city b'f Osiris^Btisiri^ undertook'to be the guides for'- r ttie' numbers" of'sfcratigers who then t as now, flocked to, see ,what was even at that period '.one 1 of < the 'marvels of antiquity ,i— Chambers' Journal. ( ,'