Chapter 6 THE SPHINX-THE ENTRANCE.

The Great Sphinx that is on the Mokattam Hill, facing the large Pyramids of Jeezeh, is the link of union between the north and south of Egypt, as well as the union of the works of those great men living at different periods of time as rulers of Egypt-Joseph and Moses. The following account of this Sphinx is taken from a work called View of Ancient and Modern Egypt, by the Rev. Michael Russell, LL.D.

"Our account of the mechanical productions of ancient Egypt would be incomplete did we not mention the Great Sphinx, which has always been regarded as an accompaniment, and sometimes even as a rival, to the Pyramids. The latest information in regard to this stupendous figure was obtained through the persevering labours of Mr. Caviglia, whose name has been already mentioned with so much honour.

"After the most fatiguing and anxious endeavours during several months, he succeeded in laying open the whole statue to its base, and exposing a clear area extending to a hundred feet from its front. 'It is not easy,' says Mr. Salt, who witnessed the process of excavation, 'for any person unused to operations of this kind to form the smallest idea of the difficulties which he had to surmount, more especially when working at the bottom of the trench; for, in spite of every precaution, the slightest breath of wind, or concussion, set all the surrounding particles of sand in motion, so that the sloping sides began to crumble away, and mass after mass to come tumbling down, till the whole surface bore no unapt resemblance to a cascade of water. Even when the sides appeared most firm, if the labourers suspended their work but for an hour, they found on their return that they had the greatest part of it to do over again. This was particularly the case on the southern side of the paw, where the whole of the people-from sixty to a hundred-were employed for seven days without making any sensible advance, the sand rolling down in one continued torrent. But the discovery amply rewarded the toil and expense which were incurred in revealing the structure of this wonderful work of art.

"'The huge legs stretched out fifty feet in advance from the body, which is in a cumbent posture; fragments of an enormous beard were found resting beneath the chin; and there were seen all the appendages of a temple, granite tablet, and altar, arranged on a regular platform immediately in front. On this pavement, and at an equal distance between the paws of the figure, was the large slab of granite just mentioned, being not less than fourteen feet high, seven broad, and two thick. The face of this stone, which fronted the east, was highly embellished with sculptures in bas-relief, the subject representing two sphinxes seated on pedestals, and priests holding out offerings, while there was an inscription in hieroglyphics most beautifully executed; the whole design being covered at top, and protected, as it were, with the sacred globe, the serpent, and the wings.

"'Two other tablets of calcareous stone, similarly ornamented, were supposed, together with that of granite, to have constituted part of a miniature temple, by being placed one on each side of the latter, and at right angles to it. One of them, in fact, was still remaining in its place; of the other, which was thrown down and broken, the fragments are now in the British Museum.

"'A small lion, couching in front of this edifice, had its eyes directed towards the main figure. There were besides several fragments of other lions rudely carved, and the fore-part of a sphinx of tolerable workmanship; all of which, as well as the tablets, walls, and platforms on which the little temple stood, were ornamented with red paint, a colour which seems to have been, in Egypt as well as in India, appropriated to sacred purposes. In front of the temple was a granite altar, with one of the four projections or horns still retaining its place at the angle. From the effects of fire evident on the stone, it is manifest that it had been used for burnt-offerings.

"'On the side of the left paw of the Great Sphinx were cut several indistinct legends in Greek characters, addressed to different deities.[46] On the second digit of the same was sculptured, in pretty deep letters, an inscription in verse, of which the subjoined translation was given by the late Dr. Young, whose extensive knowledge of antiquities enabled him at once to restore the defects of the original, and to convey its meaning in Latin as well as in English.

"'Thy form stupendous here the gods have placed,

Sparing each spot of harvest-bearing land;

And with this mighty work of art have graced

A rocky isle, encumber'd once with sand:

Not that fierce Sphinx that Thebes erewhile laid waste,

But great Latona's servant, mild and bland:

Watching that prince beloved who fills the throne

Of Egypt's plains, and calls the Nile his own.

That heavenly monarch who his foes defies,

Like Vulcan powerful, and like Pallas wise.'

"This remarkable statue is again as much under the dominion of the desert as it was half a century ago; and, consequently, it now meets the eye of the Egyptian traveller shrouded in sand to the same depth as before.

"Dr. Richardson relates that the wind and the Arabs had replaced the covering on this venerable piece of antiquity, and hence the lower parts were quite invisible. The breast, shoulders, and neck, which are those of a human being, remain uncovered, as also the back, which is that of a lion; the neck is very much eroded, and, to a person near, the head seems as if it were too heavy for its support. The head-dress has the appearance of an old-fashioned wig, projecting out about the ears like the hair of the Berberi Arabs;[47] the ears project considerably, the nose is broken, the whole face has been painted red, which is the colour assigned to the ancient inhabitants of Egypt, and to all the deities of the country except Osiris. The features are Nubian, or what, from ancient representations, may be called ancient Egyptian, which is quite different from the negro feature. The expression is particularly placid and benign; so much so, that the worshipper of the Sphinx might hold up his god as superior to all the other gods of wood and stone which the blinded nations worshipped.

"Pococke found the head and neck-all that were above ground-to be twenty-seven feet high; the breast was thirty-three feet wide; and the entire length about a hundred and thirty. Pliny estimated it at a hundred and thirteen feet long and sixty-three in height. According to Dr. Richardson, the stretch of the back is about a hundred and twenty feet, and the elevation of the head above the sand from thirty to thirty-five, a result which accords pretty nearly with the measurement of Coutelle. It is obvious, at the same time, that the discrepancy in these reports as to the elevation of the figure must be attributed to the varying depth of the sand, which appears to have accumulated greatly since the days of the Roman naturalist.

"There is no opening found in the body of the statue, whereby to ascertain whether it is hollow or not; but we learn from Dr. Pococke that there is an entrance both in the back and in the top of the head, the latter of which, he thinks, might serve for the arts of the priests in uttering oracles, while the former might be meant for descending to the apartments beneath."

Colonel Howard-Vyse made ineffectual attempts to pierce the Sphinx; the result, in the back of the statue, he gives in these words:-

"The boring-rods were broken, owing to the carelessness of the Arabs, at the depth of twenty-seven feet in the back of the Sphinx. Various attempts were made to get them out, and on the 21st of July[48] gunpowder was used for that purpose; but, being unwilling to disfigure this venerable monument, the excavation was given up, and several feet of boring-rods were left in it. During the operation a very beautiful fossil of a reed was discovered, which is now in the British Museum."

Respecting the attempt near the shoulder, he says:-"The operations carried on at the Sphinx were suspended, and the hole made near the shoulder, about twenty-five and a half feet in depth, was plugged up."

It was Moses who had the Sphinx cut out of the solid rock on which it stands. The features and the head-dress of the statue represent in colossal proportions the features and the head-dress of his beloved Ethiopian bride, who was "black but comely."

The statue served as the royal entrance into the Great Pyramid, near which it is constructed. That this Pyramid has been entered from this direction is evident from the fact that a ramp-stone has been taken away from its place by some person who approached it by a subterranean passage.

"The original builders,[49] then, were not those who knocked out from within on the well side that now lost ramp-stone, and exposed the inlet to the well-mouth as it is presently seen, near the north-west corner of the Grand Gallery. Neither was Al Mamoun the party, for no one could have done it except by entering the well from the very bottommost depths of the subterranean region; and he, the son of Caliph Haroun Al Raschid, and all his crew, did not descend further down the entrance-passage than merely to the level of his own forced hole, which is not subterranean at all. Nor is the credit claimed for any of his Arab successors, who rather alluded to the well as an already existing feature in their earliest time, and one they did not understand; in large part, too, because they had only seen, and only knew of, the upper end of it in the north-west corner of the Grand Gallery floor; and there it was simply a deep hole, the beginning of darkness and the shadow of death.

"Who, then, did burst out that now missing ramp-stone? Who, indeed! For the whole band of Egyptological writers we have mentioned appear to be convinced that ages before Caliph Al Mamoun made his way by blundering and smashing,-long ages, too, before Mohammed was born, and rather at and about the period of Judah being carried captive to Babylon,-the Egyptians themselves had entered the Great Pyramid by cunning art and tolerable understanding of its mere methods of construction, and had closed it again when they left."

Yes; this Sphinx was the grand royal entrance by which Moses and his consort entered into the interior of the Great Pyramid. He, being inspired by Heaven, had foreseen that in future ages the knowledge of this entrance would be forgotten; he therefore removed the ramp-stone and left the space it occupied open, so as to excite the curiosity of those who might visit the spot.

He also left the world a specimen of this entrance in a wooden statue, built far away, that this wooden construction might serve to unriddle the passage in the Sphinx, which leads into the Great Pyramid. The openings in the head and back of the Sphinx were to give light and air to the passage. The following is a description of the wooden statue, taken from Captain Meares' voyages:-[50]

"After the English had been for some time in King George's Sound, the Americans began to make use of sails of mats, in imitation of my ship. Not long after this the English were waited upon by Wicananish, a prince of greater wealth and power than any they had yet seen, who invited them to visit his kingdom, which lay at some distance to the southward, that a commercial intercourse might be established for the advantage of both parties.

"The invitation was accepted, and Wicananish himself met the 'Felice' at some distance from the shore with a small fleet of canoes, and, coming on board, piloted them into the harbour. They found the capital to be at least three times the size of Nootka. The country round was covered with impenetrable woods of great extent, in which were trees of enormous size.

"After the King and his chiefs had been entertained on board, the English were in return invited to a feast by Wicananish; and it is not easy to conceive a more interesting picture of savage life than witnessed on this occasion. On entering the house, we were absolutely astonished at the vast area it enclosed.

"It contained a large square, boarded up close on all sides to the height of twenty feet with planks of an uncommon breadth and length. Three enormous trees, rudely carved and painted, formed the rafters, which were supported at the ends and in the middle by gigantic images, carved out of huge blocks of timber. The same kind of broad planks covered the whole to keep out the rain; but they were so placed as to be removable at pleasure, either to receive the air and light or to let out the smoke. In the middle of this spacious room were several fires, and beside them large wooden vessels filled with fish soup. Large slices of whale's flesh lay in a state of preparation, to be put into similar machines filled with water, into which the women, with a kind of tongs, conveyed hot stones from very fierce fires, in order to make it boil.

"Heaps of fish were strewed about; and in this central part of the square, which might properly be called the kitchen, stood large seal-skins filled with oil, from whence the guests were served with that delicious beverage. The trees that supported the roof were of a size which would render the mast of a first-rate man-of-war diminutive on a comparison with them; indeed, our curiosity as well as our astonishment was at its utmost stretch when we considered the strength which must have been required to raise these enormous beams to their present elevation, and how such strength could be commanded by a people wholly unacquainted, as we supposed, with the mechanic powers.

"The door by which we entered this extraordinary fabric was the mouth of one of these images, which, large as it may, from this circumstance, be supposed to have been, was not disproportioned to the other features of its colossal visage. We ascended by a few steps on the outside; and, after passing the portal, descended down the chin into the house, where we found new matter for wonder in the number of men, women, and children who composed the family of the chief, which consisted of at least 800 persons. These were divided into groups according to their respective offices, which had distinct places assigned them.

"The whole of the interior of the building was surrounded by a bench, about two feet from the ground, on which the various inhabitants sat, ate, and slept. The chief appeared at the upper end of the room, surrounded by natives of rank, on a small raised platform, round which were placed several large chests, over which hung bladders of oil, large slices of whale's flesh, and proportionable gobbets of blubber.

"Festoons of human skulls, arranged with some attention to uniformity, were disposed in almost every part where they could be placed, and, however ghastly such ornaments appeared to European eyes, they were evidently considered by the courtiers and people of Wicananish as a very splendid and appropriate decoration of the royal apartment.

"When the English appeared, the guests had made a considerable advance in their banquet. Before each person was placed a large slice of boiled whale, which, with small wooden dishes filled with oil and fish-soup, and a mussel-shell instead of a spoon, composed the economy of the table. The servants busily replenished the dishes as they were emptied, and the women picked and opened some bark, which served the purpose of towels. The guests despatched their messes with astonishing rapidity and voracity, and even the children, some of them not above three years old, devoured the blubber and oil with a rapacity worthy of their fathers. Wicananish, in the meantime, did the honours with an air of hospitable yet dignified courtesy, which might have graced a more cultivated society."

The Sphinx was cut or carved on Moses' return from Mero?, and prior to his departure for Ethiopia, where he was elected King. He carefully closed the mouth, which was the door of the passage, that it should never be opened till the fulness of time arrived. But to prevent the monument from being broken into by strangers, he instructed the above-mentioned savages to make the large image, with a door in its mouth, that it might in the future serve as a key to solve the mystery of the Sphinx in connection with the Great Pyramid.