ee Pe en ne eee 
‘ 
Discoveries made in Egypt. 257 
with the assistance of from 60 to 100 persons every day to lay 
open the whole figure to its base, and expose a clear area ex- 
tending 100 feet from its front—a labour in which they were 
greatly impeded by the moveable nature of the sand, which by 
the slightest wind or concussion was apt to run down like a cas- 
cade of water and fill up the excavation. This colossal figure is 
cut out of the rock, the paws, and some projecting lines where 
perhaps the rock was deficient, or which may have been repaired 
since its first construction, being composed of masonry. 
On the stone platform in front, and centrally between the 
paws of the sphynx, which stretch out fifty feet in advance of the 
body, was found a large block of granite two feet thick, fourteen 
high, and seven broad. It fronts the east, as does the face of 
the sphynx, is highly embellished with sculptures in bas-relief, 
representing two sphynxes on pedestals and priests presenting 
offerings, with a well executed hieroglyphical inscription beneath: 
the whole covered at top, and protected as it were with the sa- 
cred globe, the serpent and the wings. Two other tablets of cal- 
vareous stone, similarly ornamented, were conjectured, with the 
former, to have constituted part of a temple, by being placed 
one on each side of the latter at right angles to it. One of them 
was in its place, the other thrown down and broken, the frag- 
ments of which are now in the British Museum. A small lion 
couchant, with its eyes directed towards the sphynx, was in front 
of this edifice. Several fragments of other lions and the fore- 
part of a sphynx were likewise found, all of which, as well as the 
sphynx, the tablets, walls and platform on which the little 
temple stood, were covered with red paint, which would seem 
here, as in India, to have been appropriated to sacred purposes 
—perhaps as being the colour of fire. A granite altar stands in 
front of the temple, one of the four horns being still in its place, 
and the effects of fire visible on the top of the altar. On the side 
of the paw of the great sphynx and on the digits of the paws are 
Greek inscriptions, as also on some small edifices im front of the 
sphynx, inscribed to the Sphynx, to Harpocrates, Mars, Hermes, 
to Claudius, (on an erasure in which can be traced a former 
name, that of Nero,) to Septimius Severus (over an erasure of 
Geta), &c. Several of these inscriptions are given in the Quar- 
terly Review, 
We are concerned to add, that in consequence of Mr.Caviglia’s 
great exposure to the sun during ten months which he occupied 
in these researches, he had an attack of ophthalmia, which com- 
 pelled him at length to desist, and to return to Alexandria. By 
these operations an expense was incurr about 18,000 piastres, 
of which Mr: Salt contributed a share, as did also two or three 
Vol. 53. No. 252, April 1819. R other 
