Letter to the Editor of the Journal des Voyages. 35 i 



and perfect that has hitherto been discovered, according with the 

 present existing order and constitution of the planetary system. 

 I remain, sir, with respect. 



Your most obedient servant, 

 Lynn Regis, May 5, 1820. James IJTTrNG. 



LVI. Letter from. Mr. Caviglia to the Editor of the 'Journal 

 des Voyages.' 



1 Paris, Nov. 23, 1819. 



N' your Number for July, noticing the voyage of M. de Forbin 

 in the Levant, you express his concern, that he was unable to 

 puofit by the discovery of the Temple of the Sphinx, which an 

 unpardonable egotism, he says, had caused to be buried up or 

 covered again. As this leads to an implication, that it was 

 Mr. Salt who discovered that beautiful monument, I think it right 

 to exculpate this gentleman from the above charge of egotism. 



It was I, and not Mr. Salt, that caused the temple to be cover- 

 ed up again ; and here are my reasons for it. I had already re- 

 moved obstructions from the newlv discovered passages, and from 

 the new subterranean chamber of the great pyramid ; and finding 

 nothing all around but the live or natural rock stone, I set about 

 exploring the base of the Sphinx, in hopes of lii^hting on some 

 communication that might lead to any new points of the pyra- 

 mid. After having been at work for several months, with a 

 hundred and fifty Arabs, and not unfrequently at the risk of be- 

 ing buried in the downfalls of sand, I was at length enabled to 

 clear out the area of a temple of Osiris : its site at about the 

 depth of -lO feet, and within the very claws of the Sphinx. M. de 

 Forbin is within the limits of strict truth, vvhen he asserts that 

 this is one of the finest monuments of the power of the arts in 

 ancient Egypt. 



After having taken the dimensions and the most correct de- 

 signs of all these antiquities, I was concerned to find a number of 

 Arab women, allured by superstition, coming, at first, to worship 

 and kiss the images, on their first view of them, but, not content 

 with this, proceeding afterwards to break off fragments or ))ieces 

 to serve as amulets or charms : in this way, several hioroglvphics 

 have been already disfigured. At length, being apprcliensive that 

 this fine workmanship, which it had cost me so much labour 

 (even at the hazard of losing my sight) to explore, should come 

 to destruction, I resolved to inter it anew, till circumstances 

 more auspicious might authorize the disclosure of it to ercry eye. 



The learned will, I hope, be shortly enabled to appreciate 

 these antiquities, whether deserving or not of the care expended 

 for their preservation. It is intended to pubhsli, as soon as pos- 



sii)le. 



