The Nile 



summit ; unkempt and unclothed children shriek 

 for " backsheesh " as the carriage rattles across 

 the fine bridge which spans the Nile at Kasr-el- 

 Nil, almost at the base of these ancient monu- 

 ments ; and in a couple of hours or less the 

 visitor returns to a city of operas, theatres, 

 concerts, hotels, and cafes. Thus the contrast 

 between the past and present is even greater than 

 it otherwise would be. 



Yet the Pyramids of Cheops form only one 

 group of many similar structures stretching along 

 the western bank of the river, weird vestiges of 

 a past that was already remote before history 

 began. 



In a hollow a few hundred yards to the south- 

 east of the great Pyramid crouches, as it has 

 crouched for thousands of years, continually getting 

 buried deeper and deeper in the driving sand, the 

 great stone figure known as the Sphinx, which, 

 like the antique temple recently disinterred in its 

 vicinity, was old before the idea of building his 

 stupendous mausoleum entered the brain of 

 Cheops. The mysterious Sphinx, carved from 

 the solid rock, still smiles enigmatically ; a man's 

 head surmounting a lion's body, symbolical of the 

 power and glory of the then ruler over the land. 



The Nile has now nearly finished its long 

 journey, a wonderful voyage from the tropics to 

 a more temperate zone, through barbaric regions. 

 It has now but to wander through the great 



63 



