CAIEO. 405 



witli which it is faced are so exquisitely polished that by the light of the 

 torches the yisitor sees himself reflected as in a mirror. The tomb of Meukera, or 

 Mycerinus, was excavated in the very rock which served as the original core or 

 nucleus above which the pyramid was raised. But the sarcophagus which it con- 

 tained was lost when the vessel transporting it to England foundered off the Por- 

 tuguese coast. 



In the angle formed in the north-west, between the two colossal monuments of 

 Cheoi^s and Khephren, the irregular and hilly plateau has been excavated in all 

 directions by the tombs and burial-gounds where repose the subjects of the 

 Pharaohs. To the south and east are other remains, wells, and sepulchres, while 

 on the skirt of the plateau, encircled by dunes, is seen the famous sphinx, gigantic 

 guardian of the pyramids. This prodigious statue, contemplating the plain with 

 motionless eye, seems verily the " marvellous work of the gods," as recorded in an 

 ancient inscription recently deciphered. It consists of a sandstone rock, to 

 which chance had given the vague outlines of an animal figure, and the form of 

 which was completed by the Egyptian architects. The spacious cavities were filled 

 with rough stones disposed without art ; but the surface consists of small and 

 regular layers carefully cut and sculptured, so as to produce the very muscles of 

 the animal, which represents the god Har-em-Khu, that is to say, " Horus in the 

 bright sun," or " Horus of the two horizons." 



An inscription discovered by Mariette attributes to Cheops the " restoration " 

 of this monument, on which the natives have conferred the titles of " Father of 

 Fear," and " Lion of the Night." The chamber or rooms said to have been seen 

 by Yansleb and other explorers in the back of the sphinx cannot now be traced. 

 But to the south-west, in the immediate vicinity of the colossus, Mariette brought 

 to light from beneath the sands an underground temple, with enormous pink granite 

 and alabaster walls, faced with the largest limestone blocks hitherto discovered. 

 This building, destitute of all ornament, seems to date from a period of transition 

 between the early megalithic monuments and edifices properly so called. 



The statue of Khephren found in this temple, and now preserved in the Bulaq 

 Museum, is perhaps the finest known work of Egyptian statuary. At that period 

 of the national art inflexible forms and conventional types had not yet been imposed 

 by the hieratic laws on the native sculptors. The statue had been hidden, or 

 perhaps thrown into a well, after the erection of the temple. 



Cairo. 



Cairo, the heir of Memphis, occupies a situation analogous to that of the old 

 metropolis of Lower Egyj)t. This " diamond clasp " closing the " fan of the 

 delta," stands like Memphis at the apex of the triangle of alluvial lands formed by 

 the main branches of the river, and consequently occupies the natural converging 

 point of all the routes across Lower Egypt, between Alexandria and El Arish. 

 But although lying near the bifurcation of the Nile, its site has been displaced 

 towards the north with the channel of the river itself. Were it removed to the 



