353 
speaks of a great plan of the temple of Dendei’a (dedicated 
to Hathor, the Egyptian Venus), which had been found em- 
bedded in a wall in the royal mansion in the time of Meri- 
ra-Papi, of the Vth Dynasty. 
This plan is said to have been traced on goat-skins, which is 
a more ancient method than the writing on papyrus. It also 
comprehended writing accounted ancient by the Egyptians. 
This is attributed in the above inscription to the time of the 
servants of Horus. It consequently appears that, in the highest 
antiquity to which the Egyptians could look back, we find our- 
selves in the age of temple-building and temple-worshipping 
men already conversant with the art of writing, and (which 
indicates a still further advance) of tracing out plans of their 
proposed erections. No such cultivation could be found 
amongst savages. 
The great image of the Sphinx, south-east of the largest 
pyramid, appears also to belong to the very earliest stage of 
Egyptian civilization.* It is a natural rock, to which has been 
given, in some fashion, the external appearance of this sym- 
bolical animal. The head alone has been sculptured. The 
total height of the monument is l9-97m. (65 feet). It is 
known by an inscription now in the Museum at Boulak to have 
been older than the era of Cheops, or, consequently, than the 
Great Pyramid. 
Thus this remarkable structure, called by the Arabs “ the 
father of terror, ”f looks out upon the desert with its calm, 
impassive smile, unmoved by the wreck and ruin of the world 
which passeth away, — a veritable enigma in itself and in its 
meaning, teaching us this at least, that man, in the conception 
and the execution of one of his oldest works, was a profoundly 
religious being. A stele has recently been discovered, from 
which Egyptologists learn that there was on the north of the 
Sphinx a temple of the goddess Isis, on the south another 
consecrated to the god Osiris, whilst a third sanctuary was 
specially devoted to the worship of the Sphinx, which is called 
human-headed lion,” whilst the more generally recognized 
name appears to have been that of Ilormachis, or “ Horus on 
the horizon.” 
Now, what conception can we form of these deities, whose 
The Sphinx. 
in this inscription 
* Pierret, Did. d’Archeologie Egypt. 
t “ Abou-l-hol.” — Brugsch, Hist., p. 
+ Brugsch, Hist . 57." 
Brugsch, Hist., p. 56. 
