Temple, where altars and many other antique fragments were found that are now 
deposited in the British Museum. 
The head of the Sphinx is so much broken and injured, that the different opinions 
upon its expression and character have had free scope: Langles, in his “Notes on 
Norden,” says it was thus mutilated by a fanatic Sheikh of the Sofi sect in 1379. 
From what remains, there appears to have been the quiet repose and dignity of 
expression, which generally characterised the colossal sculpture of that remote but, 
in this art, highly advanced period. 
The Pyramids in this view are, that of Cheops, or the Great Pyramid, seen on 
the right of the observer, and, on the left, that of Cephren, which is called the 
Second Pyramid. 
Mr. Perring’s Notes. Appendix to Colonel Vyse’s Pyramids of Gizeh. 
Wilkinson’s Egypt and Thebes. 
TEMPLE OF DAKKE, IN NUBIA. 
Roberts describes this Temple as an exquisite little ruin, both in the execution of its 
sculptured reliefs and in their preservation. The portico, a cella, and the adytum, 
are covered with emblems of Isis and Osiris. Casts might he easily taken of the 
whole of these, and thus exhibit the most beautiful examples of such Egyptian decoration. 
The apartments are not larger than middling-sized English rooms; and such parts as 
have not been wilfully destroyed present a surface as fine as if the work were recently 
finished. In its later time it has been used as a Christian church, and there are traces 
of some Greek sacred paintings above the pagan symbols: difficult as they are to trace, 
enough remains to show that as works of art they are superior to many of those of 
the early Greek painters found in the Italian churches. 
Dakke is the Pselcis of Pliny and Ptolemy; in Strabo’s time it was an Ethiopian 
city, relinquished by the Romans, who then bounded the extent of their conquests 
in Egypt by the Cataracts. The Temple appears to have been built in different 
reigns. The designs represent Ergamun, an Ethiopian king, presenting offerings to 
the deities of the Temple, and his royal title is preserved on his cartouches or ovals 
in the hieroglyphics. The cartouches of Ptolemy Philopater and of his sister Arsinoe, 
of Euergetes II., who built the portico, and of Augustus, mark the various periods 
at which this pet temple was decorated or enriched by the Egyptians and Romans 
in the time of the Ptolemies. Dakke was the stronghold of Ethiopian magic. Hermes 
Trismegisthus was adored here, and many Greek ex-votos are inscribed to him 
on the propylon and other parts of the Temple. 
Roberts’s Journal. 
Wilkinson’s Egypt and Thebes. 
