DISAPPEARING SPHINX.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11481, 14 January 1903, Page 7

DISAPPEARING SPHINX.

The marvellous way in -which, the monuments of the past have been preserved in Egypt is due chiefly to its rajnlesa climate (says the London ■•Daily News"*. For ages the regions of the Lower Nile were wiitoied solely by the riwr. and twvond the limit*, of it.s annual overflow the ground v.;ls perfectly dry. The tins left, by Napu-U-on'.s army lay on the saiyL for nearly a century, bright, aud onrusted. But the climate of Egypt ia gradually changing. Extensive tive planting; has uoiie on for a lung time past, and irrigation works have produced moist and fertile laud where formerly stretched the barren deeert. Thus ruin is gradually being attracted, and whila a i'cw years ago a shower wae a novelty, there are now considerable falls of rain. The eil'ect is seen in the crumbling of the Great Sphinx at Gizeh, near the Great Pyramid. This vast monument is 172ift in length, and 56ft high, hewn out of a projecting spur ot the rock which rises out of the sand. The head is sculptured, and i'epivsenxs a, woman in the old Egyptian head-drew, the body being that of a lion, formed by the natural reef of porphyry,' with addition*! of masonry to complete the shape. For more, than v, generation tne monunwnt lias been mure or less defaced owing largely to the attentions of early tourists, and the has long been absent. But now the rain is beginning to assist in deetroying the Sphinx. The wet soiteiis the surface of ths stone, and fierce sandstorms then arind the outer surface away.