REPAIRING THE SPHINX.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 128, 15 April 1926, Page 8

REPAIRING THE SPHINX.

“'The Sphinx is being cleared and repaired by M. Baraize,” writes Dr. H. R. Hall, keeper of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, British Museum, in the “Observer.” "fie (the Egyptian Sphinx was not a she but a very masculine person indeed) is now for the first time since Ptolemaic days being disencumbered of .the mas® of sand that oppresses him, and now for the first time we can see him from stern to stern, from the extremities of his forepaws to the curve of his tail, -which last no man has- seen for 20 centuries. The successive reparations of Thutmase IV. under the 18th Dynast}' (B.C. 1415), and under the Ptolemies, are very interesting to observe. One important restoration has to be undertaken now, and that is the replacement of the head-dress fallen from the back of the neck. The rock of the Sprinx weathers not too well, and if -the unprotected neck is not now taken care of one of these days it would wear through, and the head of the Sphinx crash down upon -the sand. It is true that the well-known scraggy or plucked chicken look of the Sphinx to which we are so used will now disappear, but perhaps that will be no loss.*’