UNCOVERING THE SPHINX.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 165, 30 December 1926, Page 1

UNCOVERING THE SPHINX.

EGYPT’S MYSTERIOUS MOUNMENT. After si:: months of labour the sand which partially enveloped that most mys erious of Egyptian monuments, the Shpinx, has been cleared away. The work has been carried out by the Antiquities Department of the Egyptian Gove ninent who are to be congratulated on ihe successful completion of the task. It enables one to form a better idea of the immense size of this s range piece of sculpture and to picture what it looked like when first erected.

All but the head and shoulders and part of tho back of the mounment were hidden in sand, and this has been removed by an army of eight hundred Egyptian girls and boys. They worked in gangs and each gang boas'ed of a singer, who chanted a simple refrain as his fellows passed to and fro wit ft their baskets of debris. Not only has the sand been removed, but masons have devoted attention to the ne.ck, head and face of the monument. No attempt has been made to restore the broken nose or beard which once hung from the chin.

The fact is the Sphinx has been much damaged in tho past, and it was desirable to make the ravages good. Mohammed Ali used the monument as a target for his artillery prac ice. Fana'ics have tried to destroy its beauty, and a generation or two ago someone chiselled a hole six feet deep in he top of the head in the hop of finding a hidden chamber of gold. A similar hole was bored in the left foreleg and another in the back of the Sphinx. Magnificent Proportions This remarkable monument was hewn partly out of solid rock and partly built up wi h stones. Now that the sand lias been cleared away the magnificent proportions of the Sphinx are apparent. From the fore toes to he end of its quarters it measuies about 240 feet in length and stamis some 65 feet in total height. From crown to .chin the face measures fee*. The mouth is 7 h feet across, the* nose 54 feet long and the oar 5 feet. 3etween the huge paws there was a shrine, and here was found the inscribed oranite slab, or "stela,” set up by Thothmes TV. According 1 o the inscription Thothmes, when a > oung wont lion-liunting in the desert ana res od at. midday in the shadow of the Sphinx which even then was half buried in sand. While he slept ho dreamed that the sun god Hernia chi s, to whom the Sphinx was sacred, appeared to him and told him that, he would be a king, and laid an oath on him to dig away " he sand whereon I have my being which has closed me. in on a-, sides” The young man came to the throne as Thothmes IV., and one of the first things lie did was to dig away the sand and restore the monument. Unfor'unately, the last few boos of tho inscription on the stela are illegible. which is a great pity, as they evidently refer to the building of the Sphinx. One gathers, bv skipping a few of the gaps, that it was built by Kcpheron of the IV. Dynasty, about 3.,700 8.C., who built the smaller ot the great pyramids close by. But another tablet found, however, would appear to indicate that the Sphinx was standing long before Kcpheron’s time, when Cheops, in fact, was busy oro.eting the Great Pyramid, which would make the monument over six thousand years old. Still A Riddle It ; s ccr ainly significant that even to-day, no one can say for certain who actually erected the strange monument, how old it is. and why it was built. All that is known is that it has the form of the Egyptian sun god, which was a crouching lion with a man’s hcao and face. Now that the Sphinx has been uncovered it is, if anything, more mysterious than ever. One is star led by its enormous proportions, and wonders what is ihe moaning of this crouching iion with a man’s head gazing eastwards from the edge of the desert towards 'he Nile. Although its nose lias gone and its face has been much bnt'ered by weather and by man it stdl maintains a super-human dignity. There is a wonderful sensitiveness about the mouth and the general impression of the monument is .certainly enigmatical. Rome are charmed by its dignity and majesty, while others arc overwhelmed by its s range contour. and puzzled as to how those ancient Egyptians came to ereci such strange monuments in those far off days.'