THE SPHINX REVEALED

Shannon News, 25 June 1926, Page 3

THE SPHINX REVEALED

EXCAVATION AND REPAIR

SECRETS BURIED IN SAND,

SOME IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES

The full proportions of the Great Sphinx at Giza have been revealed _ Dy tho removal of the sand which haa buried the greater part of its huge bulk This work of clearance and me making of repairs to damaged portions have been carried out by uic Egyptian Department of Antiquities, which has drawn for the purpose on the fund formed by the fees received from tourists for visits to the monuments. . Describing the results ot the res-

toration the Cairo correspondent oi the Times says the Sphinx is the remarkable image hewn out of the solid rock that has lain for 45 centuries and still lies, in the shadow of the Great Pyramids of Giza arousing by its fantastic form, its er. mous size and the mystery surrounding its origin, the wonder and curiosity of all ages. The Egyptian Sphinx is a representation of-the divine king as a lion with his head on the body of the animal Many sphinxes have been found in Egypt, but the Sphinx at Giza stands out among them all by reason

of its great bulk and its surroundings. A Royal Quarry. The Sphinx stands in the midst or the vast quarry from which the Cheops (2000 8.C.) cut the stone ror hi& pyramid and for the royal cemetery on the plateau adjoining tne quarry on the north. In th e course of the work a knoll was left by the quarrymen,because, consisting of layers of haid grey and of soft yellowish stone, it was unsuitable for the object Cheops had in view. This knoll remained untouched until, some time in the reign of Chephren, the son of Cheops ,and the builder of th e second Pyramid, when the immense piece o'f rock attracted the attention of" the king and his sculptors. He was a great man, whoever he was, who conceived the idea of converting this lump of stone into a gigantic sphinx. The king ordered the work to be executed, and there emerged out of this abandoned mass of rock the gigantic effigy with its human head and non body that has attracted the attention of the world since earliest rimes and has been regarded as one of the most wonderful monuments this land of wonders possesses. The body was painted red, its headdress white and its eyes had a naturalistic colouring. Its body is 150 ft. long, its head 30ft long and its front paws 50ft long. Its face is 14ft wide, and the distance from the crown of the head to the ,base of the figure is 70ft. v In course of time the plaster sizing, with Which the original sculptor had covered it, became destroyed by wind and rain,' and the sand blown from the surrounding desert began to eat into the bad strata of stone of which it was composed. Being situated in a hollow the sphinx gradually became covered up with sand so that the upper part of the body and the necK. and head alone were exposed. Tney consequently suffered a greait deal more than the lower- portion.

"Fairy Tale'' Substantiated

When he dug- out the Sphinx in 1817 and exposed the stairway leading out from the old quarry to tne cultivation, Caveglia found a great granite stela in a small chapel between its paAA's. The text of this stela was in the form of an official inscription.

It is stated that while Thothmes IV. was a prince without expectations of the succession he fell asleep in the shadow of the Sphinx whicn, as the deity Harmackhis, appeared to him in a dream. Harmackhis complained of the sand, which weighted heavy on him, and fore-telling- that Thothmes would become King of Kgypt, asked him when he ascended the throne to free his image from this burden and j-e----endow it with th offerings that were made to it in former times.

The text breaks off here but manifestly it goes on to sltate that the wishes of the deity wre complied with For many years this text was hel to be a fairy tale created by the priests for mercenary mootives, and no proof was available to Thothmes having done what the text attributed to him. One of the great results of the work executed this Winter by Mr. liaraize has been to prove the Sphinx was actually restored by Thothmes IV., and the story recorded on the stela must, therefore take its place in the history of the XVIII Dynasty.

Complete. Restoration. The complete excavation of the Sphinx revealed first, proofs of tne restoration done by Thathmes IV. and in the Ptolemaic period. Botn restorations had deteriorated, many of the finer chieslled sltones of Thothmes having fallen to the ground, a most interesting feature now disclosed for the first time was the manner in which the toenails of the hind legs had been depicted on the sitone base by the original sculptor and reproduced respectively in finer and coarser stone by Thothmes and the Ptolemaic restorers.

The excavation further showed that the base of the figure had enormous cavities which had been cut into it by early excavators who believed that there was a secret passage under the Sphinx. It has also uncovered again the alter between the paws which the Romans used in their sacrifices to the sun-god and revealed a second stairway leading down to the Sphinx; a tablet bearing a figure of the Sphinx with a short

inscription and a couple of small bronze Sphinxes.

Extent of Repairs,

The face has been, left untouched, but the head, which was in an exceedingly bad condition, has been skilfully treated. Huge cavities and cracks have been filled with lime, two pieces of the head-dress were found on the ground after the clearance. These were cemented again in place, but as the head-dress itself was in a very fragile condition just above the joins, it has had to be built up on either side with masonry. Similarly masonry has been built into the back of the neck to prevent further erosion and maintain the centre of gravity, but the traces of the pattern of the head-dress have been preserved everywhere. In the crown of the head there is an enormous hole made anciently by vandals who believed that there was a cache of treasure inside the head. It has been covered with a iron clapper which can be unscrewed at any time to permit investigation of the interior, and cannot be seen from below.

The present excavation has revealed the lack of proportions of the body which the sand concealed. As originally carved the Sphinx was strictly in proportion according to canonical precedent, and the lack of proportion noticed to-day is due to two extra casing which Thothmes and the Romans applied to the paws.