Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/409

EGYPTIAN.] ARCHITECTURE 387 ipcum Next to the pyramids in massive grandeur comes the Great Sphinx, and an additional interest has lately been asso ciated with this statue, from the finding of an inscription, which seems to prove that it was sculptured before the time of the builder of the first pyramid. The Egyptian sphinx was quite different from the Greek, which usually had a female head on the body of a winged lion ; whereas the Egyptian was wingless, and had usually the head of a man, bearded and capped, and thus represents strength and wisdom. Those with the head of a ram, or crio- sphinxes, are supposed to be dedicated to Amen (Jupiter Ammon) ; those with the head of a hawk are called hieraco-sphinxes, and are sacred to Ra, or the sun. The Fio. 19. Figures at Thebes. Great Sphinx at Ghizeh has the body of a lion crouch ing close to the ground ; the height from the floor, or plat form on which it lies, to the top of the head is 100 feet : the total length is 146 feet ; across the shoulders it measures 34 feet. The head, from the top to the chin, is 28 feet 6 inches, and is calculated to be 40,000 times the bulk of an ordinary human head. A small temple or sanctuary was built between its paws. With the exception of this, and the paws them selves, which are of ma sonry, the whole appears to be carved out of the solid rock. Indeed, it may safely be assumed to be solid ; for Colonel Vyse drilled a hole 27 feet deep into the shoulder, and found that, so far at least, it was so. Another grand memo rial of the old dynasty must be mentioned, viz., the Serapeurn, near the pyramid of Sakkara, dis- Fio. 20. Temple between paws of Great Sphinx. From Vyse. covered in 1851 by M. Mariette, and excavated 30 feet deep in the solid rock. It contains the mummies of feet of uccp i me sumi FOCK. it contains the mummies the sacred bulls, placed in gigantic sarcophagi, 11 : high, 7 to 8 feet wide, and 13 to 18 feet Ion", each which is placed in a chamber. The chambers, forty in num ber, are excavated on each side of galleries about 12 feet wide, the ceilings being cut (not built) to the form of an arch. No great distance beyond Sakkara, in the district called Labyrinth, the Fayoom, was the famous Labyrinth, an immense mass of buildings mentioned by Herodotus as the palaces built for the twelve kings. From his description of it this appears to have been as great a work and as great a wonder as the pyramids themselves. It was close to Lake Mceris, and con tained in the time he wrote 3000 chambers, half above and half below ground, besides immense halls, corridors, courts, gardens, &c. The roofs were wholly of stone, and the walls covered with sculpture. On one side stood a pyramid 40 orgyije, or about 243 feet high. It appears from the ruins that huge masses of buildings once occupied three sides of an open quadrangle, about 200 yards square in the inside the two wings being about 300 yards long, and the third side about 400, measured on the outside. The pyramid, as stated by the various authorities, occupied the greater part of the fourth side, and measured about 348 feet square. There are a multitude of small chambers in two stories, as described by Herodotus ; and Canina supposes there was a third story above these supported on columns a sort of open gallery. TOMBS. The great reverence paid by the Egyptians to Tombs, the bodies of their ancestors, and their careful preservation of them by embalmment, necessitated a great number and vast extent of tombs. Some of these, erected long after the building of pyramids had ceased, are built up above ground; others are caves cut in the sides of rocks; others are passages tunnelled under ground to a great extent. The tombs above ground have been for the most part destroyed. But some very interesting ones are found near the Great Pyramid. They are of well-squared stone, in the form of truncated pyramids; the tops are level, and they show no appearance of anything having been built above them. But there must have been a covering of some kind, as pits, leading to sepulchral chambers beneath, are cut down directly from the sur face level The most curious tomb at Ghizeh is known as Campbell s, of the supposed date of about 660 B.C. It is an open excavation, 53 ft. 6 in. deep, 30 ft. by 26 ft. 3 in. on plan, with niches, &c., lead ing out of it. In these were found four sarco phagi, one of which, of basalt, is in the British Museum. This exca vation is supposed, from some indications left of a springing stone, to have been covered by an arch. If so, this would be the oldest known stone arch of a large size. In fact, it is difficult to imagine any other way in which this large excavation could have been covered. But the special object actu ally found was a tomb FIG. 21. Campbell s Tomb; section looking west. From Vyse.

built up in the centre of the excavation, of good masonn.