THE SPHINX—THE ENTRANCE.
The Great Sphinx that is on the Mokattam Hill, facing the large
Pyramids of Jeezeh, is the link of union between the north and south of
Egypt, as well as the union of the works of those great men living at
different periods of time as rulers of Egypt—Joseph and Moses. The
following account of this Sphinx is taken from a work called _View of
Ancient and Modern Egypt_, by the Rev. Michael Russell, LL.D.
“Our account of the mechanical productions of ancient Egypt would be
incomplete did we not mention the Great Sphinx, which has always been
regarded as an accompaniment, and sometimes even as a rival, to the
Pyramids. The latest information in regard to this stupendous figure
was obtained through the persevering labours of Mr. Caviglia, whose
name has been already mentioned with so much honour.
“After the most fatiguing and anxious endeavours during several months,
he succeeded in laying open the whole statue to its base, and exposing
a clear area extending to a hundred feet from its front. ‘It is not
easy,’ says Mr. Salt, who witnessed the process of excavation, ‘for any
person unused to operations of this kind to form the smallest idea of
the difficulties which he had to surmount, more especially when working
at the bottom of the trench; for, in spite of every precaution, the
slightest breath of wind, or concussion, set all the surrounding
particles of sand in motion, so that the sloping sides began to crumble
away, and mass after mass to come tumbling down, till the whole surface
bore no unapt resemblance to a cascade of water. Even when the sides
appeared most firm, if the labourers suspended their work but for an
hour, they found on their return that they had the greatest part of it
to do over again. This was particularly the case on the southern side
of the paw, where the whole of the people—from sixty to a
hundred—were employed for seven days without making any sensible
advance, the sand rolling down in one continued torrent. But the
discovery amply rewarded the toil and expense which were incurred in
revealing the structure of this wonderful work of art.
“‘The huge legs stretched out fifty feet in advance from the body,
which is in a cumbent posture; fragments of an enormous beard were
found resting beneath the chin; and there were seen all the appendages
of a temple, granite tablet, and altar, arranged on a regular platform
immediately in front. On this pavement, and at an equal distance
between the paws of the figure, was the large slab of granite just
mentioned, being not less than fourteen feet high, seven broad, and two
thick. The face of this stone, which fronted the east, was highly
embellished with sculptures in bas-relief, the subject representing two
sphinxes seated on pedestals, and priests holding out offerings, while
there was an inscription in hieroglyphics most beautifully executed;
the whole design being covered at top, and protected, as it were, with
the sacred globe, the serpent, and the wings.
“‘Two other tablets of calcareous stone, similarly ornamented, were
supposed, together with that of granite, to have constituted part of a
miniature temple, by being placed one on each side of the latter, and
at right angles to it. One of them, in fact, was still remaining in its
place; of the other, which was thrown down and broken, the fragments
are now in the British Museum.
“‘A small lion, couching in front of this edifice, had its eyes
directed towards the main figure. There were besides several fragments
of other lions rudely carved, and the fore-part of a sphinx of
tolerable workmanship; all of which, as well as the tablets, walls, and
platforms on which the little temple stood, were ornamented with red
paint, a colour which seems to have been, in Egypt as well as in
_India_, appropriated to sacred purposes. In front of the temple was a
granite altar, with one of the four projections or horns still
retaining its place at the angle. From the effects of fire evident on
the stone, it is manifest that it had been used for burnt-offerings.
“‘On the side of the left paw of the Great Sphinx were cut several
indistinct legends in Greek characters, addressed to different
deities.[46] On the second digit of the same was sculptured, in pretty
deep letters, an inscription in verse, of which the subjoined
translation was given by the late Dr. Young, whose extensive knowledge
of antiquities enabled him at once to restore the defects of the
original, and to convey its meaning in Latin as well as in English.
“‘Thy form stupendous here the gods have placed,
Sparing each spot of harvest-bearing land;
And with this mighty work of art have graced
A rocky isle, encumber’d once with sand:
Not that fierce Sphinx that Thebes erewhile laid waste,
But great Latona’s servant, mild and bland:
Watching that prince beloved who fills the throne
Of Egypt’s plains, and calls the Nile his own.
That heavenly monarch who his foes defies,
Like Vulcan powerful, and like Pallas wise.’
“This remarkable statue is again as much under the dominion of the
desert as it was half a century ago; and, consequently, it now meets
the eye of the Egyptian traveller shrouded in sand to the same depth as
before.
“Dr. Richardson relates that the wind and the Arabs had replaced the
covering on this venerable piece of antiquity, and hence the lower
parts were quite invisible. The breast, shoulders, and neck, which are
those of a human being, remain uncovered, as also the back, which is
that of a lion; the neck is very much eroded, and, to a person near,
the head seems as if it were too heavy for its support. The head-dress
has the appearance of an old-fashioned wig, projecting out about the
ears like the hair of the Berberi Arabs;[47] the ears project
considerably, the nose is broken, the whole face has been painted red,
which is the colour assigned to the ancient inhabitants of Egypt, and
to all the deities of the country except Osiris. The features are
Nubian, or what, from ancient representations, may be called ancient
Egyptian, which is quite different from the negro feature. The
expression is particularly placid and benign; so much so, that the
worshipper of the Sphinx might hold up his god as superior to all the
other gods of wood and stone which the blinded nations worshipped.
“Pococke found the head and neck—all that were above ground—to be
twenty-seven feet high; the breast was thirty-three feet wide; and the
entire length about a hundred and thirty. Pliny estimated it at a
hundred and thirteen feet long and sixty-three in height. According to
Dr. Richardson, the stretch of the back is about a hundred and twenty
feet, and the elevation of the head above the sand from thirty to
thirty-five, a result which accords pretty nearly with the measurement
of Coutelle. It is obvious, at the same time, that the discrepancy in
these reports as to the elevation of the figure must be attributed to
the varying depth of the sand, which appears to have accumulated
greatly since the days of the Roman naturalist.
“There is no opening found in the body of the statue, whereby to
ascertain whether it is hollow or not; but we learn from Dr. Pococke
that there is an entrance both in the back and in the top of the head,
the latter of which, he thinks, might serve for the arts of the priests
in uttering oracles, while the former might be meant for descending to
the apartments beneath.”
Colonel Howard-Vyse made ineffectual attempts to pierce the Sphinx; the
result, in the back of the statue, he gives in these words:—
“The boring-rods were broken, owing to the carelessness of the Arabs,
at the depth of twenty-seven feet in the back of the Sphinx. Various
attempts were made to get them out, and on the 21st of July[48]
gunpowder was used for that purpose; but, being unwilling to disfigure
this venerable monument, the excavation was given up, and several feet
of boring-rods were left in it. During the operation a very beautiful
fossil of a reed was discovered, which is now in the British Museum.”
Respecting the attempt near the shoulder, he says:—“The operations
carried on at the Sphinx were suspended, and the hole made near the
shoulder, about twenty-five and a half feet in depth, was plugged up.”
It was Moses who had the Sphinx cut out of the solid rock on which it
stands. The features and the head-dress of the statue represent in
colossal proportions the features and the head-dress of his beloved
Ethiopian bride, who was “black but comely.”
The statue served as the royal entrance into the Great Pyramid, near
which it is constructed. That this Pyramid has been entered from this
direction is evident from the fact that a ramp-stone has been taken
away from its place by some person who approached it by a subterranean
passage.
“The original builders,[49] then, were not those who knocked out from
within on the well side that now lost ramp-stone, and exposed the inlet
to the well-mouth as it is presently seen, near the north-west corner
of the Grand Gallery. Neither was Al Mamoun the party, for no one could
have done it except by entering the well from the very bottommost
depths of the subterranean region; and he, the son of Caliph Haroun Al
Raschid, and all his crew, did not descend further down the
entrance-passage than merely to the level of his own forced hole, which
is not subterranean at all. Nor is the credit claimed for any of his
Arab successors, who rather alluded to the well as an already existing
feature in their earliest time, and one they did not understand; in
large part, too, because they had only seen, and only knew of, the
upper end of it in the north-west corner of the Grand Gallery floor;
and there it was simply a deep hole, the beginning of darkness and the
shadow of death.
“Who, then, did burst out that now missing ramp-stone? Who, indeed! For
the whole band of Egyptological writers we have mentioned appear to be
convinced that ages before Caliph Al Mamoun made his way by blundering
and smashing,—long ages, too, before Mohammed was born, and rather at
and about the period of Judah being carried captive to Babylon,—the
Egyptians themselves had entered the Great Pyramid by cunning art and
tolerable understanding of its mere methods of construction, and had
closed it again when they left.”
Yes; this Sphinx was the grand royal entrance by which Moses and his
consort entered into the interior of the Great Pyramid. He, being
inspired by Heaven, had foreseen that in future ages the knowledge of
this entrance would be forgotten; he therefore removed the ramp-stone
and left the space it occupied open, so as to excite the curiosity of
those who might visit the spot.
He also left the world a specimen of this entrance in a wooden statue,
built far away, that this wooden construction might serve to unriddle
the passage in the Sphinx, which leads into the Great Pyramid. The
openings in the head and back of the Sphinx were to give light and air
to the passage. The following is a description of the wooden statue,
taken from Captain Meares’ voyages:—[50]
“After the English had been for some time in King George’s Sound, the
Americans began to make use of sails of mats, in imitation of my ship.
Not long after this the English were waited upon by Wicananish, a
prince of greater wealth and power than any they had yet seen, who
invited them to visit his kingdom, which lay at some distance to the
southward, that a commercial intercourse might be established for the
advantage of both parties.
“The invitation was accepted, and Wicananish himself met the ‘Felice’
at some distance from the shore with a small fleet of canoes, and,
coming on board, piloted them into the harbour. They found the capital
to be at least three times the size of Nootka. The country round was
covered with impenetrable woods of great extent, in which were trees of
enormous size.
“After the King and his chiefs had been entertained on board, the
English were in return invited to a feast by Wicananish; and it is not
easy to conceive a more interesting picture of savage life than
witnessed on this occasion. On entering the house, we were absolutely
astonished at the vast area it enclosed.
“It contained a large square, boarded up close on all sides to the
height of twenty feet with planks of an uncommon breadth and length.
Three enormous trees, rudely carved and painted, formed the rafters,
which were supported at the ends and in the middle by gigantic images,
carved out of huge blocks of timber. The same kind of broad planks
covered the whole to keep out the rain; but they were so placed as to
be removable at pleasure, either to receive the air and light or to let
out the smoke. In the middle of this spacious room were several fires,
and beside them large wooden vessels filled with fish soup. Large
slices of whale’s flesh lay in a state of preparation, to be put into
similar machines filled with water, into which the women, with a kind
of tongs, conveyed hot stones from very fierce fires, in order to make
it boil.
“Heaps of fish were strewed about; and in this central part of the
square, which might properly be called the kitchen, stood large
seal-skins filled with oil, from whence the guests were served with
that delicious beverage. The trees that supported the roof were of a
size which would render the mast of a first-rate man-of-war diminutive
on a comparison with them; indeed, our curiosity as well as our
astonishment was at its utmost stretch when we considered the strength
which must have been required to raise these enormous beams to their
present elevation, and how such strength could be commanded by a people
wholly unacquainted, as we supposed, with the mechanic powers.
“The door by which we entered this extraordinary fabric was the mouth
of one of these images, which, large as it may, from this circumstance,
be supposed to have been, was not disproportioned to the other features
of its colossal visage. We ascended by a few steps on the outside; and,
after passing the portal, descended down the chin into the house, where
we found new matter for wonder in the number of men, women, and
children who composed the family of the chief, which consisted of at
least 800 persons. These were divided into groups according to their
respective offices, which had distinct places assigned them.
“The whole of the interior of the building was surrounded by a bench,
about two feet from the ground, on which the various inhabitants sat,
ate, and slept. The chief appeared at the upper end of the room,
surrounded by natives of rank, on a small raised platform, round which
were placed several large chests, over which hung bladders of oil,
large slices of whale’s flesh, and proportionable gobbets of blubber.
“Festoons of human skulls, arranged with some attention to uniformity,
were disposed in almost every part where they could be placed, and,
however ghastly such ornaments appeared to European eyes, they were
evidently considered by the courtiers and people of Wicananish as a
very splendid and appropriate decoration of the royal apartment.
“When the English appeared, the guests had made a considerable advance
in their banquet. Before each person was placed a large slice of boiled
whale, which, with small wooden dishes filled with oil and fish-soup,
and a mussel-shell instead of a spoon, composed the economy of the
table. The servants busily replenished the dishes as they were emptied,
and the women picked and opened some bark, which served the purpose of
towels. The guests despatched their messes with astonishing rapidity
and voracity, and even the children, some of them not above three years
old, devoured the blubber and oil with a rapacity worthy of their
fathers. Wicananish, in the meantime, did the honours with an air of
hospitable yet dignified courtesy, which might have graced a more
cultivated society.”
The Sphinx was cut or carved on Moses’ return from Meroë, and prior to
his departure for Ethiopia, where he was elected King. He carefully
closed the mouth, which was the door of the passage, that it should
never be opened till the fulness of time arrived. But to prevent the
monument from being broken into by strangers, he instructed the
above-mentioned savages to make the large image, with a door in its
mouth, that it might in the future serve as a key to solve the mystery
of the Sphinx in connection with the Great Pyramid.