Amen, or Ammon, is never mentioned on the monuments of the Ancient Empire; his first appearance is contemporary with the twelfth dynasty. (Grébault, Hymne à Ammon-Ra, Introduction, part iii. p. 136.) This is natural enough. Amen was a Theban god, and Thebes does not seem to have existed in the time of the Ancient Empire.
[286] Notice des principaux Monuments exposés dans les Galeries provisoires du Musée d' ntiquités Égyptiennes à Boulak. (Edition of 1876, No. 582.)
[287] The total height of the Sphinx is 66 feet; the ear is 6 feet 4 inches high; the nose is 6 feet, the mouth 7 feet 9 inches, wide. The greatest width of the face across the cheeks is 14 feet 2 inches. If cleared entirely of sand the Sphinx would thus be higher than a five-storied house. For the history of the Sphinx, the different restorations which it has undergone, and the aspect which it has presented at different epochs, see Mariette, Questions relatives aux nouvelles Fouilles. Our plan ([Fig. 204]) shows the wide flight of steps which was constructed in the time of Trajan to give access to a landing constructed immediately in front of the fore-paws. Between these paws a little temple was contrived, where the steles consecrated by several of the Theban kings in honour of the Sphinx were arranged. Caviglia was the first to bring all these matters to light, in 1817, but the ensemble, as it now exists, only dates back to the Roman epoch. It is curious that neither Herodotus, nor Diodorus, nor Strabo, mention the Sphinx. Pliny speaks of it (N. H. xxxvi. 17); some of the information which he obtained was valuable and authentic, but it was mixed with errors; it was said to be, he tells us, the tomb of the king Armais, but he knows that the whole figure was painted red. The Denkmæler of Lepsius (vol. i. pl. 30) gives three sections and a plan of the little temple between the paws. The same work (vol. v. pl. 68) contains a reproduction of the great stele of Thothmes relative to the restoration of the Sphinx.
[288] Champollion, Lettres d'Égypte et de Nubie, pp. 125, 143, and 166. Under both the temples at Ombos, Champollion discovered remains of a building of the time of Thothmes III. The same thing occurred at Edfou and at Esneh. We except Philæ, because there is good reason to believe that in the time of the Ancient Empire that island did not exist, and that the cataract was then at Silsilis.
[289] Strabo, xvii. 128: Οὐδὲν ἔχει χαρίεν ὀυδὲ γραφικόν, etc.
[290] Lucian, § 3: Ἀξοάνοι νηοί, etc.
[291] The piers are not quite equidistant; their spacing varies by some centimetres. Exact symmetry has been sacrificed in consequence of the different lengths of the stones which formed the architrave.
[292] Mariette, Questions relatives aux nouvelles Fouilles à faire en Égypte. (Académie des Inscriptions, Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Année, 1877, pp. 427-473.)
[293] Itinéraire des Invités du Vice-roi, p. 99.
[294] Bædeker, Guide to Lower Egypt, p. 350.