"How it has suffered in the five thousand years it has looked out on the unchanging landscape of Egypt! Large portions of the rock have been hewn away, or have broken off by the action of the elements on the soft limestone; but, worse yet, the great solemn face has been wantonly ruined by the hand of man. An Arab fanatic tried to destroy it, then the Mamelukes used it for a target for rifle practice, several explorers have dug into it, and the Arabs of the present day have no hesitation in breaking off pieces of the head for any one who will pay for them. One of them climbed up to the face while we were there, and wanted to break off some fragments for us; but we told him to come down at once, as we would neither buy the pieces nor allow him to do any farther injury to the ancient monument, which is, next to the pyramids, the most interesting in this part of Egypt. There were plenty of pieces on the ground in front of the Sphinx, and we picked up a few of them to carry away as souvenirs of our visit.
THE SPHINX BY MOONLIGHT.
"We went to a temple not far from the Sphinx, which was discovered and excavated by Mariette Bey, but has since been partly filled by the drifting sand. It is built of red granite and alabaster, and is supposed to be as old as the Sphinx, and to have some relation to its worship. The shaping and polishing of the hard granite is quite equal to that of any stone-cutter of the present day, and our admiration was excited at every step. A sitting figure of Cephren, the builder of the Second Pyramid, was found in this temple, and is now in the museum at Boulak. It was hewn from a single block of green breccia, or diorite, an exceedingly hard stone, and all the details of the work are as finely finished as that of the most careful sculptor in marble. Eight other statues were found at the same time, and all bear evidence of the excellence of the Egyptian workers in stone four or five thousand years ago.
"We visited two or three tombs in the neighborhood of the Sphinx, but after what we had seen they were not especially interesting. The whole stone platform where the pyramids stand is full of tombs; but they have all been examined and their contents removed.
EGYPTIAN CAPTIVES MAKING BRICKS.