. A trip to the Orient; the story of a Mediterranean cruise. for atime, the desert winds would fill the pit again andgradually cover the monument. The Granite Templeadjacent to the Sphinx was covered over so completelyin the progress of centuries that its location was for-gotten. It is but fifty years since the French archaeol-ogist Mariette discovered and excavated the interiorof this large structure, the exterior of which, as you see,yet remains embedded in sand as far as the capstoneon the walls. After descending the steps that led down to the floorof the buried temple and passing through r
. A trip to the Orient; the story of a Mediterranean cruise. for atime, the desert winds would fill the pit again andgradually cover the monument. The Granite Templeadjacent to the Sphinx was covered over so completelyin the progress of centuries that its location was for-gotten. It is but fifty years since the French archaeol-ogist Mariette discovered and excavated the interiorof this large structure, the exterior of which, as you see,yet remains embedded in sand as far as the capstoneon the walls. After descending the steps that led down to the floorof the buried temple and passing through rooms con-structed of blocks of alabaster, we stood in the mainhall, surrounded by monolithic pillars of granite whichsupported enormous blocks of the same material over-head. The guide said that these huge blocks of granitehad been brought from quarries at Assuan, far up theNile, but he could not tell how the ancient Egyptianshad been able to handle the monoliths. My theory may not be correct, said the professor,as we turned to him for a reply to the query. o /I o (287) 288 A TRIP TO THE ORIENT. but I will state it. We know how the great blocksof limestone that were used in the erection of thePyramids were brought from the Libyan mountains;for the father of history, Herodotus, relates thestor)\ He says that the Egyptians constructed asolid road sixty feet wide of polished stone from thequarry in the L^^-bian mountains and over this smoothroadbed dragged or rolled the huge blocks. He alsostates that as the work progressed, these blocks werelifted by machines from step to step and imbedded intheir places in the pyramid. When granite or otherstone had to be brought from a great distance for theerection of temples and palaces, as for this granite andalabaster temple of the Sphinx, the Egyptians probablyadopted the simplest way of conveying the materialin a land where task-masters drove tens of thousandsof slaves to labor on the public works. That is, theyprobably excavated canals f
Size: 1222px × 2044px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherphiladelphiathejcw
