Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art | Page 5

Sphinx, near the group of pyramids at Jizeh,
which lay half buried in the sand, was uncovered and measured by
Caviglia. It is about 150 feet long, and 63 feet high. The body is made
out of a single stone; but the paws, which are thrown out about fifty
feet in front, are constructed of masonry. The Sphinx of Sais, formed of
a block of red granite, twenty-two feet long, is now in the Egyptian
Museum in the Louvre. There has been much speculation among the
learned, concerning the signification of these figures. Winckelmann
observes that they have the head of a female, and the body of a male,
which has led to the conjecture that they are intended as emblems of the
generative powers of nature, which the old mythologies are accustomed
to indicate by the mystical union of the two sexes in one individual;
they were doubtless of a sacred character, as they guarded the entrance
of temples, and often formed long avenues leading up to them.

THE LABYRINTH OF EGYPT
A labyrinth, with the ancients, was a building containing a great
number of chambers and galleries, running into one another in such a
manner as to make it very difficult to find the way through the edifice.
The most famous was the Egyptian labyrinth, situated in Central Egypt,
above Lake Moeris, not far from Crocodilopolis, in the country now
called Fejoom. Herodotus, who visited and examined this edifice with
great attention, affirms that it far surpassed everything he had
conceived of it. It is very uncertain when, by whom, and for what
purpose it was built, though in all probability it was for a royal

sepulchre. The building, half above and half below the ground, was one
of the finest in the world, and is said to have contained 3,000
apartments. The arrangements of the work and the distribution of the
parts were remarkable. It was divided into sixteen principal regions,
each containing a number of spacious buildings, which taken together,
might be defined an assemblage of palaces. There were also as many
temples as there were gods in Egypt, the number of which was
prodigious, besides various other sacred edifices, and four lofty
pyramids at the angles of the walls. The entrance was by vast halls,
followed by saloons, which conducted to grand porticos, the ascent to
which was by a flight of ninety steps. The interior was decorated with
columns of porphyry and colossal statues of Egyptian gods. The whole
was surrounded by a wall, but the passages were so intricate that no
stranger could find the way without a guide. The substructions of this
famous labyrinth still exist, and Milizia says, "as they were not arched,
it is wonderful that they should have been so long preserved, with so
many stupendous edifices above them." The Cretan labyrinth was built
by Dædalus on the model of the Egyptian, but it was only a hundredth
part the size; yet, according to Diodorus Siculus, it was a spacious and
magnificent edifice, divided into a great number of apartments, and
surrounded entirely by a wall. What would the ancients say, could they
see our modern imitations of their labyrinths?

THE CATACOMBS OF EGYPT.
There are numerous catacombs in Egypt, the principal of which are at
Alexandria; at Sakkara, near Cairo; at Siut, near the ancient Lycopolis
or City of the Wolf; at Gebel Silsilis, on the banks of the Nile between
Etfu and Ombos, the site of one of the principal quarries of ancient
Egypt; and at Thebes. Many of these are of vast extent, and were
doubtless formed by quarrying the rocks and mountains for building
materials. They consist of grottos, galleries, and chambers, penetrating
often to a considerable distance, the superincumbent mass being
supported by huge pillars of rock; or the galleries running parallel, with
masses of solid rock intervening for supports. Many of these chambers
and grottos contained multitudes of mummies, probably the bodies of

the less wealthy; many were evidently private family tombs of wealthy
individuals, some of which are of great magnificence, adorned with
sculptures, paintings, and hieroglyphics. The Arabs for centuries have
been plundering these abodes of the dead, and great numbers of the
mummies have been destroyed for fuel, and for the linen, rosin, and
asphaltum they contain, which is sold to advantage at Cairo. An
immense number of them have been found in the plain of Sakkara, near
Memphis, consisting not only of human bodies, but of various sacred
animals, as bulls, crocodiles, apes, ibises, fish, &c.; hence it is called
_The Plain of the Mummies_. Numerous caves or grottos, with
contents of the same kind, are found in the two mountainous ridges
which run nearly parallel with the Nile, from Cairo to Syene. Many of
these tombs and mummies