Near the pyramid of Cheops, on the same plateau, is the Sphinx. This great statue, with a human head and the body of a lion, is carved in the natural rock, deficiencies being made up by added masonry. Its dimensions are colossal, the body being 140 feet long, and the face 30 feet high by 14 feet in breadth. This mysterious creation was intended as the representation of a god, and as such had sacrifices offered before it, as the altars and temples erected beneath it attest. From inscriptions upon a stone found near by, it is known that the Sphinx was called Hor-em-khoo, “The Sun in his Resting-place.” The head was originally surmounted by a royal helmet, the face had a beard, fragments of which have been unearthed, and it is otherwise badly mutilated. This fanciful creature has doubtless much affinity with the winged bulls and lions of the Assyrian epoch. The Egyptians also buried their dead in smaller tombs, in subterranean vaults, and in catacombs excavated in the rock of mountainous regions. A great number of these smaller tombs were built in the vicinity of ancient Memphis and are now commonly called “mastabahs.” In arrangement they were nearly all similar, the sepulchre consisting of three parts: a temple overground, a pit or well, and a subterranean chamber. The temple was in the shape of a frustum of a pyramid, the walls inclining inward at an angle of seventy degrees. It contained one or several apartments, used as places of assembly for the relatives and friends of the deceased, who came at stated intervals to hold services and to bring offerings of a suitable character. A list of these occasions was placed over the entrance, and on a second tablet or stella, inside, the name, titles, and virtues of the dead were recorded. The walls were brilliantly painted, domestic and religious scenes being the usual subjects depicted. The well-opening was usually concealed and filled with masonry. Its sides were formed of slabs of granite down to rock level and then excavated in the rock, sometimes thirty or forty yards below the surface. From the bottom of the pit a doorway, usually walled up, opened into a chamber containing a stone sarcophagus, in which the mummy was placed.