In the day of Memphis' glory a great temple, dedicated to Ptah, was one of the marvels of the proud city. "Noph" (Memphis) "shall be waste and desolate," saith Jeremiah; a prediction literally fulfilled. Of the great temple not a vestige remains; but Herodotus says that in front of the great gateway of the temple, Rameses II., called by the Greeks Sesostris, erected a colossal statue of himself. The colossal statue has fallen from its lofty position, and now lies prostrate, buried amid the ruins of the city, as already described. On the belt of the colossus is the cartouche of Rameses II. The fist and big toe of this monster figure are in the British Museum. In the Piazza of St. John Lateran, at Rome, the tall obelisk towers heavenwards like a lofty spire, adorning that square. Originally it was one hundred and ten feet long, and therefore the longest monolith ever quarried. It was also the heaviest, weighing, as it does, about four hundred and fifty tons, and therefore considerably more than twice the weight of the London obelisk. As the sphinx is closely associated with the obelisk, and as Thothmes is four times represented by a sphinx on the London Obelisk, and as, moreover, two huge sphinxes have lately been placed on the Thames Embankment, one on each side of the Needle, it may not be out of place to say a few words respecting this sculptured figure. An Egyptian sphinx has the body of a lion couchant with the head of a man. The sphinxes seem for the most part to have been set up in the avenues leading to the temples. It is thought by Egyptologists that the lion's body is a symbol of power, the human head is a symbol of intellect. The whole figure was typical of kingly royalty, and set forth the power and wisdom of the Egyptian monarch. In ancient Egypt, sphinxes might be numbered by thousands, but the gigantic figure known by pre-eminence as "_The Sphinx_," stands on the edge of the rocky platform on which are built the pyramids of Ghizeh. When in Egypt, the writer examined this colossal figure, and found that it is carved out of the summit of the native rock, from which indeed it has never been separated. On mounting its back he found by measurement that the body is over one hundred feet long. The head is thirty feet in length, and fourteen feet in width, and rears itself above the sandy waste. The face is much mutilated, and the body almost hidden by the drifting sand of the desert. It is known that the tremendous paws project fifty feet, enclosing a considerable space, in the centre of which formerly stood a sacrificial altar for religious purposes. On a cartouche in front of the figure is the name of Thothmes IV.; but as Khufu, commonly called Cheops, the builder of the great pyramid, is stated to have repaired the Sphinx, it appears that the colossus had an existence before the pyramids were built. This being so, "The Sphinx" is not only the most colossal, but at the same time the oldest known idol of the human race.