A little to the south-west is a second pyramid, nearly as large as that of Cheops. It is sharp at the top, and cannot, with ease, be ascended. To the south is a small one. There were in all directions tombs, many of them of most enormous size. The pyramids are in the midst of a large grave-yard. We went up the hill to the north-west some distance, and visited several rooms that were full of hieroglyphics. Passing round the southern side of the pyramids, we examined several places where excavations had recently been made. Some old monuments, that had been covered with sand, were laid bare; and, from the bottom of some deep well-like places, several most beautiful sarcophagi had been raised--two of black porphyry, beautifully polished, and covered with hieroglyphics, lay on the ground; others had probably been removed. We then visited the Sphynx, and took our lunch under the shade of its head. It has a lion's body, in a couching posture, with the head and face of a Nubian female, and is of most enormous dimensions. The head about ten feet in diameter. The height from the ground, and the length of the body, in proportion. It is hewn out of a rock, which is the soft limestone, and has much disintegrated; the features are much injured. The back is almost wholly covered with sand, which has blown in from the desert. As we crossed the low grounds to the river, on our return, we had a fine specimen of that wonderful phenomenon called the mirage. From some cause, the air near the ground assumes the appearance of water; the similarity is such, that persons are often deceived, and are confident that it is water, when seen at a little distance. We had crossed the plain about nine or ten o'clock A.M., and there was no appearance of water; but now, between one and two P.M., there were many places, at some distance, that had the precise appearance of water. In some cases, the spots that had this appearance were but a few inches, or one or two feet in width, and looked precisely like puddles of water after a rain: at other places whole acres seemed covered with water, and on several occasions, it was round the roots of trees; which seemed growing out of it. I had, on one or two occasions, seen the same as I came up the Nile. At a considerable village on the western side of the river, just below where the sands come in so near the river, our boat stopped, and while the captain and part of the crew went into the village, I ascended the bank, and walked to a place at a little distance that was more elevated than the other parts of the plain. It gave me a fine view of the face of the country; but I was surprised to see, towards the north-west, an extensive portion, as far as the eye could reach, that appeared a lake of water. In several places there were clusters of palms growing out of it. I had not seen on any map a lake marked in that place, nor had I heard of any such thing. I wondered if it could be the mirage; the appearance