"The passage by which we enter the pyramid continues at the same angle for more than three hundred feet, and it is so straight that you can see the sky from the farther end, as though looking through the tube of a telescope. It is said that the north star was visible through this passage-way two thousand years ago, but its position has changed so that it is now out of range. [Illustration: THE SPHINX.] "From the pyramid we went to see the Sphinx, which is about a quarter of a mile away in a south-easterly direction. It had originally the head of a man, the breast of a woman, and the body of a lion. But only the head and part of the back are now visible, the rest being covered by sand. By some it is thought to be as old as the Great Pyramid, or even older, while others believe it was made in the eighteenth dynasty, or long after the pyramids were built. The whole figure was hewn from the solid rock, and there was formerly a temple between the paws and directly beneath the head of the Sphinx. "We walked around it, and one of us climbed up as far as he could without too much danger of a fall. It is an enormous head, as you will understand when we tell you that the width of the face is 13 feet 8 inches, the ear is 4-1/2 feet long, the nose 5-1/2, and the mouth 7-1/2. From the top of the head to the pavement below was 66 feet, and the length of the body is 140 feet. It is 30 feet from the top of the forehead to the bottom of the chin, and the front paws are 55 feet long. Don't these figures give you an idea of the grandeur of the Sphinx? "How it has suffered in the five thousand years it has looked out on the unchanging landscape of Egypt! Large portions of the rock have been hewn away, or have broken off by the action of the elements on the soft limestone; but, worse yet, the great solemn face has been wantonly ruined by the hand of man. An Arab fanatic tried to destroy it, then the Mamelukes used it for a target for rifle practice, several explorers have dug into it, and the Arabs of the present day have no hesitation in breaking off pieces of the head for any one who will pay for them. One of them climbed up to the face while we were there, and wanted to break off some fragments for us; but we told him to come down at once, as we would neither buy the pieces nor allow him to do any farther injury to the ancient monument, which is, next to the pyramids, the most interesting in this part of Egypt. There were plenty of pieces on the ground in front of the Sphinx, and we picked up a few of them to carry away as souvenirs of our visit. [Illustration: THE SPHINX BY MOONLIGHT.]