Item 04: Letters sent by Robert Christian Wilson to his family, 1916 - Page 85

[Page 85]

of the Sphinx. That's 40 Sphinxs in one sentence but I cant help it. You go down a pretty steep slope and come to a sort of court yard with great granite pillars and tremendously thick walls. It must have been a pretty high affair when it was built but of course it has all been excivated and the tops of it walls only just come above the level of the ground now.
The stones in the walls are a tremendous size, and there is no mortor between them; the biggest stone is 16 ft x 8 ft x 8 ft of solid granite and is a good height up in the wall too. In one corner there is a big stone cut this shape [drawing of an upside down L]. I suppose they made it to hold the corner together. The floor is all alabaster. There are vaults opening off this courtyard where they found the mummies and in there if you hold a candle to the edge of the alabaster you can see the light shining right through the stone.

The guide lit some coloured matches which had a very weird effect and you could see bats hanging from the roof.
Out in the courtyard again the guide showed us a space let into the wall high up and facing the East where the priests used to get up to talk to the people.
Up on top again the guide showed us a wall which he said was built by the Romans. I never knew the Romans did anything there but it certainly looked like their work as it was well made of small bricks.
I took a photo of the pillars down in the courtyard of the temple and then got up on top and took one from there of the Sphinx.
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