Page 151 - اثار مصر الفرعونية2

granite and alabaster. On the exterior, only the portals were lined
with granite, though apparently the builders intended originally
to encase the whole of the exterior in this stone.

The Sphinx temple, which was built on a terrace eight feet
lower than the floor of the Sphinx, is very ruined now, with little
of its granite facing left and little of its alabaster floor. Any
inscriptions it may once have carried, which might have told us
much about its purpose, are long gone. Only the eroded
limestone core of the structure remains, in part. It is enough to
show that this temple once boasted a central court, about 46
meters by 23 meters, which was open to the sky and afforded a
good view of the Sphinx. Offerings would have been made on an
altar in the court, which was paved with white alabaster. There
was also an interior colonnade of rectangular pillars. Large
recesses in the inside eastern and western walls suggest the
original presence of cult statues.

The temple has two entrances on the east, one on the north,
and the other on the south. These may represent doorways for
Upper and Lower Egypt. There was no immediate access to the
Sphinx from inside the temple. Its western wall was cut to a
height of up to 2.5 meters from the living rock, and thereafter
topped with limestone blocks. It was necessary to go by passages
to the north and south of the temple to reach the Sphinx There is
evidence that this temple of the Sphinx was never finished, and

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