rop her shawl, or
want her umbrella carried, or need an arm to steady her in the saddle,"
explained the guide.

[Illustration: ASTRIDE ITS MOTHER'S SHOULDERS.]

"For scores of centuries," remarked the professor, as we stood before
the Sphinx, "the strong winds from the west have carried particles of
sand from the desert and deposited them around the Pyramids. Now the
original base of Cheops lies twenty or thirty feet beneath banks of sand
and debris that have collected around it. In the same manner the
encroaching particles, drifting like the light dry snows of the
prairies, have almost engulfed the Sphinx. Many times in the past the
sand has been shoveled away to prevent the Sphinx from being hidden from
sight, and if this excavation in which it now stands should be neglected
for a time, the desert winds would fill the pit again and gradually
cover the monument. The Granite Temple adjacent to the Sphinx was
covered over so completely in the progress of centuries that its
location was forgotten. It is but fifty years since the French
archaeologist Mariette discovered and excavated the interior of this
large structure, the exterior of which, as you see, yet remains embedded
in sand as far as the capstone on the walls."

After descending the steps that led down to the floor of the buried
temple and passing through rooms constructed of blocks of alabaster, we
stood in the main hall, surrounded by monolithic pillars of granite
which supported enormous blocks of the same material overhead. The guide
said that these huge blocks of granite had been brought from quarries at
Assuan, far up the Nile, but he could not tell how the ancient Egyptians
had been able to handle the monoliths.

[Illustration: ENTERED THE FAMILY BURIAL MOSQUE OF MOHAMMED ALI.]

"My theory may not be correct," said the professor, as we turned to him
for a reply to the query "but I will state it. We know how the great
blocks of limestone that were used in the erection of the Pyramids were
brought from the Libyan mountains; for the father of history, Herodotus,
relates the story. He says that the Egyptians constructed a solid road
sixty feet wide of polished stone from the quarry in the Lybian
mountains and over this smooth roadbed dragged or rolled the huge
blocks. He also states that as the work progressed, these blocks were
lifted by machines from step to step and imbedded in their places in the
pyramid. When granite or other stone had to be brought