t-Rahinet. According to Herodotus,
the foundation of Memphis was ascribed to Menes, the first king of
Egypt. It was a large, rich, and splendid city, and the second capital
of Egypt. Among its buildings were several magnificent temples, as those
of Phtha, Osiris, Serapis, etc.; its palaces were also remarkable. In
Strabo's time, it was next to Alexandria in size and population.
Edrisi, who visited Memphis in the 12th century, thus describes its
remains then existing: "Notwithstanding the vast extent of this city,
the remote period at which it was built, the attempts made by various
nations to destroy it and to obliterate every trace of it, by removing
the materials of which it was constructed, combined with the decay of
4,000 years, there are yet in it works so wonderful as to confound the
reflecting, and such as the most eloquent could not adequately
describe." Among the works specified by him, are a monolithic temple of
granite, thirteen and a half feet high, twelve long, and seven broad,
entirely covered, within and without, with inscriptions; and colossal
statues of great beauty, one of which was forty-five feet high, carved
out of a single block of red granite. These ruins then extended about
nine miles in every direction.

LAKE MOERIS.

This famous lake, according to Herodotus, with whose account Diodorus
Siculus and Mela agree, was entirely an artificial excavation, made by
king Moeris, to carry off the overflowing waters of the Nile, and
reserve them for the purposes of irrigation. It was, in the time of
Herodotus, 3,600 stadia or 450 miles in circumference, and 300 feet
deep, with innumerable canals and reservoirs. Denon, Belzoni, and other
modern travelers, describe it at the present time as a natural basin,
thirty or forty miles long, and six broad. The works, therefore, which
Herodotus attributes to King Moeris, must have been the mounds, dams,
canals, and sluices which rendered it subservient to the purposes of
irrigation. These, also, would give it the appearance of being entirely
the product of human industry.

THE COLOSSAL SPHINX.

The Egyptian Sphinx is represented by a human head on the body of a
lion; it is always in a recumbent position with the fore paws stretched
forward, and a head dress resembling an old-fashioned wig. The features
are like those of the ancient Egyptians, as represented on their
monuments. The colossal Sphinx, near the group of pyramids at Jizeh,
which lay ha