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227 phis.". One day he lay to rest near the necropolis of Gizah, next to "the divine way of the gods to the horizon ... the holy place of primeval times." That, the inscription says, was where "the very great statue of the Sphinx rests, great of fame, majestic of awe." It was noontime, the sun was strong; so the prince chose to lie down in the shadow of the Sphinx, and he fell asleep. As he was sleeping, he heard the Sphinx speak "with his own mouth, saying:" Look at me, my son, Thothmose ... Behold, my state is that of one in need, my whole body is going to pieces. The sands of the desert above which I had stood What the Sphinx was saying to the sleeping prince was a request that the desert sands that had engulfed the Sphinx and covered most of it—a situation not unlike that found by Napoleon's men in the nineteenth century (Fig. 78)—be re- moved so that the Sphinx could be seen in its full majesty. ok tae % Wee tebe Fe OS Ses Tbe oye a ecg ames 4 iB Figure 77 Royal Dreams, Fateful Oracles have encroached upon me .. .