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56. ARCHAEOLOGY. A^hort His- 
 tory of the Egyptian Obelisks. By W. R. 
 Cooper. London, n. d. Cr. Svo, cloth. .$1.(X) 
 
 
 
 
 
 (fituxmll Winivmii^ Jilrtatg 
 
 . ;• 
 
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 
 
 HEBER GUSHING PETERS 
 
 
 
 CLASS OF 1892 
 
 ' 
 
 
 k,Xi^%S\3'^ i\\^ • -x. 
 
 
 
 5226 
 
 
SHORT HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. R. COOPER, F.R.A.S, M.R.A.S., 
 
 Secretary to tite Society of Biblical Arc JuEology. 
 
 WITH TRANSLATIONS OF MANY- OF THE HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS; 
 
 CHIEFLY BY 
 
 M. FRANCOIS CHABAS. 
 
 > _^ 
 
 Seco7id Edition, 
 
 Multce tcrricolis linguae, coelestibus una. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 SAMUEL BAGSTER AND SONS, 
 
 15, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 \All rights reserved^ 
 
m 
 
TO 
 
 SIR WILLIAM W. BURTON, Knt., 
 
 LATE JUDGE 
 OF H.M. SUPREME COURT, MADRAS. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Please to accept the dedication to yourself of 
 this little Book, the completion of which has brought back 
 to my mind many pleasant memories ; not the least of 
 which are those of your hospitality to me at Cheltenham 
 in 1874, and constant friendship since. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Ventnor, October i, 1S77. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN the following pages I have endeavoured to 
 arrange, in something like consecutive order, all 
 that is definitely known concerning the History of the 
 Egyptian Obelisks generally; and more particularly of 
 those now standing. To do this it has been necessary 
 to compare the accounts of many writers, and the 
 measurements of various authors, but the result of 
 such a comparison is far from satisfactory ; in truth 
 there is very little agreement between them ; and there 
 are several statements which cannot be reconciled with 
 each other. Under these difficulties, I have had to 
 rely chiefly upon the measurements of Bonomi,he being 
 professionally a sculptor as well as an Egyptologist, 
 and, therefore, possessing a double guarantee against 
 liability to errors of detail. With regard to the identi- 
 fications of the obelisks mentioned by Pliny with 
 those now standing in Rome, it is hardly possible to 
 be quite certain as to any special monument, except 
 perhaps the Obelisk of the Circus Maximus. The 
 original text of Pliny is very vague, and the judgment 
 of Zoega is not wholly to be depended upon. For- 
 tunately these contrarieties do not affect the chief thing 
 in connection with the obelisk to which importance is 
 to be attached: namely, the interpretation of their 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 hieroglyphics, since these latter enable us now to 
 
 re-construct a history of the monarchs by whom they 
 
 were erected, from their own contemporaneous records. 
 
 And here let me add, that I trust that the impetus now 
 
 given to Egyptian archaeology by the splendid gift of 
 
 the Obelisk of London by Prof Erasmus Wilson, will 
 
 not be allowed to dissipate itself after a few months' 
 
 excitement ; but that it will induce many of my 
 
 readers to study for themselves the language of the 
 
 Egyptians, which has now become accessible to all 
 
 students by the Grammar of P. le Page Renouf, and 
 
 the text books of Dr. Birch, the father of English 
 
 Egyptology. 
 
 I have now to express my sincere thanks to 
 
 M. Francois Chabas, for his very valuable aid in 
 
 freely translating for me the inscriptions upon six of 
 
 the principal obelisks ; to Prof Erasmus Wilson, who 
 
 while himself engaged on a similar work, has with 
 
 singular liberality of sentiment assisted me in my 
 
 own ; to Mr. Hodder Westropp for the loan of many 
 
 books of reference; and to Dr. Sinclair Coghill, 
 
 Mr. Westropp of Eglinton, the Rev. Clement Hue, of 
 
 St. Lawrence, Prof Monier Williams, and Mr. S. M. 
 
 Drach, for many literary kindnesses in connection 
 
 with this work. 
 
 W. R. COOPER. 
 
 Ventnor, 
 
 October i, 1877. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 Preface . . v 
 
 I. Characteristics of an Obelisk , i 
 
 II. The Symbolism of an Obelisk 4 
 
 III. Relations of the Obelisk and the Pyramid lo 
 
 IV. The Vicissitudes of Obelisks . . • ^5 
 
 V. The Obelisks of Usirtesen at Heliopolis and 
 
 Biggeg . . , . 21 
 
 VI. The Obelisks of Thothmes I. . .27 
 
 VII. The Obehsks of Hatasu . . 29 
 
 VIII. The Obehsks of Thothmes III. . 33 
 
 IX. The Obelisk of Alexandria . . 46 
 
 X. The Obelisk of Constantinople . -54 
 
 XL The Obelisk of Amenhotep II. . 60 
 
 XII. The Life of Seti I. . . . .63 
 
 XIIL The Obelisk of the Porta del Popolo ; or, the 
 
 Flaminian Obelisk . . . .67 
 
 XIV. The Translation of Hermapion . . 75 
 
Vlll CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XV. The Obelisk of Trinita dei Monte . .78 
 
 XVI. The Obelisks of Rameses 11. . . 79 
 
 XVII. The Obelisk of Paris . . • ^3 
 
 XVIII. Other Obelisks of Rameses II. . 92 
 
 XIX. The Obelisks of the Later Dynasties 94 
 
 XX. Ptolemaic and Roman Obelisks 102 
 
 XXI. Uninscribed Obelisks . . 115 
 
 XXII. The Obelisk of London . 124 
 
 „ Appendix. Prof Wilson's Letter . .140 
 
 XXIII. The Execution of the Obelisk , . 144 
 
A SHORT HISTORY OF 
 
 THE EGYPTIAN OBELISKS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Cha7'acteristics of an Obelisk. 
 
 OF all the monuments of Egypt the most striking- 
 and the most characteristic are the ObeHsk and 
 the Pyramid ; both of them solar emblems : the one 
 significant of the rising, and the other of the setting sun ; 
 and both alike dating from that pre-historic period of 
 civilization ' which was in perfection ere the Father 
 of the Faithful had descended from Ur of the Chaldees, 
 or the Turanian races of India were oppressed by 
 their Aryan brethren. 
 
 For so long a succession of centuries has the 
 Obelisk been admired and copied in the various cities 
 of Africa, Asia, and Europe; Alexandria, Constan- 
 tinople, and Rome, that the original peculiarities of 
 the structure itself have been occasionally lost sight of: 
 and any single vertical monument that could not be 
 exactly described as a column, has been set down as 
 an obelisk. Hence there is still in popular accept- 
 ance some inaccuracy as to the exact form that an 
 
 ^ Pierret, Diet. Arch. Efi,yptienne, "Obelisque," who cites a reference to a 
 pyramid and an obelisk in the "Funereal Inscription of a Priest of the 
 Pyramid Ashet," in the time of the fifth dynasty. 
 
 2 
 
2 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 obelisk should assume: and it becomes necessary at 
 once to define what an obelisk is, and what it is not 
 as to external form, before we proceed to examine the 
 intention of its symbolism. An obelisk, or tekhen, 
 to give it its Egyptian name, then, is a monument 
 composed of a single quadrangular upright stone, 
 having its four faces inclined towards each other ; and 
 1 in section, all its angles, right angles, and all its sides 
 ; parallel to each other ; its height is not less than that 
 of ten diameters, taken at the base; and its apex is 
 abruptly terminated by a small pyramidion, whose 
 faces are inclined at about an angle of sixty de- 
 grees. The obelisk is generally supported upon a 
 quadrangular base, the height of which is approximately 
 that of a cube and a half, and which is also, like the 
 obelisk, composed of a single stone, this base is further 
 supported by two broad and deep steps. It is not ne- 
 cessary that the four sides of either obelisk or base ' 
 have in section the same width, provided that each 
 opposite side is exactly equal ; but it is necessary that 
 jail the lines of the monument be right lines ; and that 
 it should have no more than four sides. A polygonal, 
 or a cylindrical monolith is not an obelisk ; on the other 
 hand, obelisks may be either inscribed or uninscribed ; 
 but the ornamentation is never in relief, other than 
 the low sunken relief used in Egyptian art, and 
 known as incavo relievo ; and the inscription is always 
 vertical with the lines of the monument, and not 
 horizontal. It must be added, also, that entasis^ or 
 that slight curvature of all long lines, which is so 
 marked a feature in classic architecture, is wholly 
 foreign to the design of an obelisk in the best period 
 of Pharaohnic art' 
 
 ^ The faces of the Flaminian obelisk as drawn by Bonomi are not equal: 
 see Tomlinson on "The Flaminian Obelisk," Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit., Vol. I., 
 p. 176. New Series. 
 
 ^ The obelisks of Luxor, of which the one now at Paris is an example, 
 have certainly a convex\ty or entasis on the inner yizces only ; that is an 
 exception to the general rule. 
 
CHAPTER I. 3 
 
 The dimensions of obelisks vary greatly : those of 
 the earlier period being generally the largest, and the 
 simplest in execution. The loftiest now in existence 
 is that which adorns the court of the church of 
 St. John Lateran, at Rome/ where it stands a monu- 
 ment, first of the majesty of Thothmes III., by whom 
 it was designed ; afterwards of the power of Constan- 
 tine the Great, who removed it sixteen hundred years 
 later from Heliopolis to Alexandria; and lastly of his 
 successor Constantius who re-erected it in the Circus 
 Maximus of Imperial Rome. The smallest obelisks 
 are the beautiful red granite couple which are now in the 
 Egyptian saloon of the Florentine Museum, and which 
 are respectively seven feet, and five feet ten inches in 
 height. The mutilated and summitless fragments in 
 the British Museum, though now eight feet high, were 
 indisputably loftier Avhen terminated by their original 
 apexes. 
 
 The material of which the obelisk was composed 
 was generally a granite, or hard sandstone, capable of 
 being well cut and of taking a high polish. For sym- 
 bolical reasons which will be hereafter described, the 
 red granite of Syene was chiefly employed : twenty- 
 seven out of the forty-two obelisks now known to exist 
 being wrought in that imperishable material; the 
 pyramidion at the summit was, when its faces were not 
 sculptured with votive vignettes, covered with a cap 
 of either bronze or gold : the obelisks of Hatasu at 
 Karnak being described in the hieroglyphic texts as 
 thus completed in that costly metal, while the bronze 
 cap of the obelisk at Heliopolis remained entire till 
 the middle ages, having reached the notice of the 
 eminent physician and historian Abd-el-lateef who 
 flourished circa 1300. No obelisks however now 
 
 ^ In this I follow the measurements g-lven by Bonomi, the best writer on 
 the subject of obelisks. Pierret however cites the obelisk of Hatasu at 
 Karnak as being- the loftiest known: it being- 33 metres high; while that of 
 St. John Lateran is, according to the same authority, 32 only. 
 
 2* 
 
EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 remain thus completed, the avarice of poverty or the 
 rapacity of war having stripped from these, as well as 
 the other monuments of Egypt, every fragment of 
 exposed metal either to furnish gold for the extortions 
 of the Turkish governors, or swords or guns for the 
 defence, more often the destruction, of the Fellaheen. 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 The Sy7nbolism of the Obelisk. 
 
 IN its original conception, the religion of Egypt was 
 a pure monotheism, a monotheism of the most 
 refined character, which admitted even to the last no 
 po7'traiture of the Supreme Being, but adored him in 
 his visible manifestations, and symbolised his character 
 by allegorical representations founded upon a human 
 form. The distinction between portraiture and sym- 
 bolic representation must be strictly recollected by 
 the student of Egyptian theology, who is accustomed 
 to look upon a multitude of gods, of a more or less 
 animal nature, as characteristic of the worship of the 
 banks of the Nile. This mistake, as old as the time 
 of the Grecian historians, aroused the keenest notes of 
 the satirical lyre of Juvenal,' and has perpetuated 
 the most contemptuous ridicule in the writings of the 
 early Fathers of the Christian church ; but though not 
 immediately apparent, the differentiation between 
 portraiture and symbolic statuary is perfectly real 
 and natural, and, if anything, modern religious art 
 carries out the more faulty conception of the two. 
 When a modern worshipper looks upon the reverend 
 furrowed features and grey beard of the first person 
 of the Trinity in the accepted chefs d'cetivres of 
 
 ^ Satire, XV., Lines 1-9. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 5 
 
 Catholic art, or when he implores pity at the feet 
 of the languid-eyed long-haired Madonna of Italian 
 sculpture, he unconsciously regards the divine per- 
 sonage so represented, as so looking ; and Christian 
 iconography has accepted a perfectly well-defined 
 ideal likeness of every person in the Godhead.' Not 
 so the Egyptian devotee : he never attributed to Ra 
 or Anubis the actual possession of a human body 
 with either the beak of a hawk, or the snout of a 
 jackal; a cow-headed Isis or a snake-headed Horus, 
 though both common enough in the temple statuary, 
 was regarded simply as an allegorical conception, a 
 sculptured metaphor to convey to the mind's eye the 
 attributes of a being, who was himself inconceivable 
 and indescribable. In the higher mysteries of the 
 sacred books, the Great Supreme was spoken of as 
 the creator and controller of all the gods, who were 
 but his various manifestations; while the Sun itself, 
 that mysterious luminary upon whose beneficent 
 beams all human or vegetable life depended, was re- 
 garded as his clearest symbol, and as partaking in 
 some degree of the divine essence ; and it was there- 
 fore worshipped throughout Egypt with a universal 
 veneration. 
 
 Upon the position of the sun, then, its gradual rise 
 from the eastern horizon, its glorious enthronization 
 in the mid-day firmament, and its gentle decline be- 
 hind the mountains of the west, from thence to 
 traverse during the twelve hours of night the mysteri- 
 ous regions of the Underworld: upon its course along 
 the heavens, and its station in all these positions, 
 the theology of Egypt was based. Based theoretically 
 on a spiritual, it became practically a solar, worship : 
 the sun being venerated under its two chief deifi- 
 cations, Ra the rising and mid-day sun, to whose/ 
 cultus the obelisk was appropriated, and Turn the|, 
 setting or midnight sun, the emblem of whose j 
 
 ' See Didron's Christian Iconography . 
 
6 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 influence was the pyramid. In Ra, according to the 
 solar litanies, were combined all the attribtites of power 
 and wisdom ; the source of life and the springs of health 
 were his ; every characteristic quality of each of the 
 multiform lesser deities of Egypt he possessed in full 
 perfection, and the noblest and most exalted language 
 was used to describe his nature and offices. The 
 soul of man, which emanated originally from his own 
 essence, rose from the pre-existent eternity with him, 
 and descended for a time into the shades of the 
 Underworld, there still to venerate its maker, and again 
 to arise purified and justified till it was eventually 
 reabsorbed into the solar orb from which it was first 
 emitted. The Litany of Ra, one of the most famous 
 of the sacred liturgies of the Egyptians, declares the 
 deity to be "An Eternal Essence;" ''Self Created;" 
 " 7"/^^ Supreme Power;" "The Original;" "The Creator 
 of his own Members," that is of his own manifestations, 
 the active life of all things; " The Father of the Eternal 
 Son," i.e., of Horus who performed in Egyptian 
 mythology the part of a justifier and a redeemer of the 
 believers in Ra ; " The Spirit of Space filling all things ; " 
 "The Invisible;" "The Ruler of Heaven and Hell;'' 
 "The Revealer of Secrets;" "The Cause of both Light 
 and Darkness;" "The Dweller in Inapproachable Dark- 
 ness ;" "The Breath of all Souls ;" "The Cause of all that 
 is ; " and " The Most Mysterious God ;" ' in fine, all the 
 deities and all things that exist were but manifestations 
 of himself; nature was reduced to a spiritual pantheism. 
 As the powerful rays of the sun were often suddenly 
 fatal, so the attribute of wrath was ascribed to Ra ; 
 but inasmuch as he was too remote and too sublime 
 to experience a personal anger, his vengeful attributes 
 were personified in Shu, the lion-headed god of forces, 
 and Tefnut, the lion-headed goddess of vengeance. 
 The hawk, that noble bird which in Egypt soared 
 
 ^ See for this in detail The Myth of Ra, by the author of this work, 
 p. 26, 28. 
 
CHAPTER II. 7 
 
 highest of all flying creatures, was sacred to the sun ; 
 the bull amongst animals, because he was both the 
 strongest, and because his powers of generation were 
 believed to be instantaneous, was honoured as his 
 representative, as he is to this day in Southern India 
 for nearly the same reason. The supreme, as the sun, 
 reigned dominant, sole and eternal in Egyptian 
 mythology ; his glory might indeed be manifested in 
 another deity but it could not be shared by it, inas- 
 much as in certain operations the sun, as Ra, was 
 believed to assume a lower position in the relation 
 which one attribute bore to the other, and therefore 
 was ranked occasionally as one of the secondary 
 deities ; it was merely an official not a spiritual subor- 
 dination : Ra still remained all in all, whether he were 
 called Ra-Tum, Amen-Ra (the hidden), Ra-Har- 
 makhu (the sun in the horizon), Horus-Ra, the 
 mediatory god, or Kheper-Ra, the creator ; in the last 
 character being represented by the sacred scarabeus 
 holding the cosmic ball between his front legs.' 
 
 Of this all-powerful deity the obelisk was considered 
 to be the most technical symbol: inasmuch as its 
 sharply defined lines and narrow proportions, con- 
 joined with its immense height, gave no imperfect 
 representation of a pencil or ray of light, such as 
 would often be seen darting vertically downwards 
 through the crevices of the gathering clouds. For 
 this reason also, granite, as being the most durable 
 material, was generally chosen, that the least de- 
 structible stone might represent the eternal sun ; 
 and the colour red, was likewise selected as analogous 
 to the hue of the disk of the sun, when viewed 
 across the sands of the Lybian desert. There 
 was also a further reason why the obelisk was 
 
 ^ The scarabeus, Aleuchis Sacer, was regarded as an emblem of the sun, 
 because it was in the habit of laying" its eggs in a ball of dung or clay, 
 which it kept rolling before it till they were vivified by the direct heat of 
 the sun. See also Woodwrooffe's Monogi-afh ov the Scarabeus. 
 
8 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 dedicated to the sun as the creator, but that reason is 
 one which can only be here alluded to, as affording one 
 of the earliest indications of a form of nature worship 
 which has led to the most painful and objectionable 
 excesses/ 
 
 As the king while living was theologically regarded 
 as both a son of Ra, and also by an hypostasis, Ra 
 \ himself, it followed as a corollary that the inscriptions 
 \ on the obelisk were generally honorific of the sovereign 
 by whom it was erected, and that they conveyed 
 more the declarations of Ra to the monarch than any 
 direct homage of the Pharaoh to the god. Hence the 
 very little historical value of the obelisk texts in 
 general ; few of them were dated ; they consisted chiefly 
 of the same monotonous list of official epithets and 
 magniloquent titles, with the so-called banner name, 
 or Horus title of the sovereign, at the top, a title which 
 he assumed as the personation of Horus-Ra himself; 
 and on the sides of the pyramidion, or sometimes at 
 the lower portion of the monument, a vignette, repre- 
 senting either the king standing and making an offer- 
 ing to Amen-Ra, or else kneeling at the feet of the 
 god, who was figured as investing him with the sacred 
 crown of the double kingdom, and commissioning him 
 to conquer all nations, and to take the spoils of all 
 lands. 
 
 As the execution of an obelisk was a work of con- 
 siderable time, and as it was always sculptured after 
 it had been permanently placed in position ; it not 
 unfrequently happened, as will be hereafter shown in 
 the cases of the Luxor and Lateran obelisks, that a 
 
 * Pierret, Diet. Arch. Egypt., "Obelisque." There is, however, no reason to 
 believe that at the early period of Eg^yptian history, or indeed till after the 
 Greek invasion under the Psammetichi, there was any obscenity either of 
 thought or action connected with the symbolical worship of the obelisk. The 
 nature of this worship is beyond dispute, for in the Museum of the Lx)uvre 
 there is a mummied phallus preserved in an upright wooden case shaped 
 like an obelisk, and honoured as a symbol of Amen the generator. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 9 
 
 monument erected by one Pharaoh has been com- 
 pleted by another; and where the centre Hne of in- 
 scription has been finished by the original dedicator, 
 his son or successor has subsequently added parallel 
 columns setting forth his own glory; and in one or 
 two examples the second appropriator has had the 
 meanness to attempt to erase the cartouch of his pre- 
 ceder and to substitute his own, an attempt that has 
 not in any case been successful, an attempt besides of 
 the meanest character, and according to the rules of 
 Egyptian mythology of the basest and most cruel 
 nature; as by the obliteration of the name of an 
 individual from his stele or monument, the spiritual 
 life of that person was itself imperilled. Of this dis- 
 graceful conduct, one of the greatest Pharaohs of 
 Egypt, Thothmes III., had the pettyness to be guilty, 
 by the defacement of the name of his great sister 
 queen Hatasu, at Deir-el-bahri ; a meanness rendered 
 only the more glaringly apparent, by the inability of 
 the forger to erase or alter the personal pronouns in 
 the whole of the long dedications which would not 
 grammatically agree with the titles and cartouch of 
 Thothmes.' 
 
 In concluding this chapter, it remains but to be 
 stated that a still more serious defacement of the 
 Egyptian monuments, and obelisks in particular, took 
 place upon two occasions, when for religious motives 
 which are not quite apparent at this lapse of time, 
 the figure of the god Set was hammered out wher- 
 ever it occurred in a royal cartouch, and that of Ra 
 substituted for it. At another period also the name 
 as well as the figure of Amen suffered the like erase- 
 ment, and there is evidence that these alterations 
 must have been by order of a very powerful change 
 of religious feeling: for the objectionable names were 
 
 ^ This point has been well broug-ht out in Miss Keary's admirable little 
 History of E^ypt from the Monuments. 
 
lO EGYPTIAN OBELISKS, 
 
 obliterated and the others reinscribed on the most 
 inaccessible portions of the temples, as well as on the 
 bases of the votive statues. And in the instance of 
 the obelisk of the Lateran, a scaffolding must have 
 been erected for the sole purpose of chiselling out a 
 portion of a few small cartouches at the very summit 
 of the monolith : cartouches which were almost invisible 
 from the ground, at the height at which they were 
 carved.' 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Relations of the Obelisk and the Pyi^amid. 
 
 THE first mention of the obelisk, or tekhen, occurs 
 in connection with the pyramid : and both are 
 alike designated sacred monuments on the funeral 
 stele of the early empire, and also were undeniably 
 devoted to the worship of the sun ; occasionally the 
 obelisk was represented as surmounting a pyramid, a 
 position which it has never actually been found to 
 occupy. The fundamental idea of the obelisk was 
 doubtless that of light and creation, but towards the 
 period of the XXHnd dynasty, the syllabic value of 
 stability was attached to it, a characteristic hitherto 
 
 only symbolised by the Nilometer, or tat ff, and the 
 
 ^ Pierret, Diet. Arch. Egypt.., " Martelag"e des Cartouches." The monu- 
 ments of the usurping" kings of the Xlllth and subsequent dynasties, have 
 been defaced and appropriated by the Pharaohs of the XVIIIth or XlXth. 
 Atefnuter Ai, of the XVIIIth dynasty, had his name erased by his suc- 
 cessors on account of his illegitimacy; Amenhotep IV., on account of his 
 heresy in the proscription of the worship of Amen for that of Aten Ra ; and 
 Shabaka the Ethiopian, because he was an usurper. The chief defacers 
 of the monuments of their predecessors were the famous monarchs 
 Thothmes III. and Rameses 11., both actuated apparently by motives of 
 jealousy. 
 
CHAPTER III. II 
 
 monument was then termed Men, which was a por- 
 tion of the divine name of the deity Amen-Ra, to 
 whom it was generally dedicated/ These ideas came 
 naturally : as the expression of Egyptian mythology 
 Amen-Ra, or Ra as the generator could be properly 
 represented as " Lord of Obelisks," implying lord of 
 stability in the heavenly world, as Osiris was called 
 ^'Lord of Tattu," and was represented by two tats, em- 
 blems of his stability as judge of the dead, and lord 
 of the lower world ; while the pyramid ab iner 
 symbolised the midnight or subterranean sun. Hence 
 arose both the connection and the differentiation be- 
 tween the two classes of votivi, a differentiation not 
 sufficiently regarded, but which was in itself highly 
 significant. These differences deserve numerical no-| 
 tice here : i. The obelisks of Egypt are all situated 
 on the eastern side of the Nile, that being the 
 district of the rising sun,'' while all the pyramids are 
 located on the western bank of the river, the land of 
 the sun setting ; located amidst rock cut cemeteries, 
 and the tumuli of the undistinguished dead of many 
 generations. 2. The obelisk was invariably a mono-l 
 lith, and stood upon a base either cubiform, or of one 
 or two steps or gradines. The pyramids were always 
 composed of several courses of stone, even where the 
 position of the ground allowed of their being like 
 the sphynx cut out of the natural rock. 3, Obelisks 
 were almost invariably erected in pairs, fronting the 
 chief pylons of the greater temples ; they preserved a 
 symmetrical relation to each other ; and they were 
 surrounded by colonnades and aediculi, or smaller 
 temples, dedicated to the lesser deities, or to the king 
 as himself a deity. On the other hand, with the sole 
 exception of the so-called pyramids of Moeris or 
 
 ' Pierret, Diet., p. 383. 
 
 ^ Bonomi on " Obelisks," Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit., Vol. I-, Second Series, 
 p. 16S. 
 
12 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Amenemha III,/ of which no remains now exist, 
 the pyramids were always though congregated in 
 groups, yet arranged independently of each other ; and 
 the principle of duplication was not followed in their 
 distribution. 4. The obelisks were generally inscribed, 
 and those which remain without an inscription were 
 evidently prepared to receive one. Their intention 
 was to exalt the glory of the living monarch, the son 
 of the sun, or Ra. The pyramids have no external 
 inscription (the testimony of Herodotus notwithstand- 
 ing) ; ' whatever hieroglyphics there were, were reserved 
 for the sepulchral coffin, and the chamber in which it 
 was deposited. The inscription in a pyramid had 
 reference to the dead, the Osiride Pharaoh, and not to 
 the reigning sovereign. 5. The obelisks were in many 
 cases tipped with a metal covering; the pyramids were 
 on the other hand covered by a casing of polished 
 stones, which several of them still retain in a more or 
 less perfect condition, a fate which has not befallen the 
 brasen summits of the more slender monuments. 
 6. Many of the obelisks of Egypt occupy no longer, 
 even in their own country, their original situation: 
 those of Alexandria were removed from On to 
 
 ^ The pyramids of king' Moeris were said to have been placed in the 
 centre of the great reservoir or lake, which that monarch caused to be 
 excavated to preserve the waters of the Nile against a time of drought. 
 Upon the summit of each pyramid was erected a statue of the monarch 
 and his wife respectively. The lake has been calculated to have covered 
 an area of 10,000,000 metres, and a portion of it still remains, and forms 
 the great swamps called the Birket Kerun. Mceris has been identified 
 with Amenemha III., one of the greatest monarchs of the Xllth dynasty, 
 and the probable founder of the Labyrinth ; but of his two pyramids nothing 
 now is to be found. 
 
 * The inscription described by Herodotus, Euterpe, 124, as giving an 
 account of the cost of the food of the workmen, which in vegetables and 
 garlic amount to 1000 talents of silver, was probably written on a tablet 
 outside the great pyramid, if indeed it was not a confused rendering of 
 the usual formula on the funeral stele, ** Give ye thousands of loaves, 
 fruit, onions, etc., for the justified," after which followed the name and 
 titles of the deceased. 
 
CHAPTER III. 13 
 
 Alexandria, and that of Heliopolis was probably re- 
 erected in* a later period than that of the monarch 
 whose name it bears. Twelve, if not more obelisks, 
 were carried off to Italy by the Romans, two were 
 transported to Nineveh by Assurbanipal on the 
 establishment of the Dodecarchy, and these two it is 
 to be regretted have not yet been found, probably 
 they still remain under the debris of the city of Assur. 
 On the other hand, not one of the pyramids has 
 been removed from its place, several have been 
 destroyed, and many mutilated, but though the 
 Romans imitated the work of the Egyptians in the 
 pyramid of Caius Cestius, and probably other funereal 
 monuments also, they never attempted to carry and 
 re-erect any of the smaller pyramids, which they 
 might easily have done. 7. Lastly, it may be observed 
 that the name of the erecters of the obelisks are 
 mostly all known to us, while those of the founders 
 of the lesser pyramids are either lost or else are 
 difficult to identify. The stelae of the priests of many 
 of the deified pyramid builders of the Vth dynasty re- 
 main, but the identical structures to which they were 
 attached cannot now be verified, they are among the 
 many historical data which time, more revengeful 
 even than ambition, has erased from the tablets of 
 archaeology. 
 
 It is in itself a remarkable peculiarity of everything 
 connected with the worship of the Ancient Egyptians, 
 that it had its rise long prior to the genesis of 
 Classic history; that it existed in full power con- 
 temporaneously with the theologies of India, Greece, 
 Etruria, and Rome, and that it, overlapping Chris- 
 tianity itself, only ceased to become venerated when 
 all material worship had been swept away ; neither 
 the philosophy of Plato, nor the atheism of Cicero 
 could influence beyond a certain limit the term of the 
 Egyptian mythology; it still awed the mixed mul- 
 titudes in Alexandria under the sway of the Caesars, 
 
14 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 as it had done the ancient Egyptians, " the pure men," 
 as they called themselves in the time of Menes and 
 Athothes ; the tributes of distant countries were still 
 brought by the Ptolemies to the shrine of Tum, 
 as they had been a thousand years before by 
 Rameses III.,' and Alexander and Darius paid 
 homage to Amen-Ra in the temple which his Egyp- 
 tian votaries had erected to his glory, when the Greeks 
 were a Nomadic herd, and the Persians unknown 
 barbarians. 
 
 The most ancient of all the existing obelisks, if 
 we except a small model, one discovered by Lepsius 
 in a tomb of the Vllth dynasty,' is that of Usirtesen 
 I., of the Xllth dynasty, circa 3064 B.C. ;3 and the 
 most recent that of Domitian, now in the Piazza 
 Navona at Rome,*^ A.D. 81. Thus the Egyptian faith, 
 as attested by the obelisks alone, covered a space 
 of more than 3100 years, not including the long 
 prior period occupied by the first twelve dynasties. 
 In all that long stretch of time the obelisk was a 
 sacred monument; was the emblem at once of the 
 vivifying power of the sun, and of the divine nature 
 of the king ; a witness for the '' right divine to govern 
 
 ' See "Great Harris Papyrus of Rameses III.," in Records of the Past, 
 Vols. III. and V. 
 
 ' "A few days ag-o, we found a small obelisk erect, in its original 
 position, in a tomb (near the pyramids) from the commencement of the 
 Vllth dynasty. It is only a few feet hig-h, but in g-ood preservation, and 
 with the name of the occupant of the tomb inscribed upon it. This form 
 of monument, which is first conspicuous in the new monarchy, is thus 
 removed several dynasties further back in the old monarchy, even than 
 the obelisk of Heliopolis." Lepsius, Letters from Egypt. 
 
 3 According- to Lenormant's list in his Ancient History of the East. The 
 dates given by Marriette Bey are still higher, and seem to be fairly well 
 substantiated. 
 
 * Parker, The Obelisks of Rome, Plate IV. The translation of this 
 obelisk, as there given, is certainly open to criticism, "The man god 
 Horus, the son of the woman Isis," is certainly a Christianly orthodox 
 method of reading a very usual phrase on the Egyptian monuments. 
 
CHAPTER IV, 15 
 
 wrong " ' for thirty-one centuries at least. There 
 does not exist in any of the capitals of Europe, and 
 perhaps not even in the more ancient cities of 
 Hindustan, a class of objects which have received un- 
 interrupted veneration for as long a time; or which 
 can show as unbroken a succession of religious dedi- 
 cations.' 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Vicissitudes of Obelisks. 
 
 WITH but few exceptions, the pyramids, and 
 the sphynx, all the early monuments of Egypt, 
 were twice overthrown : once at the close of the Vlth 
 dynasty by a revolution of which absolutely nothing 
 is known, and once again at the close of the Xllth 
 dynasty, by that terrible political revolution which is 
 generally known by the name of the Hykshos invasion; 
 a revolution, the history of which is still obscure, 
 and its origin and termination are still moot points 
 in archaeology. 
 
 The dynasty of the Usirtesens, and Amenemhas, 
 had been one of domestic peace and national glory. 
 Great roads had been levelled, a huge reservoir con- 
 structed to receive the overflow of the waters of the 
 Nile, and to preserve it for a time of drought. New 
 temples had been formed, new cities established, and 
 the capital cities Thebes, Memphis, and Heliopolis, 
 enlarged. Thebes in particular, then a little Southern 
 city, was selected by Usirtesen as a capital, and pre- 
 pared in part by the foundation of a temple to Amen- 
 
 ^ Defoe, Jure Divino. 
 
 ' The Bo trees of Budha, if they really exist, and which would therefore 
 date back to the sixth century B.C., are the nearest sacred objects of an 
 equal antiquity. 
 
1 6 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Ra, for the great position it afterwards assumed in 
 Egyptian history : the nucleus of the subsequently 
 unrivalled palaces of Karnak. A mercantile intercourse 
 with the Semitic nations, conterminous with the northern 
 and eastern borders of Egypt, had encouraged already 
 the copper and turquoise miners of the Wady Magara ; 
 the Sinaitic peninsula sent its produce to Heliopolis, 
 and the Lybian nations were placed in alliance with the 
 Egyptians ; the chief officers of the court were more or 
 less connected with the royal family, and thus their 
 feudal fidelity was secured ; the priesthood, by instinct 
 but not by caste hereditary, was confined to a few 
 great and wealthy families, and was apparently satisfied 
 with its share. All the external signs of the kingdom 
 indicated a substantial and an increasing prosperity; 
 but within a few years came a reversal, so sad, and so 
 sudden, that it formed a new epoch in the native his- 
 tory, and still remains to us, as it did to the Pharaohs 
 themselves, almost inexplicable in its occurrence. 
 
 Where all is conjecture, except the facts upon 
 which the conjectures are based, it is quite legitimate 
 to reason from an hypothesis, and the hypothesis 
 which would account for the success of the Shashu 
 or Hykshos invasion assumes, that the political 
 strength of Egypt had become weakened by the 
 establishment of the new Ethiopic capital of Thebes, 
 by the monarchs of the Xllth dynasty; certain it is, 
 that another dynasty of Egyptian monarchs was 
 reigning at Memphis in lower Egypt, which at the 
 first appears to have been contemporaneous with the 
 Xllth. ; this dynasty, indifferently called the Xlllth 
 or XlVth, there is some confusion as to its proper 
 sequence, consisted of about thirty or forty Pharaohs, 
 who were alternately named Sebek-hotep, ** Peace of 
 Sebek,'" and Nefer-hotep, or "Good peace,"' The 
 
 '■ The crocodile-headed deity, worshipped at Koum Onebos. 
 
 ' One of the names of the god Khonso, the fire deity, and a kind of 
 demiurgus. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 17 
 
 mining stations near Sinai were abandoned ; for a 
 divided country no longer could spare an army potent 
 enough to maintain them against the incursions of the 
 neighbouring Arabs; and somewhere about B.C. 2398, 
 the various Nomadic tribes of southern Palestine, led 
 by the warlike Shashu Arabs, and commanded by 
 their respective chieftains or haq, crossed the eastern 
 frontier, and invaded the enfeebled country,' carrying 
 with them a dualistic theology; and introducing the sole 
 worship of the god Set or Sutekh, an ass-headed deity, 
 who was already considered as one of the minor Egyp- 
 tian divinities. City by city the lower country fell into 
 the possession of the Hykshos, and those members of 
 the royal family who were sufficiently secured in 
 upper Egypt to maintain their local towns, were re- 
 duced to the rank of tributary monarchs. With the 
 religious fury of all invaders, every temple was de- 
 stroyed by their armies, every monument destroyed 
 or overthrown by their slaves, scarcely a vestige of the 
 architectural splendour of the early dynasties was 
 suffered to remain ; and it is believed that the obelisk 
 of Heliopolis was also thrown down and buried in the 
 sand, at the same time that the original temple was 
 destroyed. This terrible rule of the Hykshos, or 
 Shepherd Kings, prevailed for nearly five hundred 
 years, and it rendered the name and occupation of a 
 shepherd ever afterwards odious to an Egyptian. But 
 towards the close of the Shepherd dynasty, the con- 
 querors had become more familiar with the conquered, 
 and had assimilated their arts to those of the natives. 
 In the reign of Apophis, the last of the Hykshos 
 sovereigns, and the probable Pharaoh of Joseph,' 
 a complete renaissance of Egyptian art was intro- 
 duced, and the suppressed religion again manifested a 
 tendency to become powerful. The reconciliation of 
 
 * Birch, Rede Lecture, 1876, p. 23. 
 
 * This is the view now taken by most of the leading Egyptologists, and 
 accepted by Canon Cook in the Speaker's Bible. 
 
 3 
 
1 8 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 the Hykshos came however too late, and one of the 
 descendants of the Theban Pharaohs, Karnes, raised 
 an army and defeated the now degenerate invaders, 
 and compelled them to submit to an Egyptian supre- 
 macy, or to be expelled across the frontier into the arid 
 deserts from whence they came. Then commenced the 
 glorious reconstruction of the country. Again were the 
 temples rebuilt on an enlarged plan, and dedicated to 
 their wonted deities ; again were obelisks erected, and 
 cities refounded, and as the aim of the conquerors had 
 been to obliterate every vestige of the Egyptian art 
 and faith, so in turn was all that had been instituted 
 by themselves destroyed, except the worship of Set 
 or Sutekh, who was relegated to his former position 
 as an Egyptian local god, and, in the XlXth dynasty 
 even made the special patron of the Ramesside kings. 
 Again were temples re-erected, but there can, how- 
 ever, be no doubt that owing chiefly to their slender- 
 ness, all the earlier obelisks were destroyed, except 
 those of Usirtesen I. ; and indeed that at Biggeg ' pro- 
 bably remains where it was thrown down, g.nd broken 
 by the Hykshos. 
 
 The next vicissitude to which the obelisks of Egypt 
 were subjected, took place many centuries later, viz., 
 B.C. 680. Many had been the dynastic changes which 
 had taken place in the interim. Palestine had been 
 subjugated by the Thothmes, and lost under the 
 Sabacophs. The might of Rameses II. and III., the 
 fabled Sesostris of Grecian history, had spread itself 
 over Ethiopia, Arabia, and the islands of the Medi- 
 terranean, his conquering hosts had subdued even the 
 then rising city of Nineveh itself, and now from 
 Nineveh in turn, came the victorious son of Esarhaddon, 
 Assurbanipal, *'king of countries, king of nations," 
 to punish the Egyptian monarch Necho, who had 
 conspired with the maritime Phenicians to resist 
 the growing power of Assyria. By forced marches 
 
 ^ The ancient Crocodilopolis. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 19 
 
 trampling under foot the rich harvest of the valley 
 of the Nile, and reducing its denizens to a pros- 
 pective famine, the monarch of Assyria reached the 
 strongly fortified capital Thebes, in B.C. 664 ; after 
 a short siege he took the capital, exercising upon its 
 garrison the cruelties peculiar to his race; and the 
 better to mark his conquest, removed two of the 
 principal obelisks to his palace at Nineveh.' It is not 
 stated from what temple these monuments were taken, 
 and of course it is unknown now by whom they were 
 erected ; but this was the first instance in which an 
 Egyptian obelisk suffered transportation. Bitterly 
 did the land of the Pharaohs suffer for its monarchs' 
 faithlessness, for the people of Thebes were banished 
 to the city of Karbat, far from their favourite land, 
 to dwell as serfs amidst a cruel nation ; and the 
 obelisks which had been worshipped, perhaps for 
 centuries in the temple of Ra or Tum, were degraded 
 to become the adornments of an Assyrian palace, and 
 ultimately to be lost to the world for ever, by the 
 destruction of Nineveh itself, B.C. 606.' 
 
 Much though the Greeks borrowed from the Egyp- 
 tians in the domains of art and science, yet they do 
 not seem to have been ever partial to the massive 
 character of Egyptian architecture, and even if they 
 adopted from the temples and tombs of Thebes the 
 idea of the Doric and Ionic orders,^ yet they never 
 cared to introduce either for honour or ornament the 
 monolithic obelisk ; consequently neither Darius nor 
 any of his Greco-Persian successors, attempted to 
 
 ' Records of the Past, Vol. VI., g-'ives the whole of the details of the 
 Egyptian war. ' 
 
 ^ See Lenormant, And. Hist., Vol. I., p. 416. There is now some doubt 
 as to this first destruction of Nineveh by the Medes ; till, however, the point 
 is definitely fi.xed by the decypherment of inscriptions, the data must 
 stand as they do. 
 
 3 Notably the Doric order from the tombs at Beni-hassan ; but there are 
 some structural peculiarities which forbid the entire acceptance of the once 
 popular theory. 
 
 O 
 
20 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 transplant any of the Egyptian obelisks to Europe. 
 This was the more remarkable, as the worship of the 
 sun god, under the names and attributes of Helios 
 and Phoebus, was an essential part of the Greek 
 mythology, as is proven alike by existing architectural 
 remains, and the debris of Hissarlik. Greco- Egyptian 
 pottery, and objects of household use, having a strongly 
 Egyptian character, were common enough in the best 
 furnished houses of Greece. Egyptian gods were 
 even introduced, but it was left for the Romans, to 
 whom nothing but power was sacred, and who knew 
 no power but Caesar's, to follow the example of the 
 Assyrian tyrant, and to magnify the victories of 
 Augustus by spoiling the trophies of Pharaoh. 
 
 The first obelisk to be thus exiled to a western 
 city, was one which had been erected by Seti Menep- 
 thah I. before the temple of Ra ; or, more probably, 
 Tum, at Heliopolis. This was considered by Caesar 
 as constituting an appropriate illustration of the con- 
 quest of Egypt, B.C. 30, and he therefore removed it 
 to adorn the centre of the Circus Maximus, Mindful, 
 however, of its sacred character, he upon re-erecting 
 it in Rome, renewed its dedication to the sun, as the 
 Latin inscription upon its base still testifies. 
 
 Augustus also removed, apparently a few years 
 later, a second obelisk, originally wrought by a king 
 whom Pliny calls Sesostris, perhaps also Seti I. ; and 
 this he erected in the Campus Martius to serve as a 
 sundial, placing a gilded ball upon the summit in 
 order to render its shadow more distinct ; and for 
 a long season many curious astronomical data were 
 deduced from it. It, however, shared the common 
 fate of all the Roman gnomons, and was ultimately 
 thrown down and broken into four pieces, and was 
 in later years set up again in the Monte Citorio.' 
 
 The next emperor who followed the example of 
 Augustus, was Caius Claudius, who carried off two 
 
 ' Pliny, Book xxxvi.. Cap. 14. 
 
CHAPTER V. 21 
 
 lofty but uninscribed obelisks, A.D. 57; and with 
 considerable trouble and expense had them again 
 set up at the entrance of the mausoleum of Au- 
 gustus : thus completely ignoring the fundamental 
 intention of the original carvers of the monuments, 
 and degrading the monoliths themselves into merely 
 funereal ornaments.' The later Caesars profited by 
 the ruin of Egypt and the increase of mechanical 
 skill, to transport to Italy more and more, of the 
 sacred stones of Egypt, adapting them almost solely 
 to purposes of ornamentation; and there are now 
 eleven obelisks still standing in Rome, most of which 
 have been, however, set upright by the mediaeval 
 popes. There are, doubtless, several obelisks re- 
 maining still underground, but the chance of their 
 disinterment is very problematical. One of them, 
 long known to be lying under the ruins of Rome, was 
 disinterred, A.D. 1740, by order of Benedict XIV.; 
 and the original dedication of Augustus, " Soli donum 
 dedit" discovered. The obelisk being found to be 
 broken, and also to underlie the walls of one of the 
 palaces, it was covered up again, and thus lost to the 
 world. It was seventy-six feet in height.' Thus 
 much then for the vicissitudes which have befallen the 
 Egyptian obelisks, the next and remaining chapters 
 must be devoted to an examination of each, according 
 to the date of their construction. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Obelisks of Usirtesen at Heliopolis and Biggeg, 
 
 o 
 
 N, or, as it was called by the Greeks, Heliopolis, 
 the *' City of the Sun," was one of the most 
 
 ^ See further on, Obelisks of Santa Maria Mag-g-iore and Monte Cavallo. 
 ' Murray's Hand Bnok^ Rome, Ed. 185S. 
 
 \ 
 
2 2 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 ancient and most important of all the Egyptian 
 capitals ; it was famous for its temples, its palaces, 
 its fortifications, and its ecclesiastical schools, and so 
 great was its antiquity, that at the time of Joseph, when 
 it first became known to the Israelites by the residence 
 of the patriarch in the house of *'Potipherah the 
 priest of On," it was already the second capital city 
 in the world. It stood upon a lofty plateau of rocks 
 and sand, surrounded by deep canals and broad lakes, 
 bordered by papyrus meadows and sycomore groves. 
 On the north west stood the temple of the sun, which 
 had been founded by the monarchs of the first six 
 dynasties; in front of it were two lofty obelisks, and 
 an avenue of sphynxes; not far off, but sufficiently 
 distant to form a separate group, was placed the 
 temple of the bull god Mnevis, who shared together 
 with Ra the honour of being an eponymous god of 
 the Heliopolitan nome. Despite all other attractions, 
 the chief glory of the city was its pair of red granite 
 obelisks, which, perfect alike in execution and propor- 
 tion, were erected before the pylon of the temple of 
 Ra by Usirtesen I., the first sovereign of the Xllth 
 dynasty.' One of these two obelisks still remains to 
 attest to the power and piety of its founder, and the 
 skill of the architect and mechanics by whom it was 
 upreared. The temples and shrine of Mnevis and of 
 Ra have been plundered, burnt, rebuilt, plundered, 
 destroyed, and rebuilt again and again by Hykshos, 
 Persian, and Roman, since the monolith was first 
 quarried from the rocks of Syene. The contentious 
 Arab, and the idolent Turk, have pastured their 
 flocks in the sandy waste of what were once the 
 papyrus lakes of On ; bigotry, which hates with an 
 ignorant savageness all that it does not originate, and 
 war which levels in indiscriminating fury the works of 
 friend and foe alike, seem all to have spared at least 
 one of Usirtesen's gifts to the sun. So singular is the 
 
 ^ Mariette's date for the foundation of the Xllth dynasty, is 2S51 B.C. 
 
CHAPTER V. 23 
 
 circumstance of this one monument having survived 
 the dynastic changes of the empire, that some anti- 
 quaries are inchned to beheve that it is of later 
 erection, if not a pious forgery of the XVIIIth or 
 XlXth dynasty, since such a similar, and quite recent 
 forgery exists at Rome, in the obelisk of Domitian in 
 the Piazza Navona. There is no clear evidence that 
 there is any real foundation for the conjecture. The 
 obelisk may doubtless have been thrown down, as 
 was also that of the Fayoum, and have been set up 
 again in more peaceful times ; but it is questionless 
 the work of the monarch whose name it bears, and in- 
 all likelihood stands now where it was originally 
 established four or possibly even five thousand years 
 ago. 
 
 The following are the present dimensions of this 
 obelisk : height 6S ft. 2 in. ; eastern and west face, at the 
 base, 6 ft 3 in. ; north and south faces, 6 ft. i in. ; thus 
 proving the fact, that even in the oldest examples there 
 is no exact symmetery in the Egyptian monuments. 
 It stands upon two broad steps, each about two feet 
 high,' and down the centre of each face runs a line 
 of beautifully carved and distinct hieroglyphics. The 
 apex of the obelisk is somewhat damaged, as it has 
 evidently been covered by a capping of gilded bronze ; 
 this covering remained intact when the ruins of 
 Heliopolis were visited by the Arabian physician 
 Abd-el-lateef, in the thirteenth century," since he de- 
 scribes them in the following terms of admiration : "In 
 this town are the two famous obelisks called Pharaoh's 
 Needles ; they have a square base, each side of which 
 is ten cubits long, and about as much in height, fixed 
 on a solid foundation in the earth. On this base 
 stands a quadrangular column of pyramidal form, 
 100 cubits high, which has a side of about 5 cubits 
 
 ^ Bonomi's proportions are 67 ft. 4 in., by nearly the same width as 
 Wilkinson. 
 
 Abd-el-lateef. De Sacy's translation, p. iSo. 
 
24 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 at the base, and terminates in a point. The top is 
 covered with a kind of copper cap of a funnel shape 
 which descends to the distance of three cubits from the 
 top : this copper through the rain and length of time 
 has grown rusty and assumed a green colour, part of 
 which has run down along the shaft of the obelisk. 
 I saw one of these obelisks that had fallen and broken 
 in two owing to the enormity of the weight. The 
 copper which had covered its head was taken away. 
 Around these obelisks were many others too numerous 
 to count, which are not more than a third, or a half 
 as high as the large ones." 
 
 According to other Arabian historians cited by 
 Long,' there was originally on the apex a figure of a 
 man seated and looking towards the east. This was a 
 common enough representation of itself; and doubtless 
 figured Usirtesen himself dedicating his obelisk to 
 Ra ; the singular feature in the thing is that the apex 
 bas-relief should have been of bronze, of which there 
 is no existing example. The hieroglyphic inscription, 
 which is a short one, and is nearly the same on 
 each of the four sides runs thus : 
 
 "The Horus, the living from his birth, 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt. 
 Ra-Kheper-ka, Jord of the two diadems, sun of the 
 
 sun. 
 Usirtesen, the loved of the gods of Heliopolis, 
 
 living for ever ; 
 The golden Horus, from his birth. 
 The good god Ra-Kheper-ka, 
 To the first celebration of the panegyry. 
 He (has) made (this obelisk), the eternal generator." 
 
 The title of Horus was a usual one, and was borne 
 by the kings of Egypt by virtue of their supposed 
 royal birth as the result of a divine incarnation. 
 " Lord of the two diadems, or of the Shaa and Teshr^' 
 
 ^ Long, Egyptian Antiquiiies^ Vol. I., p. 48. 
 
CHAPTER V. 25 
 
 the crowns of the upper and lower countries respec- 
 tively, meant, king of upper and lower Egypt. " Ra- 
 Kheper-ka," or, " the Sun, the Creating Bull," was the 
 divine name or prenomen of Usirtesen, as Usirtesen 
 was his official and personal one ; *' The Eternal 
 Generator" contains an allusion to the vivific power of 
 Ra, as the creator of life." The festival or panegyry 
 to which the inscription refers, is unidentified as yet. 
 There were many such in the Egyptian Calendar;' it 
 may possibly have been, so M. Brugsch thinks, the 
 festival of leap-year, which there is some reason to 
 believe was very anciently known to the Egyptians. 
 
 OBELISK OF BIGGEG (CROCODILOPOLIS). 
 
 Though the obelisk of Heliopolis is the only one 
 that is now erect, yet there exists at Biggeg, or 
 Crocodilopolis in the Fayoum, an obeliscoid monolith 
 originally erected by Usirtesen ; it cannot be properly 
 called an obelisk, for it differs essentially in many 
 details from the character of such an object, having 
 a rounded summit with a deep groove in the middle, 
 and its two sides or faces are disproportionately 
 unequal, so that in section it resembles an oblong 
 parallelogram ; it is nearly 43 feet high, by 6 ft. 9J in. 
 broad, and four feet thick ; and now lies broken 
 into two pieces ; it is still regarded by the peasantry 
 with superstitious reverence, and the barren fellaheen 
 women recite their prayers at its side to remove the 
 curse of sterility, as possibly did the men of Egypt 
 for a similar purpose in a virile sense at its first 
 erection.' As it now lies, only one face is visible, and 
 
 ^ Concerning^ this festival M. Chabas writes, " On n'est pas bien fixe sur. 
 
 la nature de la f£te. O 
 
 I / \ 1 1 d'apres la system e 
 
 ^^^^ ^^:^ ^^Z7 
 
 de M. Brugsch, le serait la fete de la premiere annee du quadriennieme 
 ramenant les annees bissextiles," 
 
 ^ Murray's Egypt. M. Chabas gives the dimensions thus, height 25 metres, 
 width 1.71, depth i. 02. 
 
2 6 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 of this and of a translation of the hieroglyphics 
 which are upon it, the following description is given 
 by the distinguished Egyptologist M. Chabas, to whose 
 courtesy most of these translations are due. 
 
 " The visible portion of the broad side consists of 
 five scenes, or rather ten, in which the Pharaoh ap- 
 pears before ten pairs of divinities, five on the right, 
 five on the left. This part of the inscription bears 
 no legend but the name of the king and of the 
 divinities, most of which are now illegible. 
 
 "Following these scenes, an inscription in nineteen 
 columns commences with the titles of the king ; but 
 it is in so miserable a condition that no decypher- 
 ment is practicable. 
 
 " The official legend was engraved on the narrow 
 sides, the characters of which are clearly legible ; they 
 read : 
 
 North side. 
 " The heaven, 
 
 The kingly Horus, 
 
 Life of births, 
 
 Lord of the diadems, 
 
 Life of births. 
 
 King of Upper and Lower Egypt, 
 
 Ra-Kheper-ka, beloved of Pthah of Res-sobt-ef 
 
 (Pthah of the southern wall), 
 
 The life of births. 
 
 Golden hawk. 
 
 Good god, 
 
 Master of Domination. 
 
 * • * • • • « 
 
 South side. 
 *' The heaven. 
 The kingly Horus, 
 Life of births, 
 Lord of diadems, 
 Life of births. 
 King of Upper and Lower Egypt, 
 
CHAPTER VI, 27 
 
 Ra-Kheper4:a, 
 
 Beloved of Month, lord of Thebais, 
 
 Life of births, 
 
 Hawk of gold, 
 
 Good god, 
 
 Lord of the two lands. 
 
 Lord of . . 
 
 >j 
 
 Besides these obelisks, Usirtesen erected several 
 temples, both in upper and lower Egypt, and he was 
 also the true founder of the great temple of Karnak at 
 Thebes. He conquered the land of Cush or Ethiopia, 
 and erected fortresses to repel the incursions of the 
 negroes into Egypt. A great inundation of the Nile, 
 followed by a famine, took place in his reign ; but the 
 terrors of the drought were alleviated by the wisdom 
 of one of his chief officers, named Ameni, whose 
 funereal stele still remains to record his goodness. 
 After reigning for thirty-eight years, Usirtesen asso- 
 ciated his son Amenemha H. with himself in the 
 government of the kingdom, thus reigning for four 
 years longer ; and when he died, he left behind him 
 a reputation which classed him for his bravery and 
 piety among the demigod Pharaohs of Egypt. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 The Obelisks of ThotJwies I. 
 
 NEXT in antiquity to the obelisks of Usirte- 
 sen, but with an interval of many centuries 
 between, come the monuments of Thothmes I., of the 
 XVHIth dynasty;' and the principal of these monu- 
 ments are the two huge obelisks which were erected 
 
 ^ Usirtesen was the son of Amenemha I., who was also called the first 
 monarch of the Xllth dynasty; his name is variously written Usertesen, 
 Seserten, and even Osirig"esen by Sharpe. 
 
28 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS, 
 
 before the temple of Amen Ra at Karnak, Of these, 
 one has fallen, and lies prostrate on the sand; but 
 the companion monolith is still standing, and is one 
 of the most perfect in its proportions. Wrought out 
 of the customary red granite of upper Egypt, it is 
 90 ft. 6 in. high, and bears upon each face a single 
 column of hieroglyphics, containing its dedication 
 to Amen Ra, by Thothmes, '^ Ra-aa-Kheper-ka (the 
 sun, the great living bull), the son of the sun." The 
 pyramidion at the apex, which is rather more acute 
 than in the later examples, is also adorned with a 
 votive vignette, and is the oldest illustration of that 
 practice ; evidently, therefore, this obelisk was never 
 designed for a metal covering,' but it may have had 
 its summit gilded for the better preservation of the 
 sculpture upon it. 
 
 Thothmes I. was one of the first of the Pharaohs 
 of the revived empire, who endeavoured to enlarge 
 the dominions of Egypt ; and the earliest inscriptions 
 dated in his reign, record his conquest of Nubia, and 
 his inroads upon the land of Khent-han-nefer, bringing 
 back from thence ivory, gold, slaves, and cattle, which 
 appear to have been the chief incentives to his ex- 
 pedition." But the most illustrious of all his victories, 
 were those which he obtained in the north, when, 
 having subjugated the miscellaneous Canaanitish 
 tribes of Palestine, he forced on his conquering 
 armies to the frontiers of Nineveh, then the chief city 
 of a confederation of Syrian nations, called the Ru- 
 tennu ;^ these subdued, he wasted the whole land of 
 
 ' It may have been g^llt, however, for its highly polished surface would 
 not prevent such an application of the precious metal. In the Hay col- 
 lection of Egyptian antiquities, now at Boston, U.S.A., there was a large 
 fragment of well polished red Syenitic granite, having upon its surface the 
 remains of gilding. 
 
 ^ Birch, Egypt, p. 82. 
 
 ^ The reign of Thothmes was the first which brought the Syrians, as 
 distinct from the people of Palestine, into connection with Egypt. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 29 
 
 Mesopotamia, to effect this crossing the desert with 
 all his troops, and passing over the Euphrates at 
 Karakamasha, or Carchemish,' one of the most import- 
 ant of the Syrian cities. On the banks of the Euphrates, 
 as on the rocks at Tombos, the Egyptian monarch set 
 up tablets recording his victories; and on his return 
 from his Syrian wars introduced into his country the 
 use of the horse and the war chariot, which afterwards 
 became famous in history; for up to that time the 
 only beast of burden in Egypt was the ass, and 
 chariots were unknown : a palanquin being used to 
 carry the sovereign upon occasions of state; while 
 waggons drawn by oxen were the service of the peasant' 
 Thothmes reigned, according to some writers, twenty- 
 one, and according to others, thirteen years ; he left 
 as his successor one daughter, Hatasu, and an infant 
 son, Thothmes IL, under her. pupilage as regent. 
 Thothmes was the Tuthmosis of the lists of Manetho ; 
 and his name denoted, " Son of Thoth," after the 
 Egyptian god of letters and of arts: no unfitting deity 
 to direct the energies of so great a king.^ 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Obelisks of Hatasu. 
 
 IT is . a magnificent compliment to the equality of 
 her sex, and a compliment as true as it is magni- 
 ficent, that whenever the sole government of a nation 
 
 ^ The Circesium of classical geography, and the site, according to the 
 recent discoveries of the late George Smith, of an art and manufacture 
 from which the designs of the Etruscans were derived. 
 
 ^ This fixes the period of Thothmes I. as being the eariiest to which the 
 Exodus of the Israelites can be assigned, as the horses and chariots of 
 Pharaoh are particularly mentioned as taking part in it. 
 
 ^ I regret that I have not been able to obtain a translation of the 
 inscription upon this obelisk in time for press. 
 
30 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 falls into a female hand, it is generally administered 
 with remarkable ability, and is accompanied by under- 
 takings of no less remarkable importance. Hatasu, or 
 Hat-scheps as her name is occasionally written, was 
 truly what that name denoted, "the first of noble ones." 
 She appears to have been the eldest child as well as 
 the daughter of Thothmes L, and in deference to the 
 feelings of the nation generally, during the first part 
 of the reign of Thothmes II. to have been nominally 
 associated with him as coadjutor rather than as 
 regent. The weakness of her brother soon induced her 
 to assume more and more the reins of power, and 
 after his death she became queen, both dc facto and 
 dc jiire^ taking the position of a man, and adopting on 
 state occasions the attire of one ;' and indisputably 
 no sovereign ever ruled over the dual kingdom with 
 more force and tact. The first event which signalized 
 her accession to the throne was the despatch of a large 
 fleet to the land of Ta-neter, or south-west Arabia, "The 
 Holy Land" according to the Egyptians, where were 
 obtained spices, perfumes, precious woods, and rare 
 flowers, and which was under the special protection 
 of Hathor, the Egyptian Venus. Till the time of 
 Hatasu, the Egyptians, to whom salt water was an 
 abomination and a defilement, as being the abode of 
 evil spirits, Egypt had no fleet to accomplish the 
 conquest of Arabia; Hatasu, however, caused some 
 ships to be built upon a Phenician model, and placed 
 the management of them under the guidance of 
 Phenician sailors, thus relieving the consciences of her 
 troops who had but to take their places and prepare 
 for the conquest of the Holy Land. Arabia subdued, 
 
 ^ The whole life of Hatasu, and her connections with her brothers 
 Thothmes II. and III., are involved in obscurity; according- to some ac- 
 counts she was both the sister and wife of Thothmes II., a custom which 
 frequently prevailed in Egypt, being sanctioned by the mytholog-y which 
 made Isis the sister and wife of Osiris, whose characters both in theory 
 and in practice were assumed by the king and queen of Egypt. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 31 
 
 and its queen brought captive to Hatasu, the Ethio- 
 pians, who had seized the opportunity of the reign of 
 a female sovereign to revolt, were defeated, and their 
 country permanently annexed; while the temple of 
 Deir-el-Bahri was erected in honour of Hathor and 
 as a record of Hatasu's successes. 
 
 The most beautiful of all the monuments of 
 Hatasu are the two great obelisks of red granite 
 which she erected in the second court of the temple 
 of Karnak, opposite to the great pylon of her father 
 Thothmes I. These are each of them over ninety- 
 seven feet high, and on all four sides as well as upon 
 their bases bear inscriptions setting forth the power 
 and devotion of the queen who dedicated them. Still 
 permanent and legible the beautiful symbolic script 
 of the Egyptian sculptor relates upon these obelisks, 
 that : ' 
 
 " The queen, the pure gold of monarchs 
 Had dedicated to her father, Amen of Thebes; 
 Two obelisks of niahet stone (red granite), 
 Taken from the quarries of the south, 
 Their upper parts were ornamented with pure gold 
 Taken from the chiefs of all nations. 
 Her Majesty gave two gilded obelisks to her father 
 
 Amen, 
 That her name should remain permanent, 
 Always and for ever in this temple. 
 Each was made of a single stone of red inahet 
 
 stone, 
 Without joint or rivet. 
 Her Majesty began the work 
 In the fifteenth year of her reign, 
 The first day of the month Mechir, of the sixteenth 
 
 year, 
 And finished it on the last day of the month Me- 
 
 sore, 
 
 ' Birch, E^ypi, p. S5, "^d. 
 
32 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Making seven months from its commencement in 
 the quarry." ' 
 
 On these obelisks also a kind mention is made of an 
 infant sister, who is joined with Hatasu in the dedication ; 
 and it is further stated that the idea of causing these 
 monoliths to be erected, "so that their tops should 
 reach the heavens," came to the queen while seated 
 in her royal palace, apparently by divine inspiration. 
 These obelisks are further remarkable from their 
 having a markedly designed entasis, which is unique 
 in Egyptian art. The actual length of the reign of 
 this mighty queen is not recorded upon the monu- 
 ments, and there is considerable uncertainty respect- 
 ing her latter end; it is certain that towards the 
 close of her tenure of power her brother, a brother 
 apparently by a later wife of Thothmes I., became 
 associated with her as co-sovereign under the name 
 of Thothmes III.; from that period they ruled 
 together for at least sixteen years, which is the 
 highest date at which the monumental stele mentions 
 queen Hatasu ; she then disappears from history for 
 ever; and with a base ingratitude which implies a 
 bitter resentment of years of control, Thothmes 
 erased the name of his sister from every one of her 
 edifices, and substituted his own cartouch for hers, 
 alike on the walls of the palace, and the obelisks of 
 the temple. It was beyond his power, petty as was 
 his spite, and cruel as was his will, wholly to obliterate 
 the evidences of his sister's glory, since the personal 
 pronouns were allowed to remain in the original 
 feminine gender; and from the nature of the hiero- 
 glyphics employed could not be altered into any 
 other grammatical construction. The forgeries of 
 Thothmes III. have, however, been thus far successful 
 
 * The month Mechir beg^an about the 17th December, and Mesore 
 about the 15th of June. The exact commencement of the month was 
 uncertain, owing^ to the inconvenience of a travelling new year's day, and 
 the interpolated Epagomenae, the 24th to 28th of July. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 33 
 
 that they have rendered the inscriptions on the 
 ObeHsk of Hatasu very difficult of decypherment ; 
 and it is almost impossible at this length of time to 
 separate clearly the works of brother and sister, or to 
 ascribe to each sovereign his or her respective part in 
 the drama of archaic history.' 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Obelisks of Thothmes III. 
 
 THE long reigy of Thothmes HI. marked the 
 climax of Egyptian greatness, alike in her 
 extent of empire and her commercial power. The 
 armies of the south spread eastward, westward, 
 and northward, in successive predatory expeditions. 
 Thothmes I. had given to Egypt a regular army, 
 Hatasu a navy, and to these Thothmes HI. added 
 a semi-royal mercantile system, sending his state- 
 commissioned traders along specially levelled roads 
 to purchase in all the markets of the world, while 
 his troops preceded them to conquer, or followed 
 them to annex. " Egypt," so ran the phrase on the 
 monuments of the time, " set her frontiers where she 
 pleased herself" The whole of the Syrian, Pales- 
 tinian, and Arabian nations were overcome and 
 forced to pay tribute. The crowning victory in the 
 east, was the battle of Megiddo, in the plain of 
 Esdraelon,' the perennial battle field of Palestine 
 from that time to the present. Few people were 
 
 * Lenormant g-ives the heig^ht of 30 metres for these obelisks, and a 
 weight of 374,000 kilogrammes, or 36S tons each. 
 
 ' The battle of Megiddo took place on the 9th of the month Pachons, 
 in the Neomenia of that month, in the twenty-third regnal year of 
 Thothmes III. (Birch.) According- to Lenormant the first of Pachons in 
 the reig-n of this king- fell about the middle of May. 
 
 4 
 
34 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 killed, but a large number of prisoners were taken, 
 besides a cavalry of 2132 horses, and 924 war 
 chariots. The kings of Damascus, of Nineveh, and 
 of Assur, all alike submitted costly presents; and 
 abject tribute was sent to Egypt for the victor from 
 every quarter of the then known world. In Africa 
 his conquests spread beyond Ethiopia to Khartoum 
 in the south,' and Algeria in the north ; the waters 
 of the Black Sea were controlled by the sails 
 of his fleet ; and the rivers of northern Europe 
 rippled by the oars of his galleys. The walls of 
 the pylons of Karnak enumerate more than one 
 thousand different cities which paid him tribute; and 
 the great god of Thebes, Amen-Ra, in an inflated 
 address to the king, an address which is yet full of 
 biblical images, is described as putting a sword into 
 the hand of the monarch wherewith he would 
 " Strike down Syrian princes, 
 
 Under thy feet they lie throughout the breadth of 
 their country. 
 
 Like to the Lord of Light, I made them see thy 
 glory. 
 
 Blinding their eyes with light, the earthly image 
 of Amen." ' 
 
 It is not necessary here to even enumerate the 
 victories, or to catalogue the long list of Egyptian 
 buildings either founded or enlarged by Thothmes III. 
 A monograph of his life would practically be a 
 history of Egypt and the conterminous nations for 
 half a century. The present interest of the great 
 Pharaoh lies in his connection with the subject of 
 the obelisks which he either altered or erected during 
 
 ^ In Maspero's Hisloire Ancienne dcs peuples de l* Orient, is a capital map 
 showing the extent of the empire of Thothmes III., an empire as great as 
 any later sovereign ever ruled in suzerainty and not in confederation. 
 
 ° Lenormanty Vol. I., p. 234- This version is a portion of that by 
 M. de Rouge. A complete translation of the whole text is given by 
 Dr. Birch in the Records of the Past, Vol. II,, p. 23. Second Edition. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 35 
 
 his eventful reign of fifty-four years. Not again to 
 refer to those at Karnak which spuriously bear his 
 name, the principal obelisks of Thothmes III., are 
 those at Alexandria, at Rome, and at Constantinople, 
 together with two small decorative obelisks bearing 
 his cartouch at Karnak, but which may possibly in 
 truth have been the work of his sister. These it 
 were better to take in the order of magnitude than in 
 that of position. 
 
 The great obelisk which now adorns the Piazza of 
 St John Lateran at Rome, was originally set up 
 before the temple of Amen at Heliopolis; it is of red 
 granite, and as it now stands it is io8 ft. 7 in. high, 
 and its faces are respectively 9 ft. 8^ in. and 9 ft. wide 
 at the base, one of the faces is slightly convex, and 
 it has been calculated to weigh 455 tons.' The 
 Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, allowed it to 
 remain in the place it was originally designed for, 
 but on the establishment of Christianity, Constantine 
 the Great intending it for the adornment of his new 
 capital in the east, removed it to Alexandria' about 
 330 A.D. ; this intention he was unable to carry out,but it 
 was brought from Egypt by his successor, Constantius, 
 who re-erected it in the Circus Maximus. A ship 
 was built to convey the obelisk to Rome, three hun- 
 dred rowers tugged the huge trireme with its pon- 
 derous burden across the waters of the Mediterranean 
 to the shores of Ostia. Arrived there, the obelisk 
 was slid off from the deck of the galley, on to a low 
 cart supported by rollers instead of wheels, and it was 
 then dragged and pushed through the gates of Ostia 
 into the Circus Maximus. 
 
 "All that now remained to be done," records the 
 historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, "was to set it up- 
 right, which they hardly expected to accomplish. 
 
 ' Murray's Hand Book. 
 
 ^ Ammianus Marcellinus, Lib. xviii. 
 
 4* 
 
$6 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Large beams of wood were planted upright, and raised 
 to a dangerous altitude, resembling a forest of 
 machinery. To these were attached long thick ropes, 
 which from their height and tension appeared but as 
 so many slender threads, and veiled the sky as with 
 a close netting. To these ropes the mountainous 
 mass of granite, covered with its profusion of hiero- 
 lyphics, was attached, and being gradually raised up 
 into the air, and for some time actually suspended, 
 was at last poised upon the base prepared for it, by 
 the exertions of many thousands of men. A brazen 
 sphere, covered with plates of gold, was placed upon 
 the top, which, being soon after damaged by light- 
 ning, and consequently taken away, was replaced by 
 a figure of a flame, also made of brass, covered with 
 gold leaf, and carved to resemble a blazing fire.'" On 
 the fall of Rome the obelisk was thrown down and 
 broken into three pieces, and it was suffered to remain 
 unnoticed, and indeed forgotten, save by a few 
 antiquarians, amidst the ruins of the ancient circus 
 till Pope Sixtus V. caused it to be excavated, re- 
 stored and re-erected in the Piazza of St. John 
 Lateran, A.D. 1588. Carlo Fontana, the famous 
 architect, was employed to set it up again, and in 
 order to enable it to stand it was found necessary to 
 shorten the obelisk by four Roman palms, to obtain 
 a level base.' 
 
 '' Upon the pyramidion of the obelisk, on all four 
 sides, is sculptured the same subject, differing only 
 in the titles given to the god Amen, who presents to 
 
 Thothmes III. the symbol of life -2- (the cnix ansatd), 
 
 which with one hand he applies to the nostrils of the 
 king, while with the other he holds the hand of the 
 monarch." "A similar subject occupies the next 
 compartment on all four sides, with this difference 
 
 ' Ammian, Marcell., XVII., 4. Freely rendered. 
 ^ The Roman palm equals Si in. nearly. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 37 
 
 only, that in these representations the god is seated, 
 and the king is on his knees making an offering to 
 the deity. On the two narrow sides of the obeHsk 
 the altar behind the throne of Amen is omitted." ' 
 
 The upper portion of the obelisk is disfigured by 
 several deep holes, apparently drilled by the Romans 
 when they set it up in the Circus Maximus ; a defect 
 in engineering skill which has disfigured the obelisk 
 of the Porta del Popolo also, and reflects little credit 
 upon the architects of a later day, who were unable 
 without it to accomplish what the Egyptian mechanics 
 had often successfully achieved a thousand years 
 before. Another peculiarity in this monument is that 
 the name of the god Amen, wherever it occurs is 
 very deeply cut, and evidently was inserted in the 
 place of some other figure, or the representation of 
 some other deity which was purposely erased. This 
 obliteration of the divine name we shall hereafter 
 notice when describing the obelisks of Amenhotep 11. 
 and Rameses II. 
 
 The obelisk, although set up by Thothmes III., 
 was probably not finished by him, as it was begun 
 towards the close of his reign, and completed by 
 Thothmes IV., who added the outer vertical lines of 
 hieroglyphics, in which it is stated that the monolith 
 was thirty-six years in the hands of the sculptor,' 
 this affords a striking contrast to the rapidity with 
 which the obelisks of Hatasu were excavated and set 
 up. Subsequently this obelisk was thrown down in 
 Egypt, since an inscription by Rameses II. records 
 his re-erection of it. 
 
 The following is a translation of the entire hiero- 
 glyphic inscriptions, according to the authority of Dr. 
 Birch.^ 
 
 ' Bonomi, Trans. Soc. Lit., Vol. I., New Series, p. i6i. 
 
 '^ Parker, Obelisks of Rovie, p. 2. 
 
 ^ Published in Records of the Past, Vol. IV., p. 8. 
 
^S EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Ceiitral line. 
 
 '* The Harmachis/ the living sun, 
 The strong bull, beloved of the sun, 
 Lord of diadems, very terrible in all lands, 
 The golden hawk, the very powerful, the smiter of 
 
 the Libyans, 
 The king Ra-men-kheper, 
 The son of Amen-Ra, of his loins, 
 Whom his mother Mut' gave birth to in Asher, 
 One flesh ^ with him who created him, the son 
 
 of the sun, 
 Thothmes (III.) the uniter of creation, beloved of 
 
 Amen-Ra, 
 Lord of the thrones of the upper and lower country, 
 Giver of life like the sun for ever." 
 
 South side, central line. 
 
 " The Har-em-akhu, the living sun, 
 The strong bull, crowned in Thebes, 
 Lord of diadems, augmenting his kingdom like the 
 
 sun in heaven. 
 The hawk of gold, the arranger of diadems, 
 Very valiant, the king Ra-men-kheper/ 
 Approved of the sun, son of the sun, 
 Thothmes (III.) has made his memorial to his father 
 
 Amen-Ra, 
 Lord of the seat of the upper and lower countries, 
 Has erected an obelisk to him 
 At the gateway of the temple before Thebes, 
 Setting up at first an obelisk in Thebes 
 To be made a giver of life." 
 
 ^ Harmachis was the divine name of the sun god Ra, as Ra in the 
 horizon. 
 
 ' Mut or Maut, was the great mother goddess of the Theban triad, 
 Amen Ra-Mut, and Chonso. 
 
 3 " Of the same substance as his father god." 
 
 * " Ra the giver of Life," prenomen of Thothmes \\\. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 39 
 
 East sidey central line. 
 
 ''The Har-em-akhu, the living sun, beloved of the 
 
 sun, 
 Having the tall crown of the upper region, 
 The Lord of diadems, celebrating the festival in 
 
 truth. 
 Beloved on earth, the golden hawk. 
 Prevailing by strength, the king of the upper and 
 
 lower country, 
 Ra-men-kheper, beloved of the sun, 
 Giving memorials to Amen in Thebes, 
 Augmenting his memorials. 
 Making them as they were before, 
 So that each should be as at first ; 
 Never was the like done in former time§ for Amen 
 In the house of his fathers. 
 He made, the son of the sun, Thothmes (HL), 
 Ruler of An, giver of life." 
 
 West side^ centi'al line. 
 
 " The Har-em-akhu, the living sun, the strong bull, 
 Crowned by truth, Ra-men-kheper, 
 Who adores the splendour of Amen in Thebes, 
 Amen welcomes him in . . . his heart 
 Dilates at the memorials of his son, 
 Increasing his kingdom as he wishes, 
 He gives stability and cycles to his Lord, 
 Making milHons of festivals of thirty years. 
 The son of the sun, Thothmes (III.), 
 Uniting existence (giver of life)." 
 
 The two lines on each of the following sides refer 
 to Thothmes IV. 
 
 North side, right line. 
 
 *' The good god, the image of diadems, 
 Establishing the kingdom like Tum, 
 Powerful in force, expeller of the nine-bow foreigners, 
 The king of the upper and lower country. 
 
40 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Ra-men-kheper, 
 
 Taking by his strength like the Lord of Thebes, 
 
 Very glorious like Mentu/ 
 
 Whom Amen has given strength against all countries; 
 
 The lands came in number, 
 
 The fear of him was in their bellies, 
 
 The son of the sun, Thothmes (IV.), 
 
 Diadem of diadems, beloved of Amen-Ra, 
 
 The bull of his mother." ' 
 
 North side, left line, 
 
 " The king of the upper and lower country, 
 Beloved of the gods, adorer of the circle of the gods, 
 Welcomed by the sun in the barge, 
 And by Tum in the ark. 
 The Lord of the upper and lower countries, 
 Ra-men-kheperu,^ who has ornamented Thebes for 
 
 ever. 
 Making memorials in Thebes. 
 The circle of gods of the house of Amen 
 Delight at what he has done, 
 The son of the god Tum, of his loins, 
 Produced on his throne, fhothmes (IV.), diadem of 
 
 diadems." 
 
 South side, right line, 
 
 " The son of the sun, Thothmes (IV.), 
 Diadem of diadems, set it up in Thebes, 
 He capped it with gold, 
 Its beauty illuminates Thebes ; 
 
 Sculptured in the name of his father, the good god 
 Ra-men-kheper (Thothmes III.), 
 The king of the upper and lower country, 
 
 ^ Mentu, a form of the sun god, as the Egyptian Mars. 
 
 ' "The husband of his mother." 
 
 2 Ra-men-kheper, singular, was the prenomen of Thothmes III., more 
 generally written Men-kheper-Ra; Ra-men-kheperw the same in the 
 plural number, was the prenomen of his successor Thothmes IV. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 41 
 
 Lord of the two countries, 
 
 Ra-men-kheperu (Thothmes IV.), did it 
 
 Wishing that the name of his father should remain 
 
 fixed 
 In the house of Amen. 
 The son of the sun, Thothmes (IV.) giver of Hfe did 
 
 it." 
 
 South side, left line. 
 
 " The kmg of the upper and lower country, 
 The Lord doing things, Ra-men-kheperu, 
 Made by the sun, beloved of Amen. 
 His Majesty ordered that a very great obelisk should 
 
 be completed 
 Which had been brought by his father Ra-men- 
 
 kheper (Thothmes III.) 
 After His Majesty died. 
 
 This obelisk remained 35 years and upwards 
 In its place in the hands of the workmen 
 At the Southern quarters of Thebes. 
 My father ordered it should be set up. 
 I his son succeeded him." 
 
 East side, right line. 
 
 " Ra-men-kheperu (Thothmes IV.) 
 Multiplying memorials in Thebes of gold, 
 Lapis lazuli, and jewellery. 
 And the great barge on the river (named) Amen- 
 
 user-ta, 
 Hewn out of cedarwood which His Majesty cut 
 
 down in the land of Ruten 
 Inlaid with gold throughout, 
 And all the decorations renewed. 
 To receive the beauty of his father Amen-Ra 
 (When) he is conducted along the river. 
 The son of the sun Thothmes (IV.) diadem of 
 
 diadems, did it." 
 
42 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 East side, left line. 
 
 " The good god, the powerful blade, 
 The prince taking captive by his power, 
 Who strikes terror into the Mena,' 
 Whose roarings are in the Anu.' 
 His father Amen brought him up, 
 Making his rule extended, 
 The chiefs of all countries 
 Are attentive to the spirits of His Majesty, 
 To the words of his mouth, the acts of his hands, 
 All that has been ordered has been done. 
 The king of the upper and lower country 
 Ra-men-kheperu, whose name is established in 
 Thebes, giver of life." 
 
 West side, right line. 
 
 *' The king of the upper and lower country, 
 The Lord of the upper and lower world, 
 Ra-men-kheperu son . . it making peaceful years. 
 Lord of the gods, who knew how to frame his plans 
 And bring them to a good end, who subdued the 
 
 nine-bow foreigners under his sandals. 
 The king of the upper and lower country . . . 
 Watched to beautify the monuments. 
 The king himself gave directions for the work 
 Like ' Him who is Southern Rampart,'^ 
 He set it up, it remained for a while, his heart wished 
 
 to create it, 
 The son of the sun Thothmes (IV-), diadem of 
 
 diadems." 
 
 West side, left line. 
 
 " The king of the upper and lower countries 
 Ra-men-kheperu (Thothmes IV.) approved of Amen, 
 Dwelling amongst tfie chiefs, 
 Born in . . . him than every king, 
 
 ^ Asiatic shepherds. ' The Lybians. 
 
 ^ This is a title of the god Pthah of Memphis. 
 
CHAPTER VII I. 43 
 
 Rejoicing at seeing the beauty of his greatness ; 
 
 His heart desired to place it. 
 
 He gave him the north and south submissive to his 
 
 spirits, 
 He made his monuments to his father Amen-Ra, 
 He set up a great obeHsk to him 
 At the upper gate, of Thebes, facing western Thebes. 
 The son of the sun whom he loves 
 (Thothmes IV.) diadem of diadems, giver of life he 
 
 did it" 
 
 North side^ inscription on pyrainidion. 
 
 " The good god Ra-men-kheper like the sun. Amen, 
 
 Tum 
 The king of the upper and lower country, 
 Ra-men-kheper, son of the sun, 
 Thothmes like the sun, immortal. 
 Amen-Ra Lord of the seats of the upper and lower 
 
 countries, 
 Gives all life stability, pov/er." 
 
 SoutJi side, inscriptiori on pyrainidion. 
 
 " The king Ra-men-kheperu (Thothmes IV,) 
 
 Giver of life, beloved of Amen-Ra 
 
 Lord of the thrones of the two countries. 
 
 The son of the sun Thothmes (III.) 
 
 Giver of life like the sun for ever. 
 
 The king Ra-men-kheperu, son of the sun 
 
 Thothmes (III.) giver of life like the sun for ever. 
 
 The goddess Uat ' gives a good life, 
 
 Amen-Ra Lord of the seats of the upper and lower 
 country. 
 
 Gives life power and stability. 
 
 The good god Ra-men-kheperu 
 
 Giver of life like the sun. 
 
 Amen-Ra king of the gods (says) 
 * Thou hast received life in thy nostril' " 
 
 ^ Uat or Buto was the goddess of the upper country. 
 
44 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 East side, pyramidio}!. 
 
 *' The good god Ra-men-kheperu, 
 Giver of life like the sun 
 The king Ra-men-kheperu, son of the sun 
 Thothmes giver of life like the sun, gives water 
 Amen-Ra king of the gods 
 Gives life stability and power 
 The good god Ra-men-kheperu, 
 Giver of life, 
 
 Gives a pyramidal cake of white bread 
 That he may become a giver of life." 
 
 West sidcj pyramidion. 
 
 " Amen, Tum the good god, 
 
 Ra-men-kheper giver of life like the sun immortal. 
 
 The king Ra-men-kheper, son of the sun, 
 
 Thothmes (III.), like the sun immortal gives wine. 
 
 Amen-Ra Lord of the seats of the upper and lower 
 countries, 
 
 King of the gods, ruler of An. 
 
 The good god, the Lord doing things, Ra-men- 
 kheperu, 
 
 Giver of life like the sun, gives incense 
 
 That he may be made a giver of life." 
 
 At the base. 
 
 " Amen-Ra, Hor ; Lord of heaven Ra-user-ma, 
 Approved of the sun, Rameses (II.) beloved of Amen 
 Giver of life like the sun Amen-Ra, Lord of the seats 
 
 of the upper and lower countries, 
 Har-em-akhu, great god, Lord of the heaven 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Lord of the two countries, Ra-user-ma, 
 Approved of the sun Rameses (II.) beloved of 
 
 Amen." ' 
 
 ' This records the restoration by Rameses II., and is a rare example 
 of an Eg-yptian sovereign, not arrogating to himself the honours of his 
 predecessor. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 45 
 
 To these inscriptions may be added the following, 
 consecrating the monument afresh to the honour 
 of the Christian religion upon its re-erection by 
 Sixtus V. : 
 
 SIXTVS V. PONT. MAX 
 
 OBELISCVM HVNC 
 
 SPECIE EXIMIA 
 
 TEMPORVM CALAMITATE 
 
 FRACTVM CIRCI MAX. 
 
 RVINIS HVMO LIMOQ. 
 
 ALTE DEMERSVM MVLTA 
 
 IMPENSA EXTRAXIT: 
 
 HVNC IN LOCVM MAGNO 
 
 LABORE TRANSTVLIT: 
 
 FORMAE. Q. PRISTINAE 
 
 ACCVRATE RESTITVTVM 
 
 CRVCI INVICTISSIM^ 
 
 DICAVIT. 
 
 A.M.D. LXXXVIII. PONT. IIII. 
 
 FL. CONSTANTINVS 
 
 MAXIMVS AVG. 
 
 CHRISTIANAE FIDEI 
 
 VINDEX ET ASSERTOR 
 
 OBELISCVM 
 
 AB AEGYPTIO REGE 
 
 IMPVRO VOTO 
 
 SOLI DEDICATVM 
 
 SEDIB. AVVLSVM SVIS 
 
 PER NILVM TRANSFERRI 
 
 ALEXANDRIAM IVSSIT 
 
 VT NOVAM ROMAM 
 
 AB SE TVNC CONDITAM 
 
 EO DECORARET 
 
 MONVMENTO.^ 
 
 ' Parker, Obelisks of Rome, p. 6. 
 
46 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Obelisk of Alexandria. 
 
 NEXT in size to the obelisk of the Lateran 
 follow the two at Alexandria, which are 
 popularly called, but erroneously, Cleopatra's Needles. 
 These monuments were erected before the temple 
 of Amen at Heliopolis by Thothmes III., and 
 according to Pliny, whose statements must be taken 
 with considerable reservation, Thothmes, or as he 
 writes the name, Mesphres,' was "warned" to do so 
 in a dream ; '' indeed there is an inscription upon the 
 obelisk to this effect, for the sculptures and figures 
 which we still see engraved thereon are no other 
 than Egyptian letters." ' Certainly the monarch may 
 have been led by a dream to design the erection of 
 these obelisks, but there is no record of the circum- 
 stance in the hieroglyphic inscriptions upon them. 
 The obelisks are, one 70 ft. high by 7 ft. 7 in. wide, and 
 the other 66 ft. the width being the same as its 
 companion, both are of red granite, both stood on 
 a limestone pedestal, 6 ft. 6 in. by 7 ft, resting upon 
 three steps, and when first set up had only a single 
 vertical column of inscriptions ; ^ some years later the 
 vain-glorious Rameses II. added two outside lines 
 upon each face, while Seti II. also placed a few lines 
 of hieroglyphics, together with his cartouch, on the 
 lower part of the stone ; and thus, as frequently occurs 
 on the Egyptian monuments, the glories of more 
 persons than the founders attach to them. 
 
 ' According^ to Wilkinson, Mes-Phra Thothmosis was the manner in 
 which, in the lists of Manetho, the name of the Pharaoh was written; 
 but the words mean simply "sun born," or "son of the sun," and were a 
 common title of all the Egyptian kings. 
 
 ^ Pliny, Hist. Nat., Book xxxvi.. Chap. 14. 
 
 ^ Pliny gives a height of 42 cubits, or 63 ft., Bonomi, 69 ft. i in. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 47 
 
 The next notice of these obeHsks comes on very- 
 late in history and brings us to the fall of a mighty 
 empire, for in the eighth year of Augustus Caesar, 
 that sovereign being anxious to perpetuate the 
 sense of his victory over the last of the Ptolemies, 
 removed both monoliths from Heliopolis to Alexan- 
 dria, and re-erected them in front of the temple called 
 the Caesareum, which he had himself founded, and 
 which was for centuries one of the glories of Alex- 
 andria. This removal as we now know, took place 
 during the prefecture of Pontus Rubrius Barbarus, 
 who was the fourth prefect of Egypt under Augustus 
 Caesar. On attempting to re-erect the obelisks it was 
 found that the lower portions had been so much cor- 
 roded, and suffered so much dilapidation, this one 
 especially, that the Roman engineers instead of im- 
 posing it flush upon its base, preferred to support the 
 monolith upon four bronze crabs, or feet, each being 
 about 1 6 in. in diameter, thus leaving a clear space of 
 about 8 in. between the bottom of the obelisk and its 
 pedestal. This plan, which was afterwards generally 
 followed in Rome, caused the ultimate overthrow of 
 all the obelisks set up by the Caesars; first, on account 
 of the inequality of the tension ; and secondly, 
 because the bronze was a metal too valuable to be 
 suffered to remain when the period of ruin set in. 
 In July of this year, Mr. John Dixon in clearing the 
 soil from the fallen obelisk preparatory to its removal 
 to London, excavated out also the base of the 
 obelisk of Alexandria, and to the great satisfaction 
 of antiquaries generally, discovered one of the 
 bronze crabs which supported it still in sitic, the 
 others having long since been wrenched away. 
 Upon this crab, or claw, were found on either side 
 two inscriptions, one in Greek, the other in Latin, 
 fixing precisely the date of the erection of the 
 monument. The inscriptions are as follows : 
 
48 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 E H KAIMPO^ 
 
 BAPBAPO:^ ANE0HKE 
 
 APXITEKTONOYNTOS 
 
 nONTIOY 
 
 anno viii. 
 
 avgvsti caesaris 
 
 barbarvs praef 
 
 aegypti posvit 
 
 archiTectanTe ponTio. 
 
 " In the eighth year 
 Of Augustus Caesar, 
 Barbarus, prefect 
 
 Of Egypt, caused this obelisk to be placed here, 
 Pontius being architect." ' 
 
 Thus the votive monument of the Pharaohs sunk into 
 the condition of a Roman trophy, and that obelisk 
 which had been constructed at vast expense and labour 
 to record the majesty of the Egyptian empire, three of 
 whose greatest monarchs were associated with it, was 
 now by remorseless fate transported and transformed 
 to declare to the Urdis Romanorinn the subjection of 
 the province of Eg}^pt. It is obvious that as the 
 famous Queen Cleopatra died in the second year of 
 Augustus, while these obelisks were removed to 
 Alexandria in his eighth, or B.C. 23, that she could 
 have had nothing to do with the so-called Cleopatra's 
 Needle, and that consequently the connection of her 
 name with it is an anachronism and an absurdity. 
 Despite these facts, yet it is almost certain that that 
 popular tradition which has assigned to her the credit 
 of erecting the monument which was to testify to 
 her death and the destruction of her kingdom will re- 
 main ; and, historical facts notwithstanding, she will 
 doubtless continue to be credited with the erection of 
 
 ' See Dixon's letter in Daihj A^'eujs, July iS, 1S77; and illustration in 
 Graphic^ July 7, 1S77. The Latin text unfortunately differs in both; so 
 much for literal accuracy. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 49 
 
 the first of the Egyptian monuments which meets the 
 eye of a traveller, either from sea or land, on approach- 
 ing the modern capital of Egypt. Only one of the 
 two obelisks is now standing upon its pedestal, its 
 companion having long fallen down, and after many 
 centuries of neglect become the property of the 
 British nation by the defeat of Napoleon in 1801. 
 This, which will hereafter be better known as the 
 Obelisk of London, deserves and will receive a chapter 
 to itself further on. 
 
 OBELISK OF ALEXANDRIA.' 
 
 This obelisk was erected by the famous Thothmes 
 III., whose legend is engraved in the central column of 
 each side. During a period of no less than three 
 centuries the monument existed with this legend 
 only, till Ramses 11. appropriated it to himself 
 through the addition of two lateral columns, which 
 were carved when the monolith was upon its base in 
 the place first chosen by Thothmes III. 
 
 This Pharaoh dedicated it to Hor-em-akhou (Har- 
 machis, or the sun at the two horizons), a form of 
 the god Ra, or Phra (the sun), to which was also con- 
 secrated the great sphinx at Gizeh. The pyramidion 
 represents a square vignette in which is figured 
 the king seated upon a throne before the sphinx of 
 Hor-em-akhou upon a pedestal.' 
 
 Central Columns. (T hot Junes III.) 
 
 A. "The kingly Horus, lifting up the 
 Hat {zvkite crozvn) ; 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 ^ Translated by Fran9ois Chabas from the text in Burton's Exceypta 
 Hieroglyphica, pi. 52. 
 
 ^ The copy of M. Burton is not perfectly reliable : therefore the translation 
 will possibly require a few amendments in some passages. Moreover 
 two of the sides are in a very bad state of preservation, and the script , 
 there is undecypherable. Here I give all that I can read on the erect obelisk. 
 
 5 
 
50 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Golden hawk, 
 
 Who has struck the kings of 
 
 All lands approaching him ; 
 
 After the commandment 
 
 Of his father Ra.^ 
 
 Victory over the entire world, 
 
 And valiance of sword are at the mouth 
 
 Of his hands," 
 
 For the extension of the limits 
 
 Of Egypt, 
 
 The son of the sun, 
 
 Thothmes, vivifier." 
 
 B. " The kingly Horus, 
 
 Strong bull, crowned in Thebes, 
 
 The Lord of diadems. 
 
 Whose royalty is expanded, 
 
 Like (that of) the sun. 
 
 (Beloved of Tum,^ Lord of Heliopolis, 
 
 Son of his loins, 
 
 Thoth created him, Thothmes.) '^ 
 
 They ^ created him in the great abode, 
 
 From the perfection of their limbs, 
 
 So that he will make an extended royalty for 
 
 centuries. 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ra-men-Kheper 
 Beloved of Tum, the great god. 
 And the gods of his circle, 
 Giving all life, stability, and happiness, 
 Like the sun for ever," 
 
 C. '*The kingly Horus, 
 
 Strong bull, crowned in Thebes, 
 
 ^ The sun. 
 
 ' "Themouthof thehand," is an expression similar to "the mouth of the 
 blade." 
 
 3 Tum or Atum is a name of Har-em-akhou. 
 
 * This cartouche is very curious and interesting, as the phra<;e is cal- 
 culated to form the name of Thothmes with the last word of each column. 
 
 ^ Thoth and Tum. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 51 
 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ra-men-Kheper, 
 (The re'inaindcr is illegible.) 
 D. The same as C. Nothing further can be read. 
 
 Lateral Columns. {Rameses II) 
 
 A I **The kingly Horus, 
 
 Strong bull, son of Turn, 
 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 The Lord of diadems 
 
 Who protects Egypt and chastises the nations, 
 
 Son of the sun, 
 
 Ramessou, Meriamen, 
 
 King, warlike, 
 
 Who has acted with his own hands 
 
 In the face of the whole earth, 
 
 The Lord of the two lands, 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra,' 
 
 Son of the sun, 
 
 Ramessou Meriamen, 
 
 The stable " {the rest erased), 
 A 2 **The kingly Horus, 
 
 Strong bull, beloved of the goddess Ma, 
 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 
 Lord of panegyrics like his father ' 
 
 Ptah Totanen, 
 
 Son of the sun, 
 
 Ramessou Meriamen. 
 
 Ra ^ has generated him 
 
 To adorn festively Heliopolis, 
 
 To furnish abundantly the temples 
 
 Of him who generated him. 
 
 The Lord of the two lands, 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 
 Son of the sun, 
 
 * Prenomen of Rameses II. 
 
 ' ** Lord of Festivals," i.e., the annual sacred feasts. ^ The sun. 
 
52 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Ramessou Meriamen 
 
 (invested with life) stability and happiness," 
 Bi "The kingly Horus, 
 
 Strong bull, beloved of Ma, 
 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra 
 
 (Who is) a sun, generator of gods, 
 
 Possessor of the two lands, 
 
 Son of the son, 
 
 Ramessou Meriamen, 
 
 A noble youth of kindness 
 
 Like Aten ' 
 
 Blazing from the horizon. 
 
 Lord of the two lands, 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 
 Son of the son, 
 
 Ramessou Meriamen, 
 
 The splendour of Osiris, 
 
 Vivifier." 
 B2 "The kingly Horus, 
 
 The strong bull, son of Kheper-Ra,' 
 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 
 Golden hawk, 
 
 Of abundant years, 
 
 (Very) victorious, 
 
 Son of the sun, 
 
 Ramessou Meriamen, 
 
 Who issued from the womb 
 
 To take the crowns of the sun ; 
 
 Whom the sun generated to be (the) 
 
 Sole Lord, Lord of the two lands, 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 
 Son of the sun, 
 
 Ramessou Meriamen, 
 
 The splendour of Osiris, 
 
 Like the sun." 
 
 * The solar disk. ^ The creator. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 53 
 
 It is to be observed that the final groups of the 
 three columns are combined to form a horizontal 
 line, running thus : "Giving life for ever, like the sun." 
 This is observable in three sides, the fourth being 
 erased. 
 Ci "The kingly Horus, 
 
 Strong bull, beloved of Ma, 
 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 
 (Who is) a sun, generator of gods, 
 
 Lord of the two lands, 
 Ramessou Meriamen . . . ." 
 ( Tlie remainder is illegible.) 
 C2 "The kingly Horus, 
 
 Strong bull, son of the sun, 
 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 
 Golden hawk, 
 
 • • « • • 
 
 Son of the sun, 
 
 Ramessou Meriamen," 
 
 (Erased.) 
 D I {Erased) 
 D2 "The kingly Horus, 
 
 Strong bull, beloved .... 
 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 
 Lord of panegyrics 
 
 Like his father Ptah, Lord of ... . 
 
 Ramessou Meriamen." 
 
 Some words are still distinguishable, but nothing 
 worth mentioning can be read in the remainder of 
 the text. 
 
 It is worth notice that a very carefully measured 
 elevation of this obelisk is given in Denon's Egypte, 
 representing it as standing upon a square pedestal 
 supported upon three steps, adding 3 ft. 2 in. further 
 
54 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 to the height of the obelisk. This, as far as its goes, 
 is all very well, but it is doubtful what reliance 
 ought to be placed upon the plates in the great 
 French work, since if Denon actually uncovered the 
 base of the monolith he must have noticed the bronze 
 crab which was discovered by Mr. Dixon ; and he 
 must further have seen the dilapidated condition of 
 the angles of the obelisk, whereas neither of these 
 points is represented in his plates. 
 
 CHAPTER X, 
 
 The Obelisk of Constaiitinople. 
 
 ANOTHER large obelisk set up by Thothmes HI. 
 is that which recorded his victories in Meso- 
 potamia, and which was also originally one of the 
 splendours of Karnak ; it was subsequently carried 
 off by Constantine the Great to decorate the hippo- 
 drome' of Constantinople, and there it still remains. 
 Apparently it has become broken during transit, for 
 its present height is only 50 ft., and it is about five dia- 
 meters high; the base is now concealed in the ground, 
 but evidently if the monolith were perfect it would 
 be one of the loftiest of its kind, and be a rival to 
 that of Thothmes I. at Karnak. When it was set up 
 by the Emperor Theodosius, circa A.D. 379, it was 
 placed by the Praetor Proclus upon four brazen balls, 
 and its angles were repaired by insertions of Theban 
 porphyry. A base or pedestal of wrought stone, 12 ft. 
 broad, and 4 ft. 8 in. high, was also added, and 
 the sides were adorned with a series of bas-reliefs 
 representing the mechanical contrivances employed 
 in raising up the monument, where the emperor and 
 
 ' The At-Meidan. 
 
CHAPTER X. 55 
 
 the architect are figured directing the numerous 
 workmen, some of whom seem to be adorning the 
 obeHsk after its erection.' On the other face of the 
 pedestal are two inscriptions, one in Greek and one 
 in Latin, both of which are now illegible, but from 
 which we learn that the whole operation of raising 
 and fixing the obelisk took thirty-two days. The 
 following are the inscriptions as copied by Hobhouse 
 and Gyllus : 
 
 Difficilis quondam dominis parere serenis 
 Jussus et extinctis palmam portare tyrannis 
 Omnia Theudosio cedunt sobolique perenni 
 Ter denis sic victus ego domitusque diebus 
 Judice sub Proclo superas elatus ad auras. 
 
 *' I was once unwilling to obey imperial masters, 
 But I was ordered to bear the palm after' the 
 
 destruction of tyrants. 
 All things yield to Theodosius and his enduring 
 
 offspring. 
 Thus I was conquered and subdued in thirty days. 
 And elevated towards the sky in the Praetorship of 
 
 Proclus." ^ 
 
 Ktova T€Tpa7r\evpov aei )^Oovl K^ifxevov a^0o<; 
 Movi/o? avacTTrjcraL* ©€vSocrto9 /^acrtActi? 
 ToX/x-^cras TLpoKXiD e7reK€KA.€T0, kol too"0? €(TTrj 
 
 KtO)!/ TJcXlOL'S iv TptOLKOVTa ^vo ^ 
 
 Like that obelisk, too, it has a sculptured apex and a 
 single vertical column of hieroglyphics upon two only of 
 its sides, the lower portion of which is lost ; it is of red 
 granite, and has not as yet been sufficiently uncovered 
 
 ^ Figured in Gyllus' Antiquities of Constantinople^ Ed. Ball, 1729, pi. 8. 
 
 To commemorate the victory over. 
 ^ Hobhouse, Travels, p. 951. 
 
 * It was doubtless this previous fall which reduced the obelisk to its 
 present dimen':*ions. 
 
 ^ Long-, jigypt. Antiq., I., p. 332. 
 
56 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 to allow of the entire inscription being decyphered. 
 Enough of the text remains to prove that the obelisk 
 was really erected by the monarch whose name it 
 bears, though the Emperor Theodosius has had the 
 credit of having ordered it to be imitated from an 
 earlier work ; the general consensus of Egyptologists 
 is now opposed to such a theory, since the historical 
 record upon it does not exist elsewhere so charac- 
 teristically summarised. 
 
 Each of the four faces of the apex show a square 
 scene, in which Thothmes III., standing up, takes 
 the hand of Amen, who presents to the nose of the 
 
 king the so-called cross of life, -?-. In two places 
 
 the king wears the crown of upper Egypt, white 
 
 crown A ; and in the two others that of lower 
 
 Egypt, red crown i/. 
 
 Similarly the god wears in two places the double 
 feathered crown M/ ; and in the two others, the 
 
 pscJient Yj y or double royal crown of Egypt. 
 
 Amen appears in his two principal characters 
 of Lord of the thrones of the two lands, and of 
 Amen-Ra, king of the gods, Lord of earth. 
 
 At the head of each of the inscriptions on the 
 vertical sides another square vignette represents the 
 king on his knees, before Amen sitting upon a chair. 
 
 The king offers four sorts of presents, among which 
 wine and milk are still distinguishable, and the god 
 imparts to him life and happiness in the usual style. 
 
 The inscriptions of those square scenes are quite 
 commonplace. It will suffice to translate that of the 
 east side, which is in a good state of preservation. 
 
 The following translation of the upper portion of 
 the columns is by M. Chabas :' 
 
 ' The obelisk itself is published in Lepsius, Denkmaler aus Mgypteii, 
 Abth. III., Bl. 24. 
 
CHAPTER X. 57 
 
 Over the king sitting down. 
 
 " Amen, Lord of the thrones of the two lands, 
 Dwelling (in Thebes), great god, 
 He gives all life, all happiness, all stability." 
 
 Over the kneeling Pharaoh, 
 
 " The good god, Lord of the earth, 
 Master of making things, 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ra-men-kheper, son of the sun, 
 Thothmes, giving all life, like the sun, for ever." 
 
 The following is, as translation, the tenor of the 
 four vertical lines in the order of M. Lepsius's plates. 
 
 West Side. 
 
 " The heaven, the kingly Horus, 
 Strong bull, swaying through truth. 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ra-men-Kheper-iri-em-Ra,' 
 
 Who has gone through the great circuit of Naharana, 
 In strength and victory, at the head of his troops, 
 Making a great slaughter " 
 
 South Side. 
 
 '* The heaven, 
 The kingly Horus, 
 The strong bull, swaying through 
 Truth, 
 
 The Lord of diadems, 
 Enlarging royalty. 
 Like the sun on high 
 The golden hawk. 
 Of hallowed diadems, 
 Warlike dominator. 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 ^ Firm existence of the sun; creature of the sun. ' Mesopotamia. 
 
58 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Ra-men-Kheper-Sotep-en-Ra,' 
 
 He made (the obelisk) in 
 
 His monuments to his father, 
 
 Amen-Ra, Lord of the thrones of 
 
 The two lands. 
 
 He erected . . . " 
 
 East Side. 
 
 " The heaven, 
 
 The kingly Horus, 
 
 Uplifting the white crown, 
 
 Beloved by the sun, 
 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Lord of diadems. 
 
 Swaying through truth, 
 
 The love of the two lands : 
 
 Ra-men-Kheper, son of the sun, 
 
 Lord of victory, 
 
 Chastiser of the whole earth, 
 
 Who has set his boundary 
 
 At the horn of the earth. 
 
 And at the extremities of Naharana . . . ." 
 
 (Here the term, horn of the earth, refers to the 
 southern mountains, and the extremities of Naharana 
 to the northern limit of Egypt at the time.) 
 
 South Side. 
 
 " The heavens, 
 The kingly Horus, 
 Strong bull. 
 Beloved by the sun. 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ra-men-Kheper, whom Kheper-Ra has magnified, 
 Nursling of Tum, 
 Foster-child 
 In the arms of Neith, the 
 
 ' Approved by the sun. 
 
CHAPTER X. 59 
 
 Divine mother ; 
 
 As a king ; 
 
 He has conquered all lands. 
 
 Protracted (is) his life ; 
 
 Lord of the feasts of 30 years ... " ' 
 
 This monument is highly illustrative of the glory 
 of this famous reign. Egypt was then invested with 
 the domination of all civilized nations, from Armenia 
 and the Caucasus, down to Central Africa." 
 
 Besides these colossi there are standing at Karnak 
 two small obelisks of red granite, each about 20 ft. 
 high, they differ from the ordinary obelisks inasmnch 
 as they bear a pictorial representation of the lotus of 
 Lower Egypt, instead of hieroglyphics. Neither ot 
 them have any pyramidion, or if they ever had one it 
 has disappeared ; the cartouche of^ Thothmes IIL 
 upon the vertical sides fixes the date of the monu- 
 ments to the reign of that king, who seems to have 
 set them up more for decorative than religious pur- 
 poses. Thothmes III. after filling Egypt with his • 
 monuments, Asia with his exiles, and Arabia with 
 his traders, was succeeded by Amenhotep IL, a 
 monarch of a wholly different character, whose 
 relationship to Thothmes is not known, and whose 
 reign was either so short or so uncertain, that the 
 lists of Manetho do not notice him, and he is known 
 only by the historical inscriptions.^ 
 
 There is also a small red granite obelisk of 
 Thothmes IIL at Sion House, but it has not yet 
 been published. It came from Elephantine. 
 
 ^ The trlaconterides, one of the most famous of the cyclical festivals of 
 the Eg"yptians. 
 
 ^ In the inner Sanctuary of Karnak is a fine bas-relief, representing- 
 Thothmes III. offering' these obelisks with other treasures to Amen-Ra. 
 The figure was originally that of his sister Hat-a-su, whose head was 
 chiselled out to insert that of her more imperious brother. Wilkinson, 
 Thebes, p. 179. 
 
 ^ Lenormant, I., p. 236. 
 
6o EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Obelisk of Amenhotep II, 
 
 SHORT as was the reign of Amenhotep H., and 
 few as were his official acts, yet he appears to 
 have made an effort to retain the conquests of his 
 predecessor, and to have had some desire of en- 
 couraging the arts. The chief events in which he 
 took part as sovereign were the suppression of a 
 revolt in Mesopotamia, the re-imposition of tribute 
 upon the people of Nineveh, and the chastise- 
 ment of the Ethiopians. An inscription in the 
 temple of Amada in Nubia, relates that he fought 
 with his enemies in the land of Asshur ; that seven 
 kings fell before him, and were brought (their em- 
 balmed bodies, it is to be supposed) to the banks of 
 the Nile, where six were hung against the wall of 
 Thebes, and the seventh at Napata, the capital of 
 Ethiopia, " that the negroes might see the victories 
 of the ever-living king over all lands and all people 
 upon earth, since he had possessed the people of the 
 south, and chastised the people of the north." ' The 
 reign of Amenhotep H. is also marked by a peculiarly 
 exaggerated style of drawing and modelling the 
 human figure, the rigid, but beautiful proportions of 
 the canon of Thothmes HI., a copy of which is still 
 in the British Museum,"" were disregarded, and an 
 attempt at anatomical naturalness in the form of the 
 muscles, and of fulness in the chest and legs, charac- 
 terises the style of this period, a style which is most 
 marked and most defective in the portrait statues of 
 the king, and the high officers of his court.^ 
 
 ^ Lenormant, I., p. 236. 
 
 ^ For the details of the canon as compared with the Greek canon of 
 Polycletus, the assumed normal standard of excellence, see Bonomi, 
 Proportions of the Human Figure. (Orig^inal edition.) 
 
 ^ This was still more developed in the reign of Amenhotep III. For 
 examples of these affectations of art, see the statues fig^ured in Sharpe's 
 /tiiliquities in the British Museum^ p. 33-50. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 6 1 
 
 Amenhotep II. does not seem to have erected any- 
 important obelisks, or if he did, they Avere thrown 
 down and destroyed in the reHgious revolution 
 caused by the sole worship of Aten-Ra, under his next 
 successor but one, Amenhotep IV.' But there is in 
 this country a small obelisk bearing the name of 
 Amenhotep, and differing in several respects from the 
 more usual examples. This obelisk was discovered 
 in or about 1838, in the debris of a ruined village in 
 the Thebaid, and it was presented to the late Duke 
 of Northumberland, then Lord Prudhoe, by the 
 Viceroy of Egypt. The original location of the 
 relic is not ascertainable ; it is of red granite, and (its 
 apex being broken) stands 7 ft. 3 in. high, its greatest 
 width is 9f in. on two of the sides, and 9 in. on the 
 others, it is inscribed only upon one face, and the 
 hieroglyphics are not cut with an inner rounded 
 contour, as was always done in the XVIIIth and 
 XlXth dynasties, but their inner surfaces are left flat, 
 " a kind of sculpture found only in tombs and on 
 stelae, generally of the age of Psammetichus ;" ' 
 indeed, were it not for the fact that the letters of 
 the name of Amen in the cartouch of the king have 
 been re-cut over the hieroglyphs of some other 
 
 ^ This revolution belongs purely to the theological history of Egypt, it 
 was brought about by the marriage of Amenhotep III., the Memnon of 
 the Greek historian with a Semitic lady named Taia, who introduced the 
 worshfip of the sun's disk without any material representation, to the 
 ultimate entire overthrow of the ancient faith in the reign of her son 
 Amemhotep IV., or Chu-en-Aten as he preferred to be called, resigning his 
 Pharaohnic title *' peace of Amen," for "glory of Aten," i.e., the solar disk. 
 It is believed that the obliteration of the name of Amen on the monuments 
 of Egypt took place during his reign. After a half century of ill-borne 
 religious tyranny, the dynasty of Amenhotep was overthrown, the old 
 worsihip of the gods restored, and their statues set up again; every 
 vesti ge of the foreign faith was obliterated, and the name and statues of 
 Chu-en-Aten and his mother destroyed, and their temples pulled down to 
 re-biiild those of Amen-Ra and Turn once more. 
 
 ^ -Bonomi on "The Alnwick Obelisk,'' Trans. Roy. Soc. Lit., Vol. I., 
 New Series, p. 174. 
 
62 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS, 
 
 divine name, the obelisk might be attributed to the 
 period of the XXVIth dynasty, not to the XVIIIth. 
 The hieroglyphics read as follows : ^ 
 
 Translation of the Obelisk at Alnwick. 
 
 This obelisk was erected by the Pharaoh, Amen- 
 hotep IL, whose royal Egyptian names were Ra- 
 aa-Kheperou and Amen-hotep-hik-An. It reads : 
 
 Vertical Column. 
 " The heaven, 
 The Horus, king of the two lands, sun of life, 
 Strong bull. 
 Very valiant, 
 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ra-aa-Kheperou,' 
 Son of the sun, 
 Amen-hotep-hik-An,^ 
 He made (the obelisk) 
 In his monuments to his father Num-Ra ; 
 Making to him two obelisks . with the food 
 
 of Ra/ 
 He made it. 
 The vivifier, for ever." 
 
 At the Apex of the Obelisk. 
 
 " The heaven, 
 Homage to Num. 
 He gives all life and bliss, 
 (To) Amen-hotep, the vivifier, for ever.''^ 
 After this reign the kingdom of Egypt was in too 
 disturbed a condition to admit of the execution of any 
 
 ^ The translation is by M. Chabas. 
 
 ' Sun, the greatest of existences. 
 
 ^ The peace of Amen, sovereign of Heliopolis. 
 
 '* The sun. The obelisks were objects of worship. Priests were attaC'hed 
 to them ; therefore the erection of these monoHths was connected with the 
 endowment of a religious service, especially with the necessary suppl y of 
 offerings. This accounts for the mention of the lahle or food of Ra. Mote 
 by M. Chabas. 
 
 ^ Published by Sharpe, Egyptian IiiscripLioiiSf Second Series, pi. 69. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 63 
 
 great works. Amen-hotep III., though one of the 
 most able of Egyptian monarchs, confined his attention 
 to hunting and schemes for the irrigation of the 
 country, the chiefest of which was the construction 
 of a vast reservoir 3400 cubits long by 700 broad.' 
 He built a large number of temples, and is still 
 remembered by the two colossi, representing himself 
 and his queen, which overlooks the Lybian valley, and 
 the largest of which was known afterwards to the 
 Greeks as the Vocal Memnon. Fond as he was of 
 grandeur, Amenhotep set up no obelisks ; possibly his 
 queen, who was a Syrian heretic, according to Egyp- 
 tian notions, dissuaded him from so doing, as she 
 was desirous of introducing a totally opposite form 
 of solar adoration. His son was a revolutionist, a 
 reformer, and a heretic, and his reign was a brief and 
 turbulent one. The daughters of Amenhotep IV., 
 and their husbands, divided, or tried to divide, the 
 empire between themselves ; then followed inter- 
 necine war and family schisms, a second religious 
 revolution, and ultimately the rise of a new dynasty 
 connected by marriage with the last Pharaoh of the 
 preceding. This dynasty, the XlXth, was destined 
 to witness the culmination and incipient decline of 
 Egyptian greatn'^ss ; and it is the obelisks of these 
 sovereigns, the half-Semitic Pharaohs of the Rames- 
 side family, that next demand attention, and which 
 are still the most noted in existence. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Life of Sett L 
 
 THE two first monarchs of the XlXth dynasty, 
 Karnes, and Rameses I., do not appear to have 
 
 ^ About 5000 by looo Eng-lish feet. 
 
64 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS, 
 
 erected any obelisks; but the son-in-law, and successor 
 of this last sovereign, an Egyptian general of 
 Semitic origin, signalised his reign by a return to the 
 erection of the ancient symbols of the worship of the 
 sun. Seti, or Seti-Menepthah I., was, it has now 
 been clearly established, a descendant of one of those 
 Hykshos princes, whose posterity still remained as 
 agriculturists in the Delta/ In fact the expulsion of 
 the Hykshos had never been so complete as to have 
 driven the entire body of the people beyond the 
 frontiers of Egypt; their kings were slain and their 
 power broken ; but a large number of the foreigners who 
 had intermarried with the Egyptians, and had become 
 assimilated with them through the domestic fusion of 
 thirty generations, staid behind, incorporating the 
 worship of the land of the Nile with the Set cultus of 
 their Palestinian brethren." 
 
 During the religious troubles which closed the period 
 of the XVIIIth dynasty, the Semites seem to have 
 maintained their position securely as an allied, rather 
 than a dependent race; and Seti I. was apparently the 
 son of one of their chiefs, who became a confederate of 
 Rameses I., in whose armies he himself acted as a 
 general. On the death of his master, he was regarded 
 by the native legitimate Egyptians simply as a 
 regent acting on behalf of his son Rameses II., who 
 was called " king in the womb of his mother before 
 he was born ; " but practically the gerius and war- 
 like achievements of Seti constituted him the sole 
 sovereign of the upper and lower kingdom for nearly 
 
 ^ Lenormant, I., p. 240. 
 
 ^ Set or Sutekh, a kind of ass-headed deity, was the lozal god of the 
 nations of the Hittites and Canaanites; the earHer Egyptians equated him 
 with their one g-ood deity Set, who was afterwards identified with Typhon, 
 the brother and adversary of Osiris, and the evil being pc^r excellence. 
 Still, despite of all changes. Set retained a position in both| theologies, 
 though his name was carefully erased from the monuments of the 
 Ramesside kings. 
 
CHAPTER XI I. 65 
 
 half a century, the latter years of which were passed in 
 that happy condition of national peace and prosperity 
 which leaves no mark on the registers of history.' 
 
 As a conqueror, the chiefest victories of Seti I. were 
 over the Rotennu, and their allies in northern Syria; 
 over the Shasu, or Arabs, who had invaded Egypt on 
 the frontier towards Suez; over the Lybians in the 
 north west ; and lastly, over the Ethiopians in the 
 south. These were almost the hereditary foes of the 
 Egyptians ; for Ethiopia and Mesopotamia occupied 
 in Egyptian politics a similar position to that taken 
 by the Scots and French in the mediaeval period of 
 English history. All his enemies, however, Seti- 
 Menepthah overcame. The Hittites he gave battle to 
 in the valley of the Orontes, and finally defeated both 
 them and the Amorites by the capture and battle of 
 Kadesh, the capital of the Hittites. The Rotennu with 
 their allies, the kings of Nineveh, Babylon, and Singar, 
 were reduced again to the position of tributaries, as 
 the result of a long campaign in the mountains of 
 Armenia; and in the end the whole of the Asiatic 
 conquests of Thothmes III. were recovered, with the 
 exception of the maritime provinces, which the now 
 rising naval power of the Pelasgian nations enabled 
 them to withhold from the grasp of the Pharaohs. 
 As an internal administrator and politician, Seti took 
 a high rank ; the navy originally instituted by queen 
 Hatasu, but which during the troublous seasons which 
 followed her decease had been neglected and its 
 materials scattered, was reconstructed ; the gold mines 
 in the Arabian deserts, hitherto unworkable from the 
 sterility of the soil, were again opened up, and an 
 artesian well sunk with great success to supply the 
 miners with water, an undertaking which was recorded 
 by the priests in language which to us appears 
 
 ^ There are no dated monuments of the reig-n of Seti-Menepthah later 
 than his thirtieth year, but the hsts of Manetho assign to him a reign of 
 fifty years duration. 
 
 6 
 
66 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 idolatrous, as ascribing the rush of water to the 
 miraculous power of the simple words of command 
 of the monarch in person.' Last, and greatest in its 
 conception of all the undertakings of Seti, was the 
 excavation of a canal from the Isthmus of Suez to the 
 Red Sea, passing the city of Zat, the Heroopolis of 
 the Greeks, on the line of what has been again known 
 to an admiring world as the Suez Canal. The bas- 
 reliefs, describing the victories of Seti, in the Hall of 
 Columns at Karnak, have left to posterity, among other 
 historical notices, this most striking proof of the wis- 
 dom and the power of the half usurper king of Egypt. 
 The architectural works of Seti were very numerous ; 
 the whole of the great temple at Karnak, including 
 the gigantic Hall of Columns, a hall in which the 
 loftiest conceptions of modern architecture are over- 
 powered, and the great temple tomb of Osiris at 
 Abydos, a temple which was more than 560 feet long, 
 the palace of Kurnah, and many lesser palaces, were 
 all begun, and nearly completed by him. Actuated 
 by a similar spirit of magnificence, he caused during 
 his lifetime, his own tomb to be prepared in the 
 valley of the tombs of the kings, the modern Biban-el- 
 Moluk at Thebes, like the temple of Karnak of which 
 no written description can give an adequate idea. 
 This tomb was, and indeed still is, one of the wonders 
 of the world ; ' it contained a series of exquisitely 
 sculptured and painted chambers, extending for more 
 than 300 yards into the depth of the mountain. 
 His sarcophagus was wrought out of a monolith of 
 the purest arragonite ; a translucent species of veined 
 alabaster; and it was adorned with a selection of 
 chapters from the mystical Book of Hades, one of the 
 
 ' See Birch, "Inscription of the Gold Mines of Rhedesieh," Recm-ds of the 
 Past, Vol. VII I., p. 67. 
 
 ^ It was first opened by Belzoni, in October 1S15, who on his return to 
 Eng-land, set up a model of one of the principal chambers in a hall in the 
 Egyptian Museum, Piccadilly, now the Egyptian Hall, 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 67 
 
 most occult books in the whole range of Egyptian 
 mythology. These inscribed texts which were after- 
 wards filled in with blue oxide of copper, covered the 
 coffin both within and without ; and in the chambers 
 around the sarcophagus were deposited many hun- 
 dred of Shabti, or funereal figures of the deceased 
 monarch in the character of Osiris, which had been 
 left there for the benefit of his soul by his devoted 
 officers and friends/ 
 
 Unfortunately for the honour of this great Pharaoh, 
 his son Rameses II. by placing his own name upon 
 the monuments of Seti, deprived his father of the 
 credit that should have been attached to him. Un- 
 happily also, his great temple at Abydos has 
 almost wholly fallen into ruins, his palace at Kurnah 
 has shared the like fate, and his own tomb was 
 invaded by the Persians under Cambyses, who broke 
 open the royal sarcophagus, destroyed its covering, 
 and threw away, or destroyed also, the royal mummy 
 which it contained. None of his Egyptian obelisks 
 remain in the land of their erection, and the largest of 
 them is that which now stands in the Porto del Popolo 
 at Rome, and is named the Flaminian Obelisk, after 
 the name of the Roman imperial family in whose 
 circus it was set up. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Obelisk of the Porta del Popolo; or, the Flaminian 
 
 Obelisk. 
 
 T 
 
 HIS magnificent obelisk was one of two which 
 originally were erected by Seti I. before the 
 
 ^ A full description of the Sarcophagus of Seti I., which Is now the chief 
 treasure of the Soane Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, is given in Bonomi, 
 Sarco-phagiLS of Oimenepthah L; a translation of the text with which it is 
 covered will appear in the next volume (Vol. X.) of the Records of the Past, 
 and will be written by M. Lefebure, who has devoted the energies of a 
 scholar's lifetime to the elucidation of the more obscure Egyptian myths. 
 
 6* 
 
68 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 temple of Amen-Ra at HeliopoHs, and the centre 
 column of hieroglyphics was intended to perpetuate 
 the remembrance of the Asiatic victories of the 
 founder. Rameses II. with the usual ingratitude of 
 Egyptian sovereigns towards their predecessors, added 
 two outer columns of hieroglyphics, arrogating to 
 himself the re-dedication of the monument ; and it 
 is probable that at the same time he caused the 
 objectionable figure of the Syrian deity Set to be 
 chiselled out of the first part of the cartouch of his 
 father, and a seated figure of the god Ra sculptured 
 in its place. Carefully as was this alteration carried 
 out it could not be wholly effectual, and the result 
 has been in some places that the long square ears, 
 which characterised the head of the hated god, appear 
 above the hawk's head of the Egyptian deity. On 
 the conquest of Egypt, Augustus Ciesar had it 
 removed to the Circus Maximus at Rome, in his 
 twelfth year, B.C. 20, and re-dedicated it to the sun, on 
 which occasion he caused the following inscription 
 to be incised upon its base : 
 
 IMP CAESAR DIVI F 
 
 AVGVSTVS 
 
 PONTIFEX MAXIMVS 
 
 IMP XII. COS XI. TRIB POT XIV. 
 
 AEGYPTO IN POTESTATEM 
 
 POPVLI ROMANI REDACTA 
 
 SOLI DONVM DEDIT. 
 
 During the wars and conflicts which took place in 
 the city of Rome after the decadence of the empire 
 of the Caesars, the obelisk was overthrown and broken 
 into three pieces, in which condition it remained in 
 the reign of Valentinian, circa A.D. 364. Buried and 
 forgotten it rested beneath the soil, or was trodden 
 under foot, through all the struggles of mediaeval 
 Rome, till the Pontificate of Sixtus V., who set it up 
 afresh, A.D. 1590, and consecrated it to the service of 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 69 
 
 Christianity by adding a gilt ball and cross at its 
 summit, and a long inscription upon its ancient base, 
 beneath the space occupied by the inscription of 
 Augustus, which in perspicuity and brevity far ex- 
 ceeds the Latinity of the more recent Pontifex 
 Maximus. 
 
 SIXTVS V. PONT. MAX. 
 
 OBELISCVM HVNC 
 
 A CAESARE AVG. SOLI 
 
 IN CIRCO MAXIMO RITV 
 
 DICATVM IMPIO 
 
 MISERANDA RVINA 
 
 FRACTVM OBRVTVMQ. 
 
 ERVI TRANSFERRI 
 
 FORMAE SVAE REDDI 
 
 CRVCIQ. INVICTISS. 
 
 DEDICARI IVSSIT 
 
 AN. M.D.LXXXIX. PONT. IIII. 
 
 ANTE SACRAM 
 
 ILLIVS AEDEM 
 
 AVGVSTIOR 
 
 LAETIORQ. SURGO 
 
 CVIVS EX VTERO 
 
 VIRGINALI 
 
 AVG. I M PER ANTE 
 
 SOL IVSTITIAE 
 
 EXORTVS EST.' 
 
 The material of the obelisk is of red granite, and 
 the height of its shaft, without base or ornament, 
 is 78 ft. 6 in., the entire height of the monument 
 from the ground to the top of the cross being 112 ft' 
 The hieroglyphics, according to a translation made 
 by Rev. G. Tomlinson in 1841, read as follows, 
 
 ^ Parker, Obelisks of Rome, p. 7. 
 
 ^ According to Murray's Rome. Bonomi's measurements are a trifle 
 less, and he indicates that a portion of the true base being" broken off, its 
 actual dimensions are uncertain. 
 
70 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 taking the centre lines which refer to Seti I. first, 
 before those added by his vain-glorious son : ' 
 
 Centre Column, East Side, 
 
 "The Horus, the powerful, beloved of justice, 
 King Pharaoh, guardian of justice, approved of the 
 
 sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, 
 
 He erected edifices like the stars of heaven, 
 He has made his deeds to resound above the 
 
 heaven. 
 Scattering the rays of the sun, rejoicing over them 
 
 in his house of millions of years. 
 In the .... year of His Majesty, 
 He has made good this edifice of his father, whom 
 
 he loved. 
 Giving stability to his name in the abode of the sun. 
 He who has done this is the son of the sun, 
 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, 
 The beloved of Tum, Lord of Heliopolis, giving 
 
 life for ever." 
 
 Centre Cohnnn, North Side. 
 
 " The Horus, the powerful, 
 Sanctified by truth,' 
 
 Lord of diadems. Lord of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Month ^ of the world, possessor(?) of Egypt, 
 The resplendent Horus, the Osiris(.^), the divine 
 
 priest of Totanen, 
 The king, Pharaoh, the establisher of justice. 
 Who renders illustrious the everlasting edifices of 
 
 Heliopolis, 
 By foundations (fit) for the support of the heaven, 
 
 ' "On the Flaminian Obelisk," with a plate by Joseph Bonomi, in Trans. 
 Roy. Soc. Lit., Vol. I., New Series, p. 176. 
 
 ^ Or justice. 
 
 ' An allusion to the sun g-od Mentu or Month, who was particularly 
 favourable to Rameses II. at the second battle of Kadesh. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 71 
 
 Who has established, honoured, and adorned the 
 
 temple of the sun. 
 And of the rest of the gods, 
 Which have been sanctified by him, the son of the 
 
 sun, 
 Menephtha-Sethai, the beloved of the spirits of 
 
 Heliopolis,' 
 Eternal like the sun." 
 
 Centre Column, South Side. 
 
 " The Horus, the powerful, 
 The piercer of foreign countries by his victories ; 
 The Lord of diadems. Lord of upper and lower 
 
 Egypt, 
 
 The establisher of everlasting edifices; 
 
 The resplendent Horus, 
 
 Making his sanctuary in the sun who loves him; 
 
 The king, Pharaoh, establisher of justice, 
 
 The adorner of Heliopolis, 
 
 Who makes libations to the sun, 
 
 And the rest of the Lords of the heavenly world, 
 
 Who gives delight by his rejoicings and by his 
 
 eyes. 
 He does it, the son of the sun, Menephtha-Sethai, 
 Beloved of Horus, the Lord of the two worlds, 
 Like the sun, everlasting." 
 
 Centre Column, West Side. 
 
 " The Horus, the powerful, 
 The beloved of the sun and of justice, 
 Lord of diadems, Lord of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Source of foreign countries, piercer of the Shep- 
 herds," 
 The resplendent Horus, 
 Beloved of the sun, whose name is magnified ; 
 
 * The spirits or local deities were sometimes represented as birds, a. 
 species of bennu, or phoenix, but the translation is obscure. 
 '^ Doubtful translation, probably "smiter of the Asiatics." 
 
72 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 The king, Pharaoh, establisher of justice, 
 
 Who fills Heliopolis with obelisks, 
 
 To illustrate with (their) rays the temple of the sun ; 
 
 Who, like the phoenix,' 
 
 Fills with good things the great temple of the gods, 
 
 Inundating(?) it with rejoicings. 
 
 He does it, who is the son of the sun, 
 
 Menephtha-Sethai, beloved of the rest of the gods 
 
 Who inhabit the great temple giving life." 
 
 East Side, Right Column. 
 
 " The Horus, the powerful. 
 The beloved of the sun, the Ra, 
 The offspring of the gods, the subjugator of the 
 
 world, 
 The king, the Pharaoh, guardian of justice. 
 Approved of the sun, son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, 
 
 Who gives joy to the region of Heliopolis, 
 When it beholds the radiance of the solar mountain. 
 He who does this is the Lord of the world, 
 The Pharaoh, guardian of justice, 
 Approved of the sun, son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, giving life like the sun." 
 
 East Side, Left Cohwin. 
 
 "The Horus, the powerful, the beloved of justice. 
 The resplendent Horus, 
 
 The director of the years, the great one of victories, 
 The king, Pharaoh, guardian of justice. 
 Approved of the sun, son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, has adorned 
 Heliopolis with great edifices, honouring the gods 
 By (placing) their statues in the great temple. 
 He, the Lord of the world, 
 Pharaoh, guardian of justice, 
 
 ^ Doubtful translation. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 73 
 
 Approved of the sun, son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, giving Hfe for ever." 
 
 North Side, Right Cohunn. 
 
 "The Horus, the powerful, the beloved of the sun, 
 The Ra, begotten of the gods, 
 The subjugator of the world, 
 The king, Pharaoh, approved of the sun. 
 Son of the sun, Amen-Mai Rameses, 
 Who magnifies his name in every region 
 By the greatness of his victories, 
 The Lord of the world, 
 Pharaoh, guardian of justice, 
 Approved of the sun, son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, giving life like the sun." 
 
 NortJi Side, Left Cohinui. 
 
 "The Horus, the powerful, the son of Set,' 
 The resplendent Horus, 
 
 The director of the years, the great one of victories, 
 The king, Pharaoh, the guardian of justice. 
 Approved of the sun, son of the son, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, 
 Who fills the temple of the phoenix with splendid 
 
 objects. 
 The Lord of the world, Pharaoh, the guardian of 
 
 justice. 
 Approved of the sun, the son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, giving life for ever." 
 
 South Side, Left Column. 
 
 " The Horus, the powerful, the beloved of justice, 
 Lord of the panegyrics. 
 Like his father Ptah-Totanen ; the king, 
 Pharaoh, guardian of justice, approved of the sun, 
 Son of the sun, Amen-Mai Rameses, 
 
 ^ Rather, descendant of Set-I-pet-i-Nubti, the first of the shepherd kings, 
 who was named after his local deity. 
 
74 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Begotten and educated by the gods, 
 
 Builder of their temples, Lord of the world ; 
 
 Pharaoh, guardian of justice, approved of the sun, 
 
 son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, giving life like the sun." 
 
 South Side, Second Left Cohinin. 
 
 " The Horus, the powerful, the son of Ptah-Totonen, 
 Lord of diadems. Lord of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Possessor of Egypt, chastiser of foreign countries. 
 The king, Pharaoh, guardian of justice, 
 Approved of the sun, son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, who causes rejoicing in 
 
 Heliopolis 
 By displaying his royal attributes, 
 Lord of the world, Pharaoh, guardian of justice, 
 Approved of the sun, son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, giving life for ever." 
 
 West SidCy Left Cohivin. 
 
 "The Horus, the powerful, the beloved of the sun, 
 Lord of the panegyrics, like his father Ptah- 
 
 Totanen, 
 The king, Pharaoh, guardian of justice. 
 Approved of the sun, son of the sun, Amen-Mai 
 
 Rameses, 
 Lord of diadems, possessor of Egypt, 
 Chastiser of foreign countries. Lord of the world ; 
 Pharaoh, guardian of justice, approved of the sun, 
 
 son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, son of Totanen, giving life." 
 
 Right Column^ West Side. 
 
 " The Horus, the powerful, the son of Tum, 
 The Ra, offspring of the gods, subjugator of the 
 
 world ; 
 The king, Pharaoh, guardian of justice, approved 
 
 of the sun, 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 75 
 
 The son of the sun, Amen-Mai Rameses, 
 The resplendent Horus, the director of the years, 
 The great one of victories, the Lord of the world ; 
 Pharaoh, guardian of justice, approved of the sun, 
 
 the son of the sun, 
 Amen-Mai Rameses, the son of Totanen, eternal." 
 
 Thus much for the self-laudation of the Egyptian 
 Pharaohs, 
 
 This is, according to some writers, the obelisk 
 which was said to have been anciently translated by 
 Hermapion ; other writers, however, consider that of 
 the Lateran to have furnished his text ; most probably, 
 as Champollion' states, the translation of Hermapion 
 is only a general statement of the nature of obelisk 
 inscriptions, as none of those now in Rome agree with 
 the Greek priest's version on all points. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The Translation of Hermapion. 
 
 WHEN Constantine the Great revived the use of 
 the obelisk as an architectural embellishment in 
 the cities of Alexandria, and, as he intended, also, of 
 Rome, the real symbolism of the monolith had not only 
 been long forgotten, but the language in which its in- 
 scriptions were written had become a forgotten tongue, 
 and the purport of its strangely pictorial sentences im- 
 perfectly remembered by vague tradition. Christianity 
 had pronounced against the arts of Egypt as being in 
 themselves wicked and magical, and of all these arts 
 the most important, because in it were concentrated 
 the secrets of them all, was the hieroglyphic writing. 
 
 * ChampolIIon, Precis. 
 
76 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 The action of the first Christian Emperor in once 
 more erecting an obelisk excited a passing interest 
 in the nature of the records contained upon it, and 
 accordingly an Egypto-Grecian priest named Her- 
 mapion, of whom nothing besides his name is known/ 
 gave to the clergy what he professed was a translation 
 of the hieroglyphics of the obelisk in the Circus 
 Maximus. This translation, the first attempt which 
 was ever made to render intelligible the language of 
 the Pharaohs, has been preserved for posterity by the 
 historian Ammianus Marcellinus.' That the general 
 sense of Hermapion's rendering is accurate there is no 
 reason to doubt, but the researches of Champollion 
 and Lepsius have since proved that it is not taken from 
 a transcript of the characters of any obelisk now 
 existing at Rome. There are, of course, certain 
 phrases which resemble those occurring again and 
 again on the obelisks of the Lateran and the Porta 
 del Popolo, but there the resemblance ceases, and it is 
 evident that the Egyptian priest in his anxiety to 
 please his masters, either professed a knowledge which 
 he had not, or else altered the phraseology of his 
 text to suit their prejudices and his own. Still it is a 
 point worthy of notice, that from the period of Her- 
 mapion all knowledge even of the meanings of a few 
 characters of the Egyptian syllabaries passes away, 
 and the curse of silence punished the prejudices of 
 bigotry till fourteen centuries had elapsed, and the 
 petrified invocations of Rameses to his father Ra were 
 again rendered audible in our ears by the instinctive 
 penetration of Champollion. The following is the 
 translation of Hermapion,^ in which Helios represents 
 Ra throughout : 
 
 ' Sharpe, Egypt under the Romans, p. 147. 
 
 ^ Ammian. Marcell, in Long's Egypt. Aniiq., I., 338. 
 
 ^ Hermapion was probably orig-inally named after the gods Thoth and 
 Apis. The first-named deity being always by the Greek writers called 
 Hermes. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 77 
 
 ^'This says Helios (the sun) to king Rhamestes;' 
 We have given to thee all the world to reign over 
 
 with joy, 
 Thee whom Helios loves and Apollo : 
 The strong truth-loving son of Heron, 
 Born of the gods, the founder (/ct/ctt?;?) of the world 
 Whom Helios has chosen, strong in war, king 
 
 Rhamestes, 
 To whom the whole earth is subdued 
 With strength and courage : 
 King Rhamestes of eternal life." 
 
 Second Inscription. 
 
 " Apollo the strong, he who stands upon truth, 
 The Lord of the diadem, who possesses Egypt 
 
 in glory. 
 Who has adorned the city of the sun, 
 And founded (/cr/o-a?) the rest of the world. 
 And has greatly honoured the gods established in 
 
 the city of Helios, 
 Whom Helios loves." 
 
 Third Inscription. 
 
 "Apollo" the mighty, the blazing son of Helios, 
 Whom Helios has chosen, and Ares^ the valiant has 
 
 favoured ; 
 Whose good things last for ever, whom Ammon 
 
 loves ; 
 Who fills the temple of the Phoenix with good 
 
 things, 
 To whom the gods have given length of life ; 
 Apollo the mighty, the son of Heron, 
 To Rhamestes the king of the world, 
 Who has protected Egypt by conquering foreigners ; 
 Whom Helios loves, to whom the gods have given 
 
 long life, 
 The Lord of the world, Rhamestes of eternal life." 
 
 ' Rameses II. "^ Har-em-akhu. ^ Mentu or Month. 
 
78 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Fourth Inscription. 
 
 " Helios, the great god, the Lord of the heaven, 
 I have given to thee life free from sorrow, 
 Apollo the mighty, the Lord of the diadem, the in- 
 comparable, 
 To whom the Lord of Egypt has erected statues in 
 
 this royal town, 
 And has adorned the city of Helios," 
 And Helios himself, the Lord of the heavens. 
 He has completed his noble work. 
 The son of Helios, the everliving king.'' 
 
 Fifth Inscription. 
 
 " Helios, the Lord of the heavens : 
 To king Rhamestes have I given might and power ; 
 Whom Apollo loves, the Lord of the times, 
 Whom Hephaestus^ the father of the gods has 
 
 chosen through Ares, 
 The noble king ; the son of Helios, by Helios 
 
 beloved." 
 
 Sixth Inscription. 
 
 ** The great god of the city of Helios, 
 The heavenly, Apollo the mighty, the son of Heron, (i*) 
 Whom Helios loves, whom the gods honour, 
 Who rules the whole earth, whom Helios chose, 
 The king mighty through Ares, whom Ammon loves ; 
 And the bright burning king for ever." 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Obelisk of Trinita dci Monte. 
 
 THIS is one of the smaller of the Egyptian 
 obelisks, being only 48 ft. high,^ excluding the 
 
 * Heliopolis. " Ptah-Totanen. 
 
 3 According- to Bonomi, it is only 43 ft. 6 in. in heig-ht. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 79 
 
 base, by 4 ft. 3 in. in diameter; its apex is plain, and 
 each of its four faces has three lines of hieroglyphics: 
 the central one, as usual, referring to the acts of 
 Seti I., and the two outer columns to those of his 
 son, Rameses II. The material in which it is con- 
 structed is red granite, and from the style of art in 
 which the characters are cut, it is the general opinion 
 of antiquaries that the monument is an ancient 
 Roman copy of the larger obelisk in Piazza del 
 Popolo. It originally stood in the centre of the 
 Circus of Sallust, and like all of its companion 
 monoliths, was overthrown at the fall of Rome. The 
 art-loving Pontiff, Pius VI., to whose energies and 
 taste the Eternal City will for centuries bear witness, 
 employed the architect Antinori to erect this obelisk, 
 supplying it with an appropriate base, and the 
 orthodox Christian finials. This was done in A.D. 
 1789, and the Quirinal Mount, upon which the Church 
 of La Trinita dei Monte is situated, received again 
 the honour which it formerly derived from conquered 
 Egypt and pagan Rome. The text upon it has not 
 yet been translated. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Obelisks of Rameses II. 
 
 AFTER Seti-Menepthah, the next Egyptian 
 monarch who distinguished himself by the 
 erection of obelisks, as well as temples, was his son 
 Rameses IL, who took as his surname the title of 
 Meri-Amen, '' Beloved of Amen," by which he is 
 best known in history. In order to please the domi- 
 nant clergy he was associated with his father on 
 the throne of Egypt when only ten years old, and 
 
8o EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 became sole king at the age of eighteen or twenty. 
 Like Seti I., Rameses was attached to the worship 
 of the Syrian god Set, and erected a srhall temple 
 at Karnak in his honour ; a temple, the inscriptions in 
 which were afterwards effaced as the monarch from 
 motives of policy, or conviction, became more ortho- 
 dox. He was as great a warrior as his father, and 
 even a still greater builder of temples and palaces, 
 chiefly of the temples of Ipsambul, the Ramessium, 
 Memphis, Karnak, Luxor, Abydos, and Tanis. He 
 further caused to be constructed a colossal statue repre- 
 senting himself at the city of Memphis. On these 
 various monuments his name in the cartouches is found 
 written in as many as thirty different ways. Warlike 
 from his youth, his first engagements were against 
 the Ethiopians, whom he completely overcame; but his 
 chief wars took place with the Khit^, or Hittites, in a 
 battle where, by his extreme hardihood he nearly lost 
 his life in an ambush set by his foes, from which he 
 was only delivered by his own bravery and that of 
 his armour-bearer Menna. Ultimately Rameses con- 
 cluded a treaty of peace with Khitasira, the king of 
 the Hittites, and took his daughter to wife, giving 
 her the Egyptian name of Ra-maa-ur-nefru, " The 
 Most Beautiful Sun." He invaded Palestine and took 
 the fortress of Shaluma or Shalem, the Jerusalem of 
 Hebrew history ; and besides many other fortresses 
 he built those of Pakhalem and Raameses, which have 
 been identified with the treasure cities Pithom and 
 Rameses of the Bible, in which case he must have been 
 the Pharaoh of the Exodus. Rameses H. also con- 
 tinued a wall which was begun by his father Seti, from 
 Pelusium to HeliopoHs, as a defence to the kingdom 
 against the Asiatics. He married many times, and 
 one of his daughters named Bentanath, became a 
 queen, but of what country it is not known. Equally 
 fond of singularity as of display Rameses was generally 
 accompanied in battle by a favourite lion and dog. 
 
CHAPTE\R XV I. 8 1 
 
 He reigned alone for sixty-seven years, and w^as 
 buried, not as was usual among the kings of Egypt, 
 but in one of the chambers of the Serapeum or 
 burial place of the divine bull, Apis, at Memphis. 
 His successor was Menepthah H., his thirteenth son; 
 all his other sons having died before him. One 
 of his surnames, Setesura, was the origin of the royal 
 name Sesostris of the Greeks. He is doubtfully said 
 to have had i66 children, 59 of them being sons; and 
 by one Egyptologist, to have married his own 
 daughter, the queen Bentanath.' 
 
 The chief obelisks set up by Rameses H. were 
 those at Luxor, one of which still maintains its 
 ancient position ; the other, the westernmost, having 
 fallen down, was removed to Paris by the French 
 army, and now forms the chief attraction of the noble 
 Place de la Concorde in that beautiful city. The 
 obelisk of Luxor is, like all true obelisks, wrought 
 in fine red granite; it stands, without including 
 its pedestal, about 82 ft. high by 8 ft. in diameter ; 
 the apex, having been originally covered by a metal 
 cap, is not sculptured, and has been much eroded, if 
 indeed it was not intentionally left in a rough con- 
 dition ; each of the four faces of the obelisk contains 
 three vertical lines of deeply cut hieroglyphs in 
 honour of Rameses H., the hieroglyphics on this 
 obelisk being particularly deeply cut and well formed. 
 There is a peculiarity in the lines of this monument 
 which could only be noticed when it and its com- 
 panion obelisk were standing together, this peculiarity 
 consisted in a sensible curvation of the two interior 
 faces of the monoliths, which according to Sir Gardner 
 Wilkinson was designed to obviate the shadow 
 thrown by the sun on a plane surface. " The exterior 
 angle thus formed by the intersecting lines of direction 
 of either side of the face is about three degrees ; and 
 
 ^ Archaic Dictionary, Rameses II. 
 
82 EGYPTIAH ' OBELISKS. 
 
 this is one of the many proofs of their (the Egyptians') 
 attentive observation of the phenomena of nature." ' 
 
 The bases of the ObeHsk of Luxor are adorned 
 with sculptures upon each of their four faces ; the 
 north and south sides having figures in high rehef 
 
 of the sacred cynocephelus ape (aani) Jj, standing 
 
 in an attitude of adoration, as they are frequently 
 represented on the mystical papyri when worshipping 
 the sun, Turn, in the underworld ; the eastern and 
 western faces of the bases have standing figures of 
 the god Nilus, or Hapimou, bringing offerings ; these 
 are carved in the sharp, low, incavo relievo, peculiar 
 to Egyptian art.^ The bases rested upon two low 
 steps of limestone. 
 
 To an Egyptian whose delighted eyes beheld 
 Luxor in all its glory at the close of the XlXth 
 dynasty, the effect presented by the position and 
 environments of these two obelisks must have been 
 fine in the extreme. Behind them rose the stupen- 
 dous pylons adorned with flag staves, and between 
 the temple and the bases of the obelisks were two 
 colossal statues of Rameses himself, crowned with 
 the sacred crown of the united kingdom, holding in 
 his hands the mysterious symbol of life, and sitting 
 in that solemn attitude of placid power which was 
 assumed by the gods and the Pharaohs their co- 
 equals ; in front of these statues and obelisks a 
 long avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, a portion of that 
 stately dromos which connected this temple with 
 that at Karnak, extended for a distance of nearly 
 two miles, passing through a verdant district flanked 
 with smaller temples and adorned by gigantic 
 statues and sculptured colonnades. Taking the 
 two great temples of Thebes, Luxor and Karnak 
 together, the nations of the world probably never 
 produced a more imposing or more costly series of 
 
 ' Murray, Egypty p. 374. ^ Wilkinson's Thebes, p. 350. 
 
CHAFl'ER XVII. S^ 
 
 palace shrines. Had not an earthquake in recent 
 times aided by its spasmodic fury the maHcious wrath 
 of men, Luxor and Karnak with their obehsks and 
 colossi would have continued to this day, as strong 
 and nearly as perfect as when Rameses II. was carried 
 on the shoulders of his officers through ranks of 
 adoring slaves, to signify his approbation of the works 
 constructed in his name and designed to perpetuate 
 his glory. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 T/ie Obelisk of Paris. 
 
 WHEN the victorious quasi-scientific armies of 
 Napoleon entered Egypt, they opened to the 
 literati and antiquarians of Europe the sealed trea- 
 sures of the south, and stimulated an interest in the 
 monuments of Egypt among the capitals of the west, 
 which had not been excited for more than a century 
 before ; indeed, not since the publication by Pocock, 
 and Corneille Le Brun, of their respective travels 
 in Egypt, and the Holy Land.' The intention of 
 Napoleon was to have carried off from upper 
 Egypt the most striking objects of ancient art, but 
 the genius of Sir Ralph Abercrombie terminated his 
 successes in Egypt; and the bravery of Nelson, and 
 
 ^ Pocock's Travels contain the first accurate accounts of many of the 
 Egyptian temples, together with drawings of the vocal Memnon, the 
 Egyptian tombs, and the Sinaitlc inscriptions. The work was, as usual in 
 those days, published by subscription, and the plates separately paid for 
 by individual donors, chiefly College friends of the author, and, in con- 
 sequence, the best skill of the engraver has often been devoted to the 
 delineation of their armorial bearings at the foot of the plates; a subject 
 which he was evidently more familiar with than antiquities. 
 
 Le Brun's Voyages chiefly deal with Arabia, Palestine, and the East. 
 The plates are still less reliable than Pocock's. 
 
 7* 
 
84 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 the capitulation of Alexandria, threw into the hands 
 of the English the sculptures that the French had 
 marked for themselves. Of these monuments the 
 greatest was the fallen obelisk at Luxor ; but with the 
 indifference to art which has generally marked a 
 popular ministry, the government of Pitt took no 
 steps to secure either that or the prostrate obelisk at 
 Alexandria, which was also offered to it ; and the 
 principal relic carried away as a military trophy was 
 the Rosetta Stone, more on account of its portability 
 than its apparent value, which has since proved to be 
 inestimable. Circumstances did not allow, for many 
 years, either England or France to turn their attention 
 from the present to the past, but in 183 1 Mehemet Ali 
 offered to the British and the French the obelisks of 
 Alexandria, even proposing to defray the transport 
 of the fallen obelisk to the deck of the English ship 
 at his own expense. Unwisely prudent, the State de- 
 clined the offer,, but the French Government more 
 cautiously sent out ChampoUion Le Jeune, the famous 
 Egyptologist and jointly with Dr. Young, the discoverer 
 of the language of the Pharaohs, to examine and report 
 upon the whole question. ChampoUion, therefore, 
 made a thorough examination of all the obelisks 
 in the country, and ultimately reported in favour 
 of those at Luxor. Upon the ministers of Louis 
 Philippe accepting his decision, the Viceroy of Egypt 
 allowed the removal of the westernmost of the two 
 obelisks of Rameses IL ; and on the part of the 
 French a vessel especially designed for the transport 
 of the monolith was built at Toulon, for the purpose 
 of conveying it to Europe, and it sailed under the 
 conduct of Lieut. Verninac St. Maur in 1831, who on 
 his return wrote an interesting account of the whole ex- 
 pedition.' The Lotiqsor, for so was the vessel named, 
 arrived at Luxor in the heat of the summer, and 
 M. De St Maur and the engineer Lebas, a pupil of 
 
 ^ yoijage du Lvocor en Egi/pte, 1835. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. ^ 85 
 
 I'Ecole Polytechnique, at once cleared out the bases 
 of both obelisks, when it was discovered that, owing 
 to the westernmost one being a Httle the shorter, the 
 pedestals were of unequal height, and one a Httle 
 in advance of the other. A considerable time was 
 spent in Egypt in dislodging, packing, and re- 
 moving the smaller obelisk ; and upon its being 
 taken down it was ascertained that it had been 
 originally cracked and mended again by two dove- 
 tailed wedges of wood before it was placed in position 
 by Rameses II. ; these wedges had, however, com- 
 pletely perished by the moisture which had crept in 
 and condensed between the base and the plinth of the 
 obelisk. With so much deliberation and trouble was 
 the transport of the obelisk effected, that it was not 
 landed at Paris till December 23, 1833. Equal care 
 was taken with its re-erection in the Place de la 
 Concorde. A long inclined plane of wood and earth 
 was made, reaching from the vessel in which it lay to 
 the base upon which the monument was to be set up; 
 and it was finally re-elevated without injury or risk 
 on October 25, 1836, '' aiix applatidissements (Tim 
 peiiple iiinnenser ' In the open circus in which it 
 stands, unimpeded by narrow streets, and undis- 
 figured by the gilded ornamentations which are added 
 to the obelisk of Rome, this obelisk marks at one and 
 the same time the majesty of ancient Egypt, and the 
 power of modern France." In its dimensions the 
 obelisk of Paris is a little shorter than that at Luxor: 
 being, according to Bonomi, y6 ft. 6 in. in height by 
 8 ft wide at the base. The apex is left unfinished, 
 
 ^ See Delaborde, Precis des Ope^'atioiis relatives an Transport (Tun. de ces 
 Monumeiis dans la Capitate, 1832. 
 
 * A full and most interesting^ account of the difficulties attending- the 
 transit of this obelisk, is given by M. De St Maur himself, in La f^oyage 
 du Louqsor, 1S35. The construction of a ship to carry away the monu- 
 ment was a revival of the method adopted by Constantius, a.d. 357, when 
 he transported to Rome the obelisk of the Lateran ; which latter was con- 
 veyed along the Mediterranean in a galley steered by 300 rowers. 
 
86 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 and still seems to demand in the damp air of Europe 
 the protection of its former gilded cap. The follow- 
 ing is a translation by M. Chabas of the hieroglyphics 
 which cover its four sides.' 
 
 North Side, Central Colmnn. 
 
 *' The Horus-sun, strong bull of the sun, 
 Who has smitten the barbarian, 
 Lord of the diadems, 
 
 Who fights millions, magnanimous lion, golden hawk, 
 Strongest in all the world 
 Ousor-ma-Ra,' bull at his limit, 
 Obliging the whole earth to come before him. 
 By the will of Amen his august father 
 He has made the obelisk, 
 
 The son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, living 
 eternally." 
 
 North Side, Left Column. 
 
 ''The Horus-sun, strong bull, the strongest (of the 
 strongest) 
 
 Who fights with his sword. 
 
 King of great roarings, master of terror. 
 
 Whose valour strikes the whole earth, 
 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Ousor-ma-Ra, Sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Mei- 
 Amen-Rameses, 
 
 Whose dominion is twice cherished 
 
 Like that of the god inhabiting Thebes, 
 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Ousor-ma-Ra, Sotep en-Ra, 
 
 Son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, the vivifier." 
 
 North Side, Right Colinmi. 
 
 "The Horus-sun, strong bull, the Lord of the tria- 
 contaeride festivals, 
 
 ' Published in Records of the Past, Vol. IV., p. 17. 
 Prenomen of Rameses II. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 87 
 
 Who loves the two worlds, king strong by his sword, 
 
 Who hath seized both worlds, 
 
 Supreme chief whose royalty is great as that of the 
 
 god Turn, 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ousor-ma-Ra, Sotep-en-Ra, Mei-Amen-Rameses, 
 The chiefs of the entire world are under his feet ; 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ousor-ma-Ra, Sotep-en-Ra, 
 Son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, vivifier." 
 
 East Side, Central Cohunn. 
 " The Horus-sun, strong bull, fighting with his sword, 
 Lord of the diadems, who subdues ' whoever 
 
 approaches him. 
 Who seizes the ends of the world, 
 Golden hawk, very terrible, master of valour, 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ousor-ma-Ra, 
 
 Divine issue of his father Amen, Lord of gods. 
 Causing to be joyous the temple of the soul, 
 And the gods of the great temple in joy. 
 He has made the obelisk. 
 The son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, living 
 
 eternally." 
 
 jEast Side, Left Column. 
 
 " The Horus-sun, strong bull, son of Amen, 
 How multiplied are his monuments ! 
 The very strong, beloved son of the sun on his throne, 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ousor-ma-Ra, Sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, 
 Mei-Amen-Rameses, who has erected the dwelling 
 
 of Amen ' 
 Like the heavenly horizon, by his great monuments 
 
 for eternity. 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, vivifier." 
 
 * Strikes down. ^ Thebes. 
 
SS EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Bast Side, Right Column. 
 
 "The Horus, strong bull, beloved of the goddess 
 
 Truth, 
 King doubly cherished as the god Turn, 
 Supreme Chief, delight of Amen-Ra for centuries; 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, Ousor-ma-Ra, 
 
 Sotep-en-Ra, 
 Son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses ; 
 As is heaven, that (such) is thy monument ; 
 Thy name will be permanent like the heavens. 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, Ousor-ma-Ra, 
 
 Sotep-en-Ra, 
 Son of the sun Mei-Amen-Rameses, vivifier." 
 
 Middle Cohcnni, West Side. 
 
 "The Horus sun, strong bull, beloved of the goddess 
 truth. 
 Lord of the diadems, who takes care of Egypt and 
 
 chastises nations, 
 Golden hawk, master of armies, the very strong. 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, Ousor-ma-Ra, 
 King of kings, issue of Tum, one in body with him 
 To perform his royalty on earth for centuries, 
 And to render Amen's dwelling happy by the bene- 
 factions. 
 He has made (the obelisk), 
 
 The son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses living 
 eternally." 
 
 Left Cohcinn, West Side. 
 
 " The Horus sun, strong bull, rich in valour, 
 King, potent by the sword. 
 
 Who has made himself master of the whole world 
 By his strength, king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ousor-ma-Ra Sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, 
 Mei-Amen-Rameses : all countries of the earth 
 come to him with their tributes. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 89 
 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, Ousor-ma-Ra 
 
 Sotep-en-Ra, 
 Son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, vivifier." 
 
 Right Cohunn, West Side. 
 
 *' The Horus sun, strong bull, beloved of the sun. 
 King who is a great plague (to his enemies); 
 The whole earth trembles in terror of him, 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, Ousor-ma-Ra- 
 
 Sotep-en-Ra, 
 Son of the sun (Mei-Amen Rameses), 
 Son of Mont, whom Mont has formed with his 
 
 hand,' 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, Ousor-ma-Ra- 
 
 Sotep-en-Ra, 
 Son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, vivifier." 
 
 Middle Coliiin7i^ South Side. 
 
 *' The Horus sun, strong bull, very valorous. 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ousor-ma-Ra Sotep-en-Ra, eldest son of the king 
 
 of the gods. 
 Who has raised him on his throne on the earth. 
 Like an only lord ; possessor of the whole 
 
 world ; 
 He knows him, as he (the king) had done homage 
 
 to him 
 By bringing to perfection his dwelling for millions 
 
 of years, 
 Mark of the preference he had in the Southern Ap 
 
 for his father,^ 
 Who will prefer him for millions of years. 
 He has made (the obelisk), 
 The son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, vivifier, 
 
 eternal as the sun." 
 
 ^ The hostile or warlike form of the sun god Ra. 
 ° A district of Thebes. 
 
90 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Left Column, South Side, 
 
 " The Horus sun, strong bull, loved by the goddess 
 
 Truth, 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ousor-ma-Ra Sotep-en-Ra, 
 Son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, descendant of 
 
 the sun, 
 Protected by Harmachis, illustrious seed, precious 
 
 ^gg of the sacred eye,' 
 Emanation of the king of the gods, to be the 
 
 only lord, 
 Possessor of the whole world, 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ousor-ma-Ra Sotep-en-Ra, 
 Son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, eternal vivi- 
 
 fier." 
 
 Right Column, South Side. 
 
 *' The Horus sun, strong bull, beloved of the sun, 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ousor-ma-Ra Sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, 
 Mei-Amen-Rameses, king, excellent, warlike, 
 Vigilant to seek the favours of him who has be- 
 gotten him ; 
 Thy name is permanent as the heavens ; 
 The length of thy life is like the solar disk therein 
 
 (the heaven). 
 King of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ousor-ma-Ra Sctep-en-Ra, 
 
 Son of the sun, Mei-Amen-Rameses, eternal vivi- 
 fier like the sun," 
 
 THE OBELISKS OF SAN, 
 
 When the Hykshos ruled in Egypt one of the chief 
 cities which they conquered and adapted to them- 
 selves was the town of San, a town originally founded 
 
 * An allusion to the divine eye. The sun and moon being- the sacred 
 eyes of deity, and the god Khnum the spirit, the egg, or pupil of those eyes. 
 
CHAPl'ER XVII. 91 
 
 in the north-west of the Delta by the monarchs of 
 the Xllth dynasty. Expelling from its walls all the 
 resident Egyptians, and destroying all the temples 
 and palaces which they could not adapt to the 
 purposes of their own worship, the Shepherds rebuilt 
 the city as one peculiarly their own, and introduced 
 into its sculpture and architecture their strongly 
 Asiatic style of art. When the restoration of the 
 ancient regime, and consequently their own expulsion, 
 took place under the first kings of the XVIIIth 
 dynasty, San was one of the first places in which the 
 Hykshos were attacked, and one of the last from 
 which they were expelled. Hence the Egyptians 
 considering the whole place as entirely defiled, con- 
 tented themselves with destroying the buildings of 
 the hated Asiatics, and delivering the captured town 
 to desolation. In the XlXth dynasty, however, 
 Rameses IL, who it has been already observed was 
 more than half of Hykshos descent and faith, deter- 
 mined to restore the former capital, and therefore re- 
 founded the original temples, dedicating afresh others 
 to Ra, Tum, and Horus, all solar deities, together with 
 Sutekh the Semitic god. The edifices of Rameses 11. 
 at San were particularly splendid and uniform in their 
 design, and as they were chiefly connected with the 
 worship of Ra, so there was a larger number of 
 obelisks than was usually erected at one time by the 
 same monarch. In the ruins of San, or Tanis as the 
 city was afterwards called,' no less than ten obelisks . 
 bearing the cartouch of Rameses 1 1, have been 
 discovered; these are generally broken, and they 
 appear to have formed a grand avenue in front of the 
 temple of Ra. The heights of the obelisks vary ; 
 
 ' San, or Tanis was again the capital of lower Egypt under the XXIInd 
 and XXlIIrd dynasties; but the Pharaohs of the XXVIth dynasty gave a 
 fatal blow to its importance, by removing- the seat of government to Sais. 
 Under the Greek dominion it was plundered of its monuments by the 
 Ptolemies, and it finally perished as a city of any note under the Edict of 
 Theodosius, a.d. 379- 
 
92 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 some when entire may have been 50 or 60 ft. high, 
 with a mean diameter of 5 ft. ; others, chiefly at 
 the lower end of the avenue, measure about 33 ft. 
 in altitude ; they also vary as to the amount of in- 
 scription upon them, some having one and others two 
 vertical lines of hieroglyphics; all of them are, how- 
 ever, still prostrate, though it would be an enterprise 
 deserving the notice of European lovers of art, to 
 remove one or two of them to one of the cities of 
 Europe, and re-establish it to the admiration of man- 
 kind. Who will be the Erasmus Wilson of Dublin, 
 Edinburgh, or Glasgow ? 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Other Obelisks of Rameses II. 
 
 FACING the still stately and almost perfect 
 Rotunda, or Pantheon, which was erected by 
 Agrippa twenty years before the Christian era, and 
 which has never since its consecration ceased to be 
 a place of prayer, stands the upper portion of what 
 was once a fine obelisk of Rameses II., and still, 
 albeit but a fragment, of nearly 20 ft. in height.' 
 Although the work of the Egyptian sculptors of the 
 XlXth dynasty, yet, inasmuch as, like that of the 
 Piazza della Minerva it bears also the cartouch of 
 Psametik II., it has been attributed to that later 
 monarch. The obelisk is of red granite, and has but 
 a single column of hieroglyphics, with the cartouch 
 of Rameses 11. on each of the four sides. According 
 to some writers'" it is conjectured to have formed 
 one of a pair of obelisks which were carried away 
 
 ^ According to Murray^s Rome it is only 17 feet high. 
 ^ Murray's Rome^ 284. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 93 
 
 from Egypt by one of the later emperors, and then 
 set up afresh in front of the temple of Isis and 
 Serapis in the Campus Martius. The site of that 
 temple was afterwards occupied by the Dominican 
 Convent della Minerva, and the obelisks were re- 
 discovered A.D. 1665. Parker, in his recent work 
 on the Obelisks of Rome, asserts on the contrary, 
 that this obelisk was one (of several) which stood 
 on the Spina of the Circus Maximus, from whence 
 it was removed by Pope Paul V., A.D. 1620, and set 
 up in the Piazza di S. Martini ; and that it was trans- 
 ferred to the centre of the fountain which beautifies 
 the Piazza della Rotunda, in the year 171 1, by the 
 order of Clement XL' 
 
 THE OBELISK OF THE VILLA MATTEL 
 
 The last of the obelisks of Rameses II. which 
 remains to be described is a small one of red granite, 
 about 8 ft. 3 in. high ; it was found with the other 
 obelisks of the Minerva and the Rotunda on the 
 site of the ancient temple of Isis, and like them 
 bears also the cartouch of Psametik II. It is much 
 damaged, and was placed in its present site in the 
 gardens of the Villa Mattel, on the Coelian Mount, 
 by the order of Pope Sixtus V., A.D. 1590. 
 
 A rather sad anecdote is attached to this obelisk, 
 for it is related that while it was being raised upon 
 its pedestal, the architect in his anxiety to steady the 
 monument, incautiously placed his hand upon the 
 pedestal at the moment when the cords were relaxed, 
 the ponderous stone at once descended crushing the 
 fingers, and as it was impossible to lift up the mono- 
 lith the architect had to have his hand cut off, leaving 
 the bones of his fingers under the obelisk, where to 
 this day Roman gossip imagines they are still to be 
 seen." 
 
 ^ Parker, Ohelisks, p. 9. * Ibid., p. 7. 
 
94 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Obelisks of the Later Dynasties. 
 
 HERODOTUS tells us in one of his gossiping 
 historiettes, that when Egypt was parcelled 
 out into a confederacy of twelve petty kingdoms, the 
 monarchs were in the wont of sacrificing at stated inter- 
 vals in the temple of Vulcan, or more properly Ptah 
 Sokari; and that upon one occasion as they were 
 sacrificing in the temple of Vulcan, and were about 
 to offer a libation on the last day of the festival, "the 
 high-priest, mistaking the number, brought out eleven 
 of the twelve golden bowls with which he used to 
 make the libation, whereupon he who stood last of 
 them, Psammetichus, since he had not a bowl, having 
 taken off his helmet which was of brass, held it out 
 and made the libation ; all the other kings were in the 
 habit of wearing helmets, and at that time had them 
 on. Psammetichus, therefore, without any sinister 
 intention, held out his helmet; but they having taken 
 into consideration what was done by Psammetichus, 
 and the oracle that had foretold to them that * whoso- 
 ever among them should offer a libation from a 
 brazen bowl, should be sole king of Egypt,' calling 
 to mind the oracle, they did not think it right to put 
 him to death, since upon examination they found 
 that he had done it by no premeditated design, but 
 they determined to banish him to the marshes, having 
 divested him of the greatest part of his power; and 
 they forbade him to leave the marshes, or to have 
 any intercourse with the rest of Egypt. Afterwards, 
 having been made king, he was a second time con- 
 strained to go into exile among the marshes on 
 account of the helmet Knowing then, that he had 
 been exceedingly injured by them, he entertained the 
 design of avenging himself on his persecutors, and 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 95 
 
 when he sent into the city of Buto to consult the 
 oracle of Latona (Sekhet), where is the truest oracle 
 that the Egyptians have, an answer came, 'that 
 vengeance should come from the sea, when men of 
 brass should appear.' He however, was very incredulous 
 that men of brass should come to assist him; but 
 when no long time had elapsed, stress of weather 
 compelled some lonians and Carians, who had sailed 
 out for the purpose of piracy, to bear away into 
 Egypt; and when they had disembarked and were 
 clad in brazen armour, an Egyptian who had never 
 before seen men clad in brass went to the marshes to 
 Psammetichus, and told him that men of brass having 
 arrived from the sea were ravaging the plains ; he 
 perceiving that the oracle was accomplished, treated 
 these lonians and Carians in a friendly manner, and 
 having promised them great things, persuaded them 
 to join with him, and when he had succeeded in 
 persuading them, he then with the help of such 
 Egyptians as were well affected to him, and with 
 these allies, overcame the other kings." ' 
 
 Thus was Egypt, already subjugated to Assyria, de- 
 nationalized by Greece, for from the time of Psametik 
 Greek art, Greek ideas, and Grecian polity prevailed 
 in lower Egypt, to the ultimate destruction of all true 
 native art. The ancient religion also suffered, for the 
 last revision of the great Ritual of the Dead took 
 place about this period, and many new glosses crept 
 in. Civilizations so opposed as those of the Egyptian 
 and the Hellene could not well fare together ; and 
 from the reign of the kings of the XXVI th dynasty, 
 the life spirit departed from the palaces and the creeds 
 of the Pharaohs, though, like their own beautiful 
 mummies, the form remained perfect when the soul 
 had fled. The Grecianization of Egypt by Psametik, 
 and his rendering the study of that language com- 
 pulsory, drove his subjects into a revolt, and 200,000 
 
 ' Euterpe^ cli. 
 
96 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 of them went into voluntary exile to form a new 
 Egypt in Ethiopia. Psametik, however, held his 
 position steadily ; was a great restorer, if not a correct 
 one, and he reigned for certainly not less than fifty- 
 two years, when he was succeeded by his son, 
 Necho II. 
 
 As an obelisk rearer, this crafty usurper is best 
 known by the lofty obelisk which stands in the centre 
 of the Monte Citorio at Rome. It was originally 
 removed from Heliopolis by Augustus, A.D. 30, at the 
 same time when he transferred the obelisks of Seti I. 
 and Rameses II. to ornament the Spina of the Circus 
 Maximus. According to Pliny it was set up to serve 
 as the gnomon of a sun-dial in the Campus Martius. 
 "With this object a stone pavement was laid, the 
 extreme length of which corresponded exactly with 
 the length of the shadow thrown by the obelisk at the 
 sixth hour on the day of the winter solstice.' After 
 this period the shadow would go on day by day 
 gradually decreasing ; and then again (after the 
 summer solstice) would as gradually increase, corre- 
 sponding with certain lines of brass that were inserted 
 in the stone, a device well deserving to be known, and 
 due to the ingenuity of Facundus Novus, the mathe- 
 matican. Upon the apex of the obelisk he placed a 
 gilded ball, in order that the shadow of the summit 
 might be condensed and agglomerated, and so prevent 
 the shadow of the apex itself from running to a fine 
 point of enormous extent ; the plan being first sug- 
 gested to him. it is said, by the shadow that is pro- 
 jected by the human head.'" This obelisk was first 
 discovered, after the fall of Rome, in the ruins be- 
 neath the choir of S. Lorenzo in Lucina, in the year 
 1748, during the Pontificate of Benedict XIV., by 
 the architect Zabaglia. It was not removed, however, 
 till the time of Pius VI., who had it set up again in 
 1792, repairing it with the fragments of the Aurelian 
 
 * Or, T2 a.m. '^ Hist. Nal., Book xxxvi., Chap. 15. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 97 
 
 Column which was found near it, and the larger por- 
 tion of which was employed to form a base for it. 
 The obelisk was then repaired ; and to do this was a 
 work of some delicacy, inasmuch as the monolith was 
 broken into four pieces, the lowest of which was so 
 injured by fire, that it was necessary to substitute a 
 fresh piece of granite in its place. The hieroglyphics 
 upon this obelisk are of remarkable beauty of exe- 
 cution. As it now stands, it measures 71 ft. 5 in. in 
 height, and it has upon each face two lines of hiero- 
 glyphics. The pyramidion on the apex is plain: the 
 material of which it is wrought is the usual red granite 
 of Syene. The following is the inscription of Augustus 
 which is engraved upon it, on the east and west sides 
 of the pedestal : — 
 
 IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. F 
 
 AVGVSTVS 
 
 PONTIFEX. MAXIMVS. 
 
 IMP. XII. COS. XI. TRIE. POT. XIV. 
 
 AEGYPTO . IN . POTESTATEM 
 
 POPVLI . ROMANI . REDACTA 
 
 SOLI . DONVM . DEDIT. 
 
 "The Imperator Caesar, son of the deified Julius, 
 
 Augustus, 
 
 Chief Pontiff, 
 
 Imperator for the twelfth time, Consul for the 
 eleventh, holding tribunitian power for the four- 
 teenth time, 
 
 Upon Egypt being reduced into subjection 
 
 To the Roman people, 
 
 Presented this obelisk as an offering to the sun." ' 
 
 ^ Murray states this obelisk to have been discovered in the Pontificate of 
 Julius II., and that it was broken into five fragments. I prefer in this 
 case to follow the authority of Parker, whose account of the Obelisks 
 of Rome is only just out. 
 
 8 
 
98 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 On the other side of the pedestal is engraved : — 
 
 PIVS VI. PONT. MAX. 
 
 OBELISCVM REGIS SESOSTRIDIS 
 
 A C CAESARE AVGVSTO HORARVM 
 
 INDICEM IN CAMPO STATVTVM 
 
 QVEM IGNIS VI ET TEMPORVM 
 
 VETVSTATE CORRVPTVM BENEDICTVS XIV. 
 
 P. M. EX AGGESTA HVMO 
 
 AMOLITVM RELIQVERAT SQVALORE 
 
 DETERSO CVLTVQVE ADDITI VRBI 
 
 COELOQVE RESTITVIT 
 
 ANNO M.DCCXCII 
 
 SACRI PRINCIPATVS EJVS XVITI. 
 
 THE OBELISKS OF PSAMETIK II. 
 
 This monarch, though the son, was not the im- 
 mediate successor of his father, Psametik I. He 
 came to the throne upon the death of Necho IL, and 
 claimed the throne of Ethiopia in addition to that of 
 Egypt ; and the better to establish his right to it he 
 married his aunt, the princess Neitaker, the daughter 
 of queen Shap-en-ap, and the grand-daughter of queen 
 Amen-iritis, the last of the old royal line. He reigned 
 with some glory for six years, during which he re- 
 conquered Ethiopia. The Greeks to whom he was 
 better known than even to the Egyptians, gave him 
 the name of Psammis ; and he was succeeded by his 
 son Uah-pra-het (the sun enlarges his heart), who was 
 the Hophra of Hebrew history. 
 
 THE OBELISK IN THE PIAZZA MINERVA. 
 
 This is a small monolith 17 ft. high, of very pale red 
 granite; and of all the Roman obelisks this has the 
 greatest inclination of the sides. It bears the cartouch 
 of Psametik H. ; and the Egyptian site for which it was 
 intended is unknown : possibly it was the city of Sais, 
 which the Pharaohs of the XXVth dynasty selected 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 99 
 
 for the capital of their empire. It was found, together 
 with the obeHsk of the Piazza Rotunda, among the 
 ruins of the temple of Isis and Serapis, where it had 
 been set up by the Romans. In 1660' the architect 
 Bernini, at the order of Pope Alexander VII., with 
 very questionable taste, erected the obelisk upon the 
 back of a marble elephant, the work of Ercole Ferrata ; 
 and his doing so obtained for him from the Roman 
 populace, the readiest populace in the world to satirise 
 their notabilities, the surname of '' The Elephant." 
 The obelisk has a plain apex, and but a single line 
 of hieroglyphics upon each side. Besides its original 
 fracture it has further suffered considerable injury 
 since its first re-erection in Rome. 
 
 Inscription on the Obelisk of the Piazza della Mifierva, 
 
 VETEREM OBELISCVM 
 
 PALLADIS ^GYPTI^ MONVMENTVM 
 
 E TELLVRE ERVTVM 
 
 ET IN MINERVA OLIM 
 
 NVNC DEIPAR^ GENETRICIS 
 
 FORO ERECTVM 
 
 DIVINyE SAPIENTIyE ALEXANDER VII. 
 
 DEDICAVIT ANNO SALVTIS 
 
 MDCLXVII. 
 
 A nd on tlie otJier side of the pedestal. 
 
 SAPIENTIS ^GYPTI 
 
 INSCVLPTAS OBELISCO FIGVRAS 
 
 AB ELEPHANTO BELLVARVM FOR- 
 
 TISSIMA 
 
 GESTAS QVISQVIS HIC VIDES 
 
 DOCVMENTVM INTELLIGE 
 
 ROBVST^ MENTIS ESSE 
 
 SOLIDAM SAPIENTIAM SVSTINERE.' 
 
 ^ This is Parker's date for its erection ; but, as according to Murray, 
 the obelisk was only discovered in 1665^ there must be an error somewhere. 
 In another page Parker gives 1667, which is more probably correct. 
 
 ' Parker, Obelisks of Rome, p. 8. 
 
 8* 
 
lOO EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 THE Ob.j:LISKS OF AMYRT^US. 
 
 In the Egyptian Saloon of the British Museum 
 are two small and mutilated obelisks bearing the 
 cartouch of Amyrtaeus L, a petty king of Egypt 
 under the Persian dynasty. His history attests the 
 absolute decline of the Egyptian empire. Aided by 
 Inarus, king of Lybia, he revolted against his master, 
 Artaxerxes, king of Persia, circa B.C. 450, by whom 
 he was after a six-years' struggle subdued and driven 
 into the Delta. Inarus was then impaled, Thannyras 
 placed upon the throne of Lybia, and the Persian 
 vassal chief Pausiris, on that of Egypt. 
 
 Brief and turbulent as was the reign of Amyrtaeus, 
 it yet enabled him to leave some sculptures bearing 
 his cartouch behind. Of these monuments the two 
 obelisks in the British Museum are the most interest- 
 ing and peculiar ; one of them has been broken in 
 two and reunited : it is 8 ft. 2 in. in height, by a 
 diameter of i ft. 6 in. at the base on two of the sides, 
 and nearly i ft. 5 in. on the other two ; ' the com- 
 panion obelisk is about the same dimension, and 
 it has been broken into four pieces; both have lost 
 not only their pyramidions but the upper por- 
 tion of their summits also. They are, contrary to 
 the symbolical colour of these monuments, wrought 
 in a dark greenish black basalt, and they contain one 
 line of inscription upon each of their four faces. 
 One of these obelisks was first noticed by Pocock as 
 forming part of a window sill in the Castle of Cairo ; 
 and the other, broken in two pieces, was discovered 
 by Niebuhr, one fragment serving as the door sill of a 
 mosque in the Castle of Cairo, while a second was the 
 doorstep of a house near Kantara-siedid ; he, however, 
 specifies one fragment as being of black marble, and 
 the other of granite, but his illustrations serve to 
 identify the relics with each other. The French 
 
 * Bonomi, 19 ft. 9 in. Westropp, Hand-Book of Archaologyy 17 ft. by 
 2 ft. 4 in. at the base. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. lOI 
 
 army of occupation carried off these obelisks from 
 Cairo to Alexandria, and they consequently fell into 
 the hands of the English at the capitulation of that 
 city in i8oi. Despite the circumstance of their having 
 been often engraved, these monuments have hitherto 
 received less notice than they have deserved on 
 account of the peculiar sharpness of their sculpture, 
 and the natural conventionality of the animal figures 
 delineated in the hieroglyphic signs: a conventionality 
 almost equalling that of the best periods of the art of 
 the XlXth dynasty/ 
 
 The hieroglyphic inscription has only been partly 
 translated : but that portion so decyphered reads : 
 " Amyrtaeus, the living, like Ra, beloved of Thoth, 
 
 The great Lord of Eshmunayn/" 
 
 THE PRIOLI 
 OBELISK OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 
 
 Peter Gyllus, in his Antiqinties of Constantinople^ 
 relates that when he visited Constantinople in the 
 sixteenth centuiy A.D., he noticed, besides the great 
 obelisk in the Hippodrome, a smaller one, which at 
 that time was standing in the Imperial precinct, on the 
 north side of the first hill. "A little time afterwards 
 I saw it lying prostrate without the precinct; and 
 found it to be 35 ft. in length; each of its sides, if I 
 mistake not, was 6 ft. broad, and the whole was 
 8 yards in compass ; it was purchased by Antonio 
 Priolo, a nobleman of Venice, who sent it thither 
 and placed it in St. Stephen's Market." According 
 to Long, this obelisk was never removed, but is 
 identical with one of red granite which still stands in 
 the Sultan's gardens, on the most northern eminence 
 there.'^ From its dimensions this obelisk is probably 
 
 ' Some writers attribute the obelisks to Nectanebo I. 
 "^ Sharpe, Egyptian Antiquities^ p. 107; and Trails. Roy. Soc. Lit., Vol. 
 II., Part 2. 
 
 3 Ball's trans. Gyllus^ Antiq. Constantinople, 1729, p. 104. 
 * Long-, Egyft. Antiq., I., p. 332. 
 
102 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 of the period of the Middle Empire, but as a copy of 
 its inscriptions has not reached Europe, or been 
 elsewhere published, all speculation as to its original 
 place of erection, or the monarch who erected it, 
 would be useless. 
 
 OBELISK OF NAHASB. 
 
 At the wells of Nahasb, in the deserts of Arabia 
 Petrea, and consequently beyond the limits of Egypt 
 proper, the traveller Riippel discovered a small 
 obelisk of sandstone, about 8 ft long, lying on the 
 ground ; the three sides which were exposed to the 
 atmosphere had lost their sculptures ; but the fourth, 
 which from its position was protected, contained 
 hieroglyphics which appeared beautiful, as far as he 
 could examine them.' It is to be regretted that no 
 further particulars of this obelisk are known. From its 
 material and size it would seem to have belonged to 
 the Saitic period. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Ptolemaic and Roman Obelisks. 
 
 WITH the accession of the family of Ptolemy 
 Lagus to the throne of the conquered pro- 
 vince of Egypt, a new period of art of architecture 
 takes its rise on the banks of the Nile. The idea of 
 the Egyptian sculpture was still preserved, but the 
 details and the feeling were Roman ; an imperfectly 
 imitated naturalism ill replaced the accurate conven- 
 tionahty of the older artist. The affectation of grace 
 often weakened the effect which formerly an honest 
 disregard of anything but true simplicity attained. 
 The Egyptian scribes were, in other words, educated, but 
 not instructed, to perceive for themselves, hence they 
 
 ^ Long, Egyptian Antiquities, I., p. 323, 324. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 103 
 
 could only copy, now no longer from conventional, but 
 from natural objects, tastefully represented, but withal 
 frequently caricatured. Something of this was notice- 
 able in the innovations introduced by the Psammetichi, 
 but the elegant pedantry of the Ptolemaic sovereigns 
 altered and spoiled all. Philopator and Philometor, 
 the two ablest sovereigns of their line, admired 
 Egyptian art, and patronised the Egyptian theology, 
 but it was purely an admiration and a patronage : it 
 was the admiration of a dilettante and not of a devotee, 
 and consequently the temples, the pottery, and the 
 paintings of the Greco-Egyptian dynasty are con- 
 spicuously heavy and affected. Architectural details 
 which, while small and properly subordinated were 
 beautiful, became exaggerated into absurd dimensions, 
 and placed in unsuited positions. This was especially 
 the case as regarded the complicated forms of the 
 capitals of the temple columns, which often seemed 
 too weak for the weight they were intended to sustain. 
 Roman ornamentation was combined with Egyptian 
 decoration, and Italian polychromatic design with the 
 more regular harmonic system of Egyptian primary 
 colouration. The famous Cleopatra VI, the murderess 
 of her sister, and the betrayer of her brother and 
 lover, who was, like all of her family, a great temple 
 restorer, completed the degradation of Egyptian 
 architecture, by adapting it wholly to Roman and 
 Greek forms, and producing a series of tasteless 
 structures which only flattery could call beautiful.' 
 Of course, copying their nobler and mightier pre- 
 decessors, the Ptolemaic sovereigns erected obelisks to 
 the sun; but these have nearly all perished, or have 
 been used for baser purposes. Some are, however, 
 still known to lie hidden beneath the foundations 
 of Alexandria, and others may be buried in the mud 
 
 ' More especially Stadia, Hippodromes, Naumachia Baths, and Libraries, 
 all of which except public libraries were foreign to Egyptian feeling-; and for 
 which therefore no really Egyptian plans or details existed. 
 
I04 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 of the Delta lakes, which covers the site of many 
 Greco-Egyptian cities. The chief obelisks of really 
 Ptolemaic date, as distinct from Roman work, which 
 are now known to exist, are a plain sandstone one at 
 Philae, the chief buildings of which are Ptolemaic ; and 
 the exquisite little obelisk bearing the name of 
 Ptolemy Alexander I., which is now in the possession 
 of Mr. J. W. Bankes, of Corfe Castle. 
 
 In 1815 the enterprising traveller Belzoni, in com- 
 pany with Mr. W. G. Bankes, discovered this obelisk 
 among the ruins of the temple of Philae, and he at 
 once offered to sell it to his companion, and to remove 
 it to the seashore. His attempts to carry off the 
 monument excited the animosity and opposition of 
 M. Drovetti, an Italian antiquary, who was also on 
 the search for antiquities ; and some very disgraceful 
 manoeuvres took place, the history of which was in- 
 dignantly given by Belzoni in a pamphlet published 
 in London several years later. Every kind of obstacle 
 was placed in the way of Belzoni, and nothing but 
 his indomitable will and great personal strength (he 
 had formerly obtained a living in London as a juggler 
 in feats of strength), could have overcome the diffi- 
 culties he encountered. On getting the monolith to 
 the water's edge, its great weight broke down the 
 pier, and it slipped into the river. Undisheartened by 
 this want of success, he waited till the fall of the 
 Nile, rolled the obelisk safely to the shore, and ulti- 
 mately floated it uninjured over the cataracts of 
 Assoun to the port of Alexandria, where he delivered 
 it, together with the sandstone pedestal upon which it 
 had stood, to his employer Mr. Bankes, by whom it 
 was afterwards carried to England, and set up in the 
 gardens in front of his residence, Kingston Hall, 
 Dorset' 
 
 The obelisk is of the usual red granite, and is very 
 perfect ; it is 22 ft. in height, by a diameter of 2 ft. 
 
 ^ See Belzoni, Narrative of Operations in Egypt and Nubia, p. 105, et seq. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 105 
 
 2 in. at the base ; it has a Hne of well-cut hieroglyphics 
 down the centre of each face. The inscription is 
 chiefly in honour of Ptolemy Euergetes IL, or 
 Alexander I.,' and his mother Cleopatra Cocce, and 
 his sister and wife Cleopatra. The base of the monu- 
 ment is of sandstone, and is about S ft. high ; it bears 
 a long inscription in Greek, relating to the gods 
 Euergetes, Ptolemy, and the two queens Cleopatra, 
 and to the benefaction of the late Ptolemy Physcon, to 
 the temples and clergy of Philae. Above the inscrip- 
 tion, which was really a petition of the Egyptian 
 priests, are the remains of the royal answer to their 
 requests, an answer which was originally written in 
 letters of gold ; little more than half of the answer 
 remains, but what still exists has been restored by 
 M. Letronne." The whole of the inscriptions, together 
 with the royal reply to the governor Lochus, are as 
 follows : 
 
 BA^IAEinT0AEMAiaiKAIBA2IAi:S:SHIKAE0nATPAI 
 
 THIAAEA$HIKAIBA2IAU:SHIKAE0nATPAITHirYNAI 
 
 KI©EOi:2EYEPrETAi:SXAlPEINOIIEPEi:STH2ENTniA 
 BA 
 
 TOIKAIEN^I AAI^i:SlA02(H)EA2MEri2TH:EE PE I OIHAP 
 
 Eni 
 
 AHMO YNTE:SEnTA ^^lAA^ ISTPATH POIK AI E H 1 2TAT 
 AI 
 
 KAI©HB APXAIK AIB A:^IAIKOirPAMMATEaKAI E n I ^ 
 TATAI^Y 
 
 AAKlTONKAIOlAAAOirPAMMATIKOinANTE^KAIA 
 lA 
 
 K O AO0O Y2 AI AYNA MEUK AIH AOinHYn EVE^ I A ANA 
 PKA 
 
 to y2thm a:sn a po y^ia ^ aytohnoi e i :s©aio yk e ko 
 
 nta:^ 
 
 ^ Called also Ptolemy IX. ^ Wilkinson's Egypt, Murray, p. 40S. 
 
I06 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 kaiektoytoioytoy:sym B AI NE I EA ATT0Y2©ATT0I 
 
 EPONKAI 
 KI A YNEYEIN H M A^TO YMHEXEI N TANOMIT OM ENA 
 
 riNOMENA^YnEPTEYMfiNKAITONTEKNfiN0Y:SlA2 
 
 KAISnONAA2AEOME©YMnN©EnNMEri2TONEAN 
 
 <^AINHTAnYNTAlAINOYMHNIOITOUYrrENEKAIE 
 
 ni:STO 
 
 AOrPA<|)mrPA^AIAOXOITOUYrrENEIKAI^TPATHr 
 
 0HBAIAO2MHnAPENOXAEINHMA5nPO2TAYTAMH 
 
 AAA 
 
 AftlMH AENIEniTPE H EINTO AYTO U OIEINK AIH MIN 
 AlAONAI 
 
 TOY^KA0HKONTA^nEPITOYTl)NXPHMATI^MOY:SE 
 NOi:S 
 
 EniXnPH:SAlHMINANA0EINAI^THAHNENHIANAr 
 PA^OMEN 
 
 THNPErONYIANH M I NY<I>YM aNHEPITO YTON<l>I A AN 
 ©POniAN 
 
 INAYMETEPAXAPi:^AEIMNHSTO^YnAPXEinAPAYT 
 HIEI2T0N 
 
 APANTAXPONONTO YTOYAEPENOM E NOYE^OME©A 
 KAIEN 
 
 T0YT0i:SKAIT0IEP0NT0TH^UlA02EYEPrETHMEN 
 OIEYTEXEITE 
 
 ( Translation)} 
 
 LETTER OF THE PRIESTS TO THE KING. 
 
 **To king- Ptolemy and queen Cleopatra his sister, 
 
 and queen Cleopatra his wife, 
 Gods Euergetae, welfare, we, the priests of Isis, 
 The very great goddess (worshipped) in Abaton 
 
 and Philae, 
 
CHAPTER XX. 107 
 
 Seeing that those who visit Philae, generals, chiefs, 
 
 governors of districts in the Thebaid, 
 Royal scribes, chiefs of police, and all other 
 
 functionaries, 
 As well as their soldiers and other attendants, 
 Oblige us to provide for them during their stay, 
 The consequence of which is that the temple is 
 
 impoverished. 
 And we run the risk of not having enough for the 
 
 customary sacrifices and oblations 
 Offered for you and for your children. 
 Do therefore pray you, O great gods, if it seem 
 
 right to you, 
 To order Numenius your cousin and secretary. 
 To write to Lochus your cousin, and governor of 
 
 the Thebaid, 
 Not to disturb us in this manner, and not to allow 
 
 any other person to do so. 
 And to give us authority to this effect, that we may 
 
 put up a stele with an inscription 
 Commemorating your beneficence towards us on 
 
 this occasion. 
 So that your gracious favour may be recorded for 
 
 ever. 
 Which being done, we, and the temple of Isis, 
 Shall be indebted to you for this, among other 
 
 favours. Hail." 
 
 LETTER OF THE KING TO THE PRIESTS, 
 
 "To the priests of Isis in Abaton and Philae, 
 
 Numenius, cousin and secretary. 
 And priest of the god Alexander, and of the gods 
 
 Soters, of the gods Adelphi, 
 Of the gods Euergetae, of the gods Philopatores, 
 
 of the gods Epiphanes, of the god Eupator, 
 Of the god Philometer, and the gods Euergetae, 
 
 greeting, 
 
I08 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Of the letter written to Lochus/ the cousin and 
 
 general, 
 We place the copy here below, and we give you the 
 
 permission you ask 
 Of erecting a stele. Fare ye well. In the year 
 
 .... of Panemus . . . and of Pachons 26." 
 
 ORDER OF THE KING. 
 
 ^*King Ptolemy and queen Cleopatra the sister, and 
 
 queen Cleopatra the wife, to Lochus our brother, 
 
 greeting, _ ^ 
 Of the petition addressed to us by the priests of 
 
 Isis in Abaton and PhiLx 
 We place a copy below, and you will do well to 
 
 order that on no account they be molested 
 In those matters which they have declared to us 
 
 Hail."^ 
 
 THE OBELISK OF THE PIAZZA NAVONA. 
 
 To Domitian, the most stupidly cruel of all the 
 Caesars, belongs the credit, if credit it be, of erecting 
 the next obelisk after the fall of the Ptolemies. This 
 obelisk is the one which is now most incongruously and 
 inconveniently placed on the rocks of the centre of 
 the Great Fountain in the Piazza Navona. It was 
 formerly believed by the archenthusiast Athanasius 
 Kircher^ to have been one of the obelisks of Helio- 
 
 ^ All the preceding- eig-ht Ptolemies adored as deities, in accordance with 
 Eg-yptian custom. The junior members of the royal family were hereditary 
 priests and priestesses of the temples of these deceased monarchs, as many 
 of their funereal stele testify. 
 
 * A full description of this obelisk was published by W. J. Bankes, in 
 Geomeh-icai plan of the Obelisk discovered at Philce, London, 1824. 
 
 ^ Kircher was certainly a monument of erudition, and the author of a 
 g-reat many most able, but most conjectural works. His CEdipus Mgyptia- 
 cus, and Mundus Suhterraneus, are the chief; in the first of these he 
 attempted to unravel all the mysteries of the Egyptian lang-uag"e, and 
 even to write in the hieroglyphic script. Despite his wilful absurdities, 
 Egyptologists owe much to his memory as a reviver of ancient science and 
 forgotten traditions. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 109 
 
 polls; but that idea is now proved to be wholly 
 erroneous, inasmuch as the inscription Is in honour of 
 the Caesar Domitian. The monolith is of red granite, 
 and is about 54 ft. 3 in. high, by 4 ft. 5 in. at the base. 
 It was discovered in the centre of the circus of 
 Romulus and Maxentius, near the Via Appia, and in 
 165 1 Pope Innocent X. employed the architect 
 Bernni to restore and set it up again, since when 
 discovered it was found to be broken into five pieces. 
 Proud both of the obelisk and the commission, the 
 fanciful architect could think of no better place to 
 erect it in than on a mass of rock 40 ft. high, in the 
 midst of the Grand Fountain in the Piazza Navona, 
 and there it accordingly stands opposite to the Church 
 of S. Agnese, and on the supposed site of her 
 martyrdom ; an ancient monument on an artificial 
 rock, with four fantastic figures representing the rivers 
 of Europe, sitting over streams of water which issue 
 beneath their feet. The obelisk having been erected 
 by a member of the Pamphilian family, the obelisk was 
 formerly called by that name also, but it has now 
 resumed the topographical title properly belonging to 
 it, and distinguishing it from the other obelisks of 
 Rome. The inscription, according to Parker, but with 
 some obviously necessary modification of the exact 
 terms employed in his translation, reads thus : 
 
 "The Horus son of the sun, 
 Sustainer of the worlds, giver of life to the worlds, 
 The incarnate Horus, the son of the lady Isis, 
 Who comes to avenge the death of his father Osiris, 
 The king, living for ever." 
 
 These were only the usual epithet titles of the 
 Pharaohnic kings, though they had a peculiarly in- 
 appropriate character as applied to Domitian, 
 
 The base of the obelisk is occupied by the follow- 
 ing inscription in honour of Innocent X,, and is 
 
no EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 another example of the lengthiness of modern dedi- 
 catory inscriptions/ 
 
 South side. 
 
 INNOCENTIVS ' X. PONT. MAX 
 NILOTICIS • AENIGMATIBVS * EXARA- 
 
 TVM LAPIDEM 
 AMNIBVS • SVBTERLABENTIBVS * IM- 
 
 POSVIT 
 
 VT SALVBREM 
 
 SPATIANTIBVS * AMOENITATEM 
 
 SITIENTIBVS • POTVM 
 
 MEDITANTIBVS ' ESCAM 
 
 MAGNIFICE * LARGIRETVR 
 
 East side. 
 
 NOXIA • AEGYPTIORVM * MONSTRA 
 
 INNOCENS • PREMIT ' COLVMBA 
 
 QV^ • PACIS • OLEAM ' GESTANS 
 
 ET • VIRTVTVM ' LILIIS ' REDIMITA 
 
 OBELISCVM • PRO TROPHEO * SIBI 
 
 STATVENS 
 ROM/E * TRIVMPHAT 
 
 West Side. 
 
 INNOCENTIVS * DECIMVS * PONT. MAX. 
 
 NATALI • DOMO * PAMPHILIA 
 
 OPERE CVLTVQ ' AMPLIFICATA 
 
 LIBERATAQ INOPPORTVNIS * AEDI- 
 
 FICIIS 
 
 AGONALI • AREA 
 
 FORVM • VRBIS ' CELEBERRIMVM 
 
 MVLTIPLICI • MAIESTATIS ' INCREMENTO 
 
 NOBILITAVIT 
 
 ^ Parker, Roman Obelisks^ p, S. 
 
CHAPTER XX. Ill 
 
 North side. 
 
 OBELISCVM 
 AB • IMP • ANT • CARACALLA * ROMAM 
 
 ADVECTVM 
 CVM • INTER . CIRCI CASTRENSIS 
 
 RVDERA 
 
 CONFRACTVS ' DIV lACVISSET 
 
 INNOCENTIVS ' DECIMVS ' PONT. OPT. 
 
 MAX. 
 AD • FONTIS • FORIQ * ORNATVM 
 TRANSTVLIT ' INSTAVRAVIT * EREXIT 
 ANNO • SAL M.DCLI PONTIF VII. 
 
 On this occasion also a medal was struck, bearing 
 upon one side a representation of the obelisk, with 
 the legend, A bluto aqua virgine agonaliiini cruore. 
 
 OBELISK OF DOMITIAN AND TITUS AT 
 
 BENEVENTO. 
 
 In the cathedral square of the ancient city of 
 Benevento, there is a small and mutilated obelisk of 
 red granite, the height of which at present is a little 
 over 9 ft. ; it has several columns of hieroglyphics 
 which do not appear to have been translated in detail. 
 
 The general sense of the inscription is, however, to 
 record the dedication and re-construction of a temple 
 to the goddess I sis in Beneventum by the Emperor 
 Domitian; and his cartouch, together with that of his 
 coadjutor Titus, accordingly appears on the monu- 
 ment.' The title of Domitian runs thus : Autocrator, 
 Kaisaros, Doinitianos Sebastos ^ and at the end of the 
 column of hieroglyphics is 'the name of Lucilius 
 Rufus, by whom the obelisk was probably set up.' 
 It was certainly a strangely inconsistent conjuga- 
 tion to place together the names of Titus, "The 
 Darling of Mankind," with that of the infamous 
 
 ^ Champollion Figeac, UEi^ypie, p. 469. 
 ^ Nestor Cfiote, No. I., p. 71. 
 
112 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Domitian upon the same obelisk, to record them as 
 being both worshippers of the same benevolent god- 
 dess, and as ali!:e partaking of her divine nature. 
 When the actors in such scenes have passed away, 
 such inscriptions left behind become the imperishable 
 pasquinades of history.' 
 
 OBELISK OF THE PASSEGGIATA, OR 
 MONTE PINCIO. 
 
 The philosophical but sensual emperor Hadrian 
 erected the obelisk which next demands attention, 
 and the obelisk which bears his name, and that of 
 his wife Sabina, was originally set up by him in 
 honour and deification of his favourite Antinous, who 
 had drowned himself in Egypt, in the Nile, with the 
 idea of securing the happiness of the emperor in ac- 
 cordance with the decree of an oracle, which had 
 declared that the prosperity of Hadrian could only 
 be obtained by the sacrifice of what was most dear 
 to him ; and whose death left the emperor incon- 
 solable. To perpetuate the memory of Antinous, 
 Hadrian founded a magnificent city in lower Egypt 
 on the place of his death, and this obelisk was 
 in all likelihood one of a couple which were erected 
 there also, before the temple of Divus Antinous,^ circa 
 A.D. 131. Like all Roman works of that period it 
 is small, being only 30 ft. high ; and the hieroglyphics 
 are coarsely cut; there are two lines of hieroglyphics 
 upon the face of the monument, and the apex is 
 plain. So much of the inscription as has been read 
 runs thus : 
 
 " The son of the sun, 
 Lord of diadems, 
 Hadrianus Kaisoros." 
 
 * There is a further fragment of the same obelisk in the wall of the 
 Archepiscopal palace. 
 
 ^ An altar bearing- the inscription ANTINOni Eni<I»ANEI, was discovered 
 by the^ate Mr. Harris, during- his excavations at Antinoe. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 113 
 
 " The regent of the two lands, 
 Sabina, 
 
 Life, health, and strength,' 
 Sebaste, 
 Ever livine." 
 
 'fc»" 
 
 Some years later the obelisk was removed from 
 Egypt to Rome to beautify the Circus Varianus 
 on Monte Pincio. In the fall of the Eternal City it 
 shared the usual fate of all such monuments, and it 
 lay concealed in the earth near the Church of Santa 
 Croce in Gerusalemme till the year 1822, when Pope 
 Pius VI I. had it mounted upon a pedestal in the 
 centre of the public promenade of the Passeggiata, 
 from whence it is now generally called the obelisk della 
 Passeggiata. 
 
 After the erection of this last obelisk no more 
 inscribed obelisks were set up, either in Egypt or in 
 Rome. For this there was ample reason ; the Egyptian 
 language had been entirely supplanted by the Latin 
 and the Greek ; the significance of the characters 
 was unknown, already Pliny had proved his entire 
 ignorance of the script, and Pliny it must be recol- 
 lected was the learned centre of all the science of his 
 time, by asserting of the hieroglyphics on the Obelisk 
 of Thothmes III. in the Campus Martins, that they 
 " interpreted the operations of nature according to 
 the philosophy of the Egyptians;'" and a new school 
 of thought had arisen, a school in which both Christ- 
 ianity and infideHty were factors ; the school of 
 thought which looked upon all these things with 
 scorn, and placed the siunimcni boninn ostensibly 
 in philosophical humanity, but in truth in practical 
 selfishness. All was decay hastened by furious 
 
 ^ This is the usual formula which succeeded the names of all the 
 
 Eg'yptian kings, it was expressed by the following hieroglyphics nrl) !• 
 ^ Pliny, Hist. Nut., Book xxxv., Chap. 14, 
 
114 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 passions and intense greed around them, and men 
 of science and men of war agreed but in one idea 
 of morality, the morality of existing in the present 
 and disregarding the future and the past alike. 
 The Edict of Theodosius, A.D. 379, formally closed 
 the temples of Rome and Egypt for ever ; but 
 they had literally been long since neglected. Christ- 
 ianity, only just liberated from the thraldom of the 
 state, was voluntarily placing the world under the 
 worse tyranny of an ill-informed clergy, three fourths 
 of whom were infidels and heretics to the other 
 fourth, solely because the entire body had no settled 
 data to accept. In time all the excited ebullition of 
 faction wore itself out, the spirit of Christianity 
 prevailed, and left the letter to the employment of 
 scholiasts and mystics, when a new and more popular 
 system became prevalent in the world ; the fresh 
 temples were places for general assemblage, in 
 accordance with the apostolic precept, " not forgetting 
 the assembling of yourselves together." ' A wholly 
 spiritual symbolism replaced the material and objec- 
 tive symbolism of Paganism; and, fit token of fit 
 change, the obelisk, perhaps the oldest of all religious 
 symbols, as it was the first to concentrate in itself the 
 adoration of the multitude to the sun, was the last to 
 be overthrown, when for Horus, Harmakhu, or Amen 
 Ra, rose in eternal glory another and a more perfect 
 ** Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings," 
 
 THE ALBANI OBELISK. 
 
 This is a small obelisk, which was executed in Egypt 
 by Sixtus Rufus, who was prefect of that province, in 
 honour of one of the Roman emperors; for which pur- 
 pose it was afterwards sent to Rome. The obelisk is 
 now at Munich; but further particulars concerning it 
 are not to hand." 
 
 * Heb. A. 25. 
 
 ' Westropp, Hand-Book of Archoeoiogyy First Edition, p. 56. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 115 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 UninsaHbed Obelisks. 
 THE OBELISK OF THE VATICAN. 
 
 ONE of the loveliest scenes that Italian archi- 
 tecture affords, is rendered to the spectator 
 who stands on a summer day's decline in the Piazza 
 of St Peter's. Before him rises, like a golden moun- 
 tain robed in purple clouds, the massive dome of 
 St. Peter's, the glory of art and of Christianity. On 
 either side of the piazza sweep those long colonnades 
 which were the master conception of Bernini's mind ; 
 in the middle, to the right, and the left, a rapid and 
 ample fountain casts up into the air its opalescent 
 spray ; overhead depends the sevenfold arch of Iris ; 
 and, central of all, fountain, piazza, and portico, rises 
 the lofty and yet slender Obelisk of St. Peter's, the 
 largest, most perfect, and best known of all the un- 
 inscribed obelisks in existence. 83 ft. high, by a 
 diameter of 8 ft. 10 in. at the base, it throws its long 
 shadow along the marble pavement, and glistens in 
 the rays of the setting sun, like the staff of a giant 
 crucifix before some ethereal shrine. 
 
 Owing to the entire absence of hieroglyphics upon 
 this obelisk, it is entirely a matter of conjecture by 
 whom it was originally set up, and consequently to 
 what dynasty it belongs. Pliny attributes its erection 
 to a monarch whom he calls " Nuncoreas, the son 
 of Sesores," and states that a still larger one, 100 
 cubits high, was made for the same monarch, which 
 he dedicated to the sun by the command of an 
 oracle, '' after having lost his sight and recovered it ;" ' 
 this latter obelisk was, according to the Roman his- 
 torian, still remaining in Egypt when he wrote. In 
 
 ^ Pliny, Hist. Nat., Book xxxv., Chap. 15. 
 
 9* 
 
Il6 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 this relation there is much that is improbable; the 
 name of Nuncoreas does not occur in the Egyptian 
 royal lists ; nine or ten other various readings have 
 been suggested for it, Bunsen prefers to call the king, 
 Menepthah L, the son and successor of Rameses II., 
 but there is no indication in the annals of his reign 
 of his ever having become blind. What is more 
 certainly known is that the obelisk at first stood 
 before one of the temples of Heliopolis, then that it 
 was removed to Alexandria by Augustus, and 
 subsequently transported to Rome by the emperor 
 Caius Caligula. To convey this obelisk with greater 
 safety, Caligula had a special vessel constructed to 
 carry it, the length of which was nearly as long as 
 the left side of the Port of Ostia, the sea port of 
 Rome ; despite all this care it was broken in the 
 carriage, and was the only one of the Egyptian 
 obelisks which thus suffered in the transit to Rome.' 
 When the monument was safely floated up the Tiber, 
 the huge ship, or more properly galley, which had 
 been designed to carry it was useless for any other 
 purpose, and therefore, ** after having been preserved 
 for some years, and looked upon as the most won- 
 derful construction ever beheld upon the seas, it was 
 brought to Ostia, by order of the late emperor 
 Claudius ; and towers of Puteolan earth being first 
 erected upon it, it was sunk for the construction of 
 the harbours which he was making there. And then 
 besides, there was the necessity of constructing other 
 vessels to carry these obelisks up the Tiber, by which 
 it became practically ascertained, that the depth 
 of water in that river is not less than that of the 
 river Nilus." On arriving at Rome the obelisk was 
 set up in the Spina of the Circus of Nero, a site now 
 covered by the sacristy of St. Peter's, and it is the 
 only monument of its kind which has been found in 
 
 "■ But according to the best authorities this obelisk is not broken, and if 
 so, cannot be the one described by Pliny. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 117 
 
 the place it was originalVy intended for, of course it has 
 been removed to the situation which it now occupies. 
 It was probably the circumstance of its being still 
 perfect in the Pontificate of Sixtus V., which suggested 
 to that Pontiff in 1586, the idea of raising up the 
 other faVitrTi <:ibe\isks which were known to underlie 
 the surface of the city, and to remove this one from 
 the ruins of the Circus to the square, or Piazza, of 
 St. Peter's. 
 
 As nearly eleven hundred years had elapsed 
 since such a vast monolith had been moved in 
 Rome, the undertaking was one of considerable 
 novelty and difficulty; failure was anticipated on all 
 hands, and as many as five hundred plans were 
 submitted to Sixtus V. by various engineers and 
 architects who were desirous of trying their skill. 
 At length the architect Domenic Fontana, who was 
 already well known as a successful architect and 
 mechanician, was selected by the Pope to transplant 
 the obelisk ; an almost unlimited amount of labour 
 was placed at his disposal, six hundred men, one 
 hundred and forty horses, and forty six cranes, were 
 engaged in the undertaking. A Pontificial celebration 
 of High Mass, followed by the solemn blessing of 
 Fontana and his workmen preceded the operations ; 
 while the better to secure the engineer from officious 
 molestation by the numerous spectators, it was 
 declared an offence punishable with death for any one 
 to speak during the operations. After all these pre- 
 cautions the undertaking had nearly failed at the last ; 
 owing to the extreme dryness of the weather, some 
 of the principal ropes necessary to raise the obelisk, 
 being new ones, became relaxed, and the utmost 
 powers of the machines employed were unable to 
 elevate the monolith properly in position. The silence 
 of mortified pride and of baffled hope now took the 
 place of the taciturnity imposed by fear, and it was nearly 
 obvious to all, from the Pope to the humblest lazzaroni^ 
 
Il8 EGYPT^/AN OBELISKS. 
 
 and worst of all to the arci'?itect himself, that the 
 attempt was a failure. At that mo5t critical moment 
 one of the workmen, a peasant named Bresca, con- 
 ceived a method of increasing the tension of the cords ; 
 possibly he may have been a fisherman, at any rate, for- 
 getting in his excitement the terror.s of speech, he 
 shouted out Acqita alle fune, ''Wet the ropes ;" quick to 
 perceive the importance of the suggestion, Fontana in- 
 stantly ordered water to be thrown over the tackle, and 
 presently the ropes shrunk back, the levers creaked, 
 and the massive obelisk was steadily elevated to its 
 true centre, and the greatest engineering achievement 
 since the Caesars ruled in Rome was accomplished. 
 Magnificent rewards were bestowed upon Fontana, 
 half the value of the machines and materials ; a sum 
 amounting to 18,987 sciidi, became his share. The 
 workman Bresca, whose felicitous daring secured the 
 success of the work at the risk of his own life, was also 
 liberally compensated, and to his family was granted 
 in perpetica the right of supplying palm leaves from 
 Bordigheira, the home of the Bresci, for the use of 
 the faithful on Palm Sunday, a concession which 
 they still enjoy, and which has proved for three cen- 
 turies a lucrative one.' 
 
 With much good taste Fontana when he re-erected 
 this obelisk retained its original base, and although 
 considerably obliterated by the decay of the stone, 
 the following dedication of the monument by Caligula 
 to his predecessors, Augustus and Tiberius, is still 
 visible on two of its sides : 
 
 DIVO. CAES. DIVI. IVLII. 
 F. AVGVSTO 
 
 TI. CAESARI DIVI. 
 
 AVG. F. 
 AVGVSTO SACRVM. 
 
 * Travellers' traditions ascribe the idea of wetting- the ropes to the 
 ingenuity of an English sailor, but the privileges still held by the Bresca 
 family, for the services rendered by their ancestor on the occasion of the 
 erection of the obelisk of the Vatican, places the matter beyond a doubt. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 119 
 
 To these inscriptions Sixtus V. added as usual a 
 longer one, viz. : — 
 
 Sixfo'v. POKT. ^l.^X. 0?T. PkYnc. 
 
 FELICI PERETTO DE MONTE ALTO PA. 
 
 PA. OB PVRGATAM PRAEDONIB. ITA- 
 
 LIAM RESTITVTAM INSTAVRATAMQ. 
 
 VRB. OBELISCVM CAES. E CIRCO NERON. 
 
 IN MEDIAM D. PETRI AREAM INCREDIB. 
 
 SVMPTV TRALAT. ET VERAE RELIGIONI 
 
 DEDICATVM S.P.Q.R. AD REI MEMOR. 
 
 OBELISC. HVNC P. 
 
 West side. 
 
 CHRISTVS VINCIT 
 
 CHRISTVS REGNAT 
 
 CHRISTVS IMPERAT 
 CHRISTVS AB OMNI MALO 
 PLEBEM SVAM DEFENDAT. 
 
 South side. 
 
 SIXTUS V PONT MAX 
 
 OBELISCVM VATICANVM DIIS GENTIVM 
 
 IMPIO CVLTV DICATVM 
 
 AD APOSTOLORVM LIMINA 
 
 OPEROSO LABORE TRANSTVLIT 
 
 AN. MDLXXXVL PONT IL 
 
 East side. 
 
 ECCE CRVX DOMINI 
 
 FVGITE PARTES 
 
 ADVERSAE 
 
 VICIT LEO. 
 
 DE TRIBV IVDA 
 
 North side. 
 
 SIXTVS V PONT MAX 
 
 CRVCI INVICTyE 
 
 OBELISCVM VATICANVM 
 
t20 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 AB IMPVRA SVPERSTITIONE 
 
 EXPIATVM IVSTIVS 
 
 ET FELICIVS CONSECRA^^JT 
 
 AN. MDLXXXVI PONT II. 
 
 On the sunifnit of the Obelisk towards St. Peter s. 
 
 SANCTISSIMAE CRVCI 
 
 SIXTVS V. PONT MAX. 
 
 CONSECRAVIT. 
 
 E PRIORE SEDE AWLSVM 
 
 ET CAESS AVGG. AC TIB. 
 
 I.L. ABLATVM M.D.LXXXVI. 
 
 The cross at the top was renewed in 1740, and a 
 perforation made in it to receive some relics of our 
 Lord.^ 
 
 THE OBELISK OF ST. MARIA MAGGIORE. 
 
 This obeHsk is one of a pair which, according to 
 tradition, were set up at Memphis by king Pepi Merira 
 of the Vlth dynasty, a monarch who is recorded on 
 the hieroglyphic texts to have reigned for one hundred 
 years," less one hour ; and who was one of the greatest 
 as he was also the last Pharaoh of that dynasty. 
 This tradition is, however, highly improbable, and all 
 that is certainly known is that this obelisk and its 
 companion one, now on Monte Cavallo, were removed 
 from Egypt by Claudius Caesar, A.D. 57, and placed 
 by him at the entrance of the mausoleum of Augustus. 
 When it was disinterred many centuries afterwards, it 
 was found to have lost its apex, and to have been 
 broken into three or four pieces. It is of red granite, 
 and, without including its ornaments and base, stands 
 
 ' The weight of the obelisk is about 360 tons, and its entie height, 
 including the steps and cross, 132 ft. 2 in. 
 
 ^ This monarch was the Apappus of Eratosthenes. Manethc calls him 
 Phiops, the monuments Pepi. He actually lived 106 years. Birch, Rede 
 Lecture. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 121 
 
 48 ft 5 in. high, by 4 ft 3 in. at the lowest diameter. 
 Sixtus v., in whose Pontificate it was disinterred, em- 
 ployed the architect Fontana to re-erect it, and he 
 caused the following inscription to be placed upon its 
 pedestal : 
 
 SIXTVS V. PONT. MAX. 
 
 OBELISCVM 
 
 AEGYPTO ADVECTVM 
 
 AVGVSTO 
 
 IN EIVS MAVSOLEO 
 
 DICATVM 
 
 EVERSVM DEINDE ET 
 
 IN PLVRES CONFRACTVM 
 
 PARTES 
 
 IN VIA AD S ROCHVM 
 
 lACENTEM 
 
 IN PRISTINAM FACIEM 
 
 RESTITVTVM 
 
 SALVTIFERAE CRVCI 
 
 FELICIVS 
 
 HIC ERIGI IVSSIT AN. D. 
 
 M.D.LXXXVII. PONT. III. 
 
 On the other side. 
 
 CHRISTVS 
 PER INVICTAM 
 
 CRVCEM 
 
 POPVLO PACEM 
 
 PRAEBEAT 
 
 QVI 
 
 AVGVSTI PACI 
 
 IN PRAESEPE NASCI 
 
 VOLVIT 
 
 On the third side. 
 
 CHRISTVM DOMINVM 
 
 QVEM AVGVSTVS 
 
 DE VIRGINE 
 
122 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 NASCITVRVM 
 
 VIVENS ADORAVIT 
 
 SEQ. DEINCEPS 
 
 DOMINVM 
 
 DICI VETVIT 
 
 ADORO 
 
 On the East side. 
 
 CHRISTI DEI 
 
 IN AETERNVM VIVENTIS 
 
 CVNABVLA 
 
 LAETISSIME COLO 
 
 QVI MORTVI 
 
 SEPVLCHRO AVGVSTI 
 
 TRISTIS 
 
 SERVIEBAM 
 
 THE OBELISK OF MONTE CAVALLO. 
 
 This obelisk is the companion of the preceding, and 
 like it stood before the entrance to the mausoleum of 
 Augustus. It was not unearthed till the Pontificate 
 of Pius VI. in 1786. When discovered it was also 
 found to be broken in several places, and to be with- 
 out an apex. It is a little smaller than the obelisk of 
 St. Maria Maggiore, inasmuch as it stands only 45 ft. 
 in height, but it occupies a perhaps finer position than 
 any of its companions in the city of Rome, except 
 the obelisk of the Vatican, since the architect Anti- 
 nori erected it on the place of the Monte Cavallo, 
 between the two splendid bronze horses called Castor 
 and Pollux, which once adorned the centre of the 
 baths of Constantine, and are now the glory of 
 Rome. 
 
 THE OBELISK OF ARLES. 
 
 This obelisk is a thick and rather heavy monolith 
 of gray granite, 55 ft, i in. high, by 7 ft. 6 in, in 
 diameter. It is very perfect, and is probably of Roman 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 123 
 
 workmanship, and was in all likelihood used as the 
 Meta of the Circus of Aries. It is evidently not of 
 Egyptian origin, since it is wrought out of the local 
 granite of the quarries of Mount Esterel, near Frejus. 
 It was found in the gardens of a private individual 
 near the walls of the city, which are but a short 
 distance from the Rhone. It had probably remained 
 here ever since it was landed, which must have been 
 near seventeen centuries ago, without ever having 
 been applied to the purpose for which it was intended. 
 It was quite buried in the ground, and only the point 
 was a little bare. We learn from the town archives 
 that Charles IX., circa A.D. 1389, when he was once 
 passing through the city, ordered the obelisk to be 
 dug out in order to be removed, but this was not done. 
 Afterwards the inhabitants of Aries raised it in 
 honour of Louis XIV. in one of the public places, 
 with pompous inscriptions on the four faces of its 
 pedestal. They have placed at its apex a globe 
 representing the earth, and above it a sun, which is a 
 real device {ime vraie devise) without any inscription.' 
 Beneath the inscription in honour of Louis XVI. is 
 another referring to the late Emperor Napoleon III.' 
 
 OBELISK OF PHIL2E. 
 
 This is a small and rather more slender obelisk 
 than usual. It is wrought, not in granite, but in sand- 
 stone, and its apex is roughly broken off. According 
 to the measurements of Bonomi it is about 33 ft. high. 
 
 OBELISK OF FLORENCE. 
 
 In the Museum of Florence are two small obelisks, 
 which, however, are not a pair, as their dimensions 
 differ considerably, though their heights are nearly 
 equal. They are about 6 ft. high, in red granite, and 
 
 ^ Buchoz, Correspoiidance d'Histoire NatureUe, 1775, quoted by Zoega, 
 De usu et origiiie Obeliscorum^ 1796- 
 ' Murray's France, Ed. 1877. 
 
124 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 with their pyramidion entire. They are the smallest 
 obelisks in existence, and their history is unknown. 
 
 OBELISK OF CATANIA. 
 
 This is a Roman imitation, and is not a true obelisk, 
 having eight sides. It formed the Meta of a circus, 
 and had no religious significance attached to it. 
 
 There are, unquestionably, many other obelisks, in- 
 scribed and uninscribed, remaining underground be- 
 neath the modern buildings of Rome, Constantinople, 
 and more especially Alexandria. Obelisks were not 
 objects which could easily be used for building pur- 
 poses, and the material of which they were made, a 
 hard red granite, would not be useful to burn into 
 lime, a fate which has befallen most of the smaller 
 temples of Egypt' Again obelisks when they fell 
 down would require a considerable expense of time 
 and skill before they could be re-erected, and, there- 
 fore, they were in the majority of instances allowed 
 to lie where they fell, and then be covered over by 
 subsequent elevations, since they were too heavy to be 
 moved out of the way. Whether any more of these 
 long hidden monoliths will be recovered is uncertain ; 
 but in the undisturbed debris of the Greco-Egyptian 
 cities in the Delta, there must be still concealed many 
 ruined works of art, and even many broken obelisks. 
 
 T 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE OBELISK OF LONDON. 
 
 HE prostrate obelisk of Alexandria, now hence- 
 forward to be more honourabl}^ known as the 
 
 * See Gliddon, Appeal to the Antiquaries ofEuropCy 1841, on the destruction 
 of the ancient temples under Mahomet Ali, for the sake of the lime in the 
 stones of which they were composed. 
 
CHAPTER XXIL 1 25 
 
 Obelisk of London, is the westernmost of the two 
 great obeHsks, which, originally erected by Thoth- 
 mes III. before the temple of Tum in Heliopolis, 
 were afterwards removed by the architect Pontus, in 
 the seventh year of Augustus Caesar, to dignify the 
 grand water entrances of the imperial temple or 
 Caesareum of Alexandria. Like its companion, when 
 re-erected by the Romans, it was, instead of being 
 imposed flat upon its pedestal, supported by four 
 bronze claws or crabs, the oxidation of which has in- 
 jured its surface, and eventually caused the overthrow 
 of the monument ; the obelisk having been upset to 
 allow of the claws being wrenched away for the sake 
 of the metal they contained. This overthrow must 
 have taken place in comparatively recent centuries, 
 for there is evidence that in the time of the Arab 
 historian, Abd-el-lateef, both obelisks were standing, 
 and were regarded as useful landmarks.' The obelisk 
 is of red granite, and is 6S ft. 5^ in. long,' by 
 about 8 ft. wide at the base ; the apex is roughly 
 cut and damaged, it having, like most of the obelisks of 
 Thothmes III., been covered with a bronze cap. 
 The base of the monument, and its two steps or 
 gradines, remain entire ; they are of limestone, and 
 are nearly 7 ft. high. Owing to the position in 
 which it fell, the monolith has been much exposed to 
 injury, alike from the friction of the sand and the cor- 
 rosive action of the salts in the sea breezes ; indeed, 
 the south side has suffered most of all, the hiero- 
 glyphics being in many places wholly illegible : the 
 east face has also suffered severely : the west face, and 
 that which rests upon the ground, has been better 
 
 ^ Abd-el-lateef (in his travels) expressly states that he saw two obelisks 
 near the sea, without making any mention of one of them being- on the 
 ground; though when he speaks of the two obelisks of Heliopolis, he 
 takes care to say that one of them had fallen. Qy., What has become 
 of the fallen obelisk of Heliopolis ? 
 
 ' Or, according to Pliny, 42 cubits, or 63 ft. 
 
126 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 preserved ; ' but even Sir Gardner \yilkinson at one 
 time decided that, as a work of art, the obeHsk had 
 suffered in too great a degree to render it worth while 
 to remove it to London. Norden, who visited Alex- 
 andria, 1737, stated that the obelisk was also broken ; 
 but that Messrs. Burton and Bonomi proved to be a 
 mistake, when in 1827 they measured and published the 
 two accessible faces of the monument in the Excerpta 
 Hieroglyphica. After the visit of Bonomi, a house and 
 also a part of one of the fortifications of Alexandria 
 was built upon the obelisk,' and thus it seemed more 
 improbable than ever that the monolith should be 
 rescued from decay. The e>< posed portion served as a 
 trial stone for every idle Greek or ignorant tourist to cut 
 his initials upon ; and, from the broken angles of the 
 base fragment by fragment was chipped away, to serve 
 as a traveller's trophy to senseless admirers at home. 
 
 It seems not a little remarkable, considering the 
 interest taken in the military successes of Great 
 Britain by all classes of society, that an obelisk 
 which would have most fittingly commemorated the 
 battles of Alexandria and the Nile should not have 
 been carried off by the victors in 1801, when they re- 
 moved the Rosetta stone and several smallerantiquities. 
 At that time indeed a vigorous effort was made by the 
 General in command of the British army, to obtain 
 the obelisk, and had not the zeal of General Lord 
 Cavan been officially repressed, the trophy would 
 have been long ago secured for the victors. A 
 memorandum recently discovered in the Manuscript 
 Department of the British Museum, gives so lively 
 an account of the action taken upon this occasion 
 that it is best to transcribe it nearly as it stands, 
 since the circumstance has not been related by 
 apparently any historian.^ 
 
 * Long", Egyptian Ajitiquities, p. 302. 
 
 ^ Gadsbys IVanderiiigSy Vol. I., p. 152. This was in 1852. 
 
 3 Athenceumy No. 2604, Sep. 22, 1S77. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 127 
 
 *' At the termination of the Campaign of 1801, in 
 Egypt, M. General the Earl of Cavan was left in 
 command of the portion of the British forces which 
 was ordered to remain in that country, in which 
 portion was included the Auxiliary Corps sent from 
 India, under the command of M. General Baird. 
 
 '* Lord Cavan soon turned his attention to the 
 Obelisk denominated by us, ' Cleopatra's Needle,' 
 which lay upon the ground, close to its own pedestal, 
 and also close to another Obelisk of nearly the same 
 dimensions, but not so perfect, which stood, and 
 which it is understood still stands erect close to 
 Alexandria, consequently close to the theatre of 
 those wonderful achievements whereby Egypt was 
 wrested from the dominion of Buonaparte, and 
 restored to the Sublime Porte in that year. 
 
 '* Lord Cavan conceived the notion of obtaining a 
 grant of the fallen Needle for the purpose of con- 
 veying it to the Metropolis of the British Empire, 
 there to be erected to commemorate the Victories of 
 the British Arms in Egypt, under the Conduct of 
 Sir Ralph Abercromby and Lord Hutchinson . . 
 
 Lord Cavan did, unquestionably obtain a 
 
 sufficient grant from the Turkish Authorities, and at 
 once proceeded to cany his purpose into execution. 
 Having conferred with our Chief Engineer on the 
 spot, namely. Major Bryce, .... the plan for the 
 embarkation and conveyance to England of the fallen 
 * Needle of Cleopatra ' was prepared, and, upon due 
 consideration, adopted. 
 
 " The troops then remaining in Egypt were invited 
 by their Officers to subscribe a certain number of 
 days' pay to meet the Expenses of an undertaking in 
 which their feelings were deeply interested, an invita- 
 tion which was eagerly accepted, so that Lord Cavan 
 instantly found the necessary Funds for his purpose 
 at his disposal. Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, 
 and Soldiers vied with each other in offering their 
 
128 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Contributions to the furtherance of an object so 
 gratifying to their National and to their Professional 
 pride, and the work was forthwith put in progress, in 
 the following manner : One of the largest of the 
 French Frigates (El Corsd) captured at Alexandria 
 was purchased, of the Prize Agents, from the Funds 
 thus contributed, to convey the fallen Needle to 
 England. A Stone Pier or Jetty was commenced, 
 alongside of which, when completed, the Frigate was 
 to be brought, to receive the Needle, which was 
 to be introduced into the Ship upon Rollers, through 
 a Stern Port to be cut to the necessary size, and when 
 introduced was to be laid upon a Bed of large Blocks 
 of Timber, forming a platform upon the Keel of the 
 ship, so as to keep this immense weight of solid 
 substance exactly a midship, and to prevent its 
 straining the Keel. Thus placed in the hold of the 
 Ship, the Needle was to be secured in its bed, so as 
 to preclude the possibility of its being moved there- 
 from by the motion of the Ship at Sea. As the fallen 
 Needle lay close to the Sea, the moving it upon 
 Rollers from where it lay, to the Ship, became a very 
 easy operation. 
 
 " Matters being thus arranged, the necessary Work- 
 ing Parties were alloted daily, in the general orders 
 issued by M. Genl the Earl of Cavan, and the 
 undertaking proceeded most prosperously. To com- 
 pensate the soldiery for the tear and wear of their 
 Necessaries, Working Pay was issued to the Working 
 Parties from the Funds to which they themselves had 
 contributed. 
 
 " Considerable progress was made with the Jetty, 
 and the Superior Officers of the Royal Navy then 
 at Alexandria, viz*. Captains Larcom and Donelly, 
 embarked most zealously and cordially in our project, 
 which must therefore have been perfectly successful, 
 had it not been abandoned, in consequence of orders 
 received from Lord Keith, and General Fox, who at 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 129 
 
 that time held the chief Command of the Fleet and 
 of the Troops serving in the Mediterranean." 
 
 After some criticisms upon the causes which led to 
 the abandonment of the projected work, the author * 
 of the manuscript continues thus : " The Working 
 Parties were of course discontinued ; the bargain with 
 the Prize Agents for the Ship was dissolved, and the 
 Funds remaining undisbursed were returned to the 
 Subscribers. The project of conveying the fallen 
 Needle to England being no longer practicable, it 
 was resolved that another expedient should be 
 adopted, in order to establish some lasting Record of 
 the results of so glorious an expedition ; accordingly, 
 the uppermost Block of the Pedestal of the fallen 
 Needle was raised upon one side sufficiently high, by 
 means of levers, to admit of a space of about 
 Eighteen Inches square being chiselled out of the 
 middle of the lowest Block of the Pedestal. In that 
 space a brass plate was laid, on which was engraved 
 a short detail of the principal Events of the 
 Campaign." 
 
 The thirty years' peace turned the attention of the 
 English from the affairs of Egypt, but in later years, 
 every now and then, however, some zealous antiquary 
 wrote to the papers an ad-inisericordiani appeal on 
 behalf of the obelisk of Alexandria, and then, for a brief 
 time, a little correspondence was stirred up ; but it 
 was generally felt that the removal of the obelisk was 
 a national task, which ought to be undertaken by the 
 Government ; and as the Government, whether Whig 
 or Tory, never was of the like opinion, the discussion 
 was always fated to fall through. The chief obstacle 
 was always the cost of the transport, which was 
 generally estimated at ;^ 15,000, a sum too large to be 
 granted for any single antiquity or work of art; the 
 high prices which are now realized by the sale of 
 paintings and porcelain being then unknown. When, 
 in 1 83 1, Mahomet Ali offered the obelisk again to the 
 
 10 
 
130 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 English, further proposing at the same time to defray 
 the cost of its removal to the ship or raft intended to 
 convey it to London, it was confidently expected that 
 his liberal present would have been accepted, and that 
 the more so, since the French, with better taste, were 
 already engaged in transporting the Obelisk of Luxor. 
 Motives of policy, and the fatal indifference of the 
 authorities to every ancient monument that was not 
 classic or mediaeval, again repulsed the offer, and the 
 obelisk seemed finally condemned to perpetual ob- 
 scurity. Still, from time to time, questions were asked in 
 Parliament about the "Cleopatra's Needle," and oppo- 
 sition writers always found an allusion to its neglected 
 state a serviceable taunt against the ministry. Tired 
 of these constant attacks, the "present Government" of 
 1849 declared it was their intention to transport one 
 of the obelisks to the metropolis, and in the House of 
 Commons, April 15, gave as an estimate, "the height 
 of the obelisk, 64 ft. ; its weight, 284 tons ; and, as 
 before, the cost of carriage and removal, ;£" 15,000." ' 
 Again public interest was excited in the matter, 
 various sites were mentioned, and their eligibility 
 freely canvassed ; but, after some further explanations 
 and delays, nothing was ultimately done; and the de- 
 fence of the ministry was the opinion of Sir Gardner 
 Wilkinson, fortified by the addition of the opinions of 
 architects who only cared for classical antiquities: 
 " that the obelisk was too much defaced to be worth 
 removal." As an instance how even antiquarians may 
 sometimes justify government. Sir Gardner's words in 
 1858 are worth quoting. He is referring to the first 
 proposition of Mahomet Ali, to hand over the monu- 
 ment free of expense : " The project has been wisely 
 abandoned ; and cooler deliberation has pronounced 
 that, from its mutilated state, and the obliteration of 
 many of the hieroglyphics by exposure to the sea air, 
 it is unworthy the expense of removal." ^ 
 
 ' Long, Egyptian Antiquities, p. 51. ^ Murray's Egypty p. 91. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 131 
 
 In 185 1, a year rendered memorable by the Exhi- 
 bition of all Nations, the question was again brought 
 before the House, and the proposition of removing 
 the obelisk received the favourable support of Joseph 
 Hume, perhaps the most conscientious economist that 
 ever sat in the House of Commons. The expense 
 was then estimated at £y,ooo only, but again that 
 outlay was deemed too great for its object; accord- 
 ingly, the next advance was made in 1853, by the 
 Directors of the Sydenham Crystal Palace Company, 
 who, having decided upon building the beautiful courts 
 representative of the architecture of various ancient 
 nations, conceived the idea of planting the Alexan- 
 drian obelisk in the centre of the transept, near to 
 the Egyptian court, which was then being completed 
 by Bonomi. The thought was a happy and noble 
 one, and the consent of the Government for the re- 
 moval of the obelisk was formally applied for, and 
 easily obtained. Once more expectation was aroused, 
 and newspaper correspondence stirred up; the irre- 
 pressible '' constant reader " plied the editor of his 
 special *' valuable paper," with numerous questions as 
 to dynasties, monuments, and hieroglyphic writings ; 
 estimates were again prepared; and yet once again 
 the design fell through, chiefly it is to be con- 
 jectured from the expense which would have been 
 incurred by the transport of a monument, which, 
 being national property, could only be lent to a 
 private Company, and would hardly add to the 
 dividends on the invested capital sufficiently to re- 
 coup the directors and shareholders for the intended 
 outlay. 
 
 A few years later, namely, in i Sdy, "the subject of the 
 removal of the obelisk was once more brought under the 
 notice of the Government, in consequence of a notifica- 
 tion from the Khedive, who had let the land on which it 
 stood to a Greek merchant, and as he found that the 
 obelisk was a tenant that paid no rent, he desired its 
 
 10* 
 
132 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 absence; and in default of that buried it under the 
 earth.'" Like all the previous applications, however, 
 even this of the Khedive himself produced no effect ; 
 and these constant failures proved to antiquaries, that 
 if the obelisk were ever to be rescued from the sands 
 of Egypt, it would have to be by the action of 
 private munificence. Various distinguished literary 
 men were appealed to ; but literary men, though their 
 pens convert their ink into liquid gold for others, rarely 
 are able to obtain more of the aiirinn potabile than 
 suffices for themselves. Certain antiquaries, who 
 combine the artist and the pedlar, are som^etimes 
 more fortunate, but they rarely care to expend money 
 on the preservation of anything which is not " their 
 very own." More than once an attempt was made 
 to start a Society to remove the obelisk by private 
 subscription, and once more in 1876, and this time 
 by General Alexander, who had partly cleared out 
 the obelisk, and who had for seven years agitated by 
 circular and otherwise for its removal. The Government 
 was applied to for assistance, but then, as before, the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer declined to advise any 
 grant in aid ;' the ministry contented itself with 
 promising to facilitate the removal of the obelisk 
 by consular letters, and other inexpensive patronages, 
 whenever the requisite amount of money was in hand ; 
 but that was all. Finally, last year Professor Erasmus 
 Wilson, himself the son of an English sailor,^ took the 
 resolution of securing for London this interesting 
 relic of Egypt's greatness and England's victories by 
 sea and land, and engaged to undertake the whole 
 cost of transport himself, the Government providing 
 
 ^ TimeSf February 12, 1877. 
 
 "^ General Alexander was informed that a Frenchman had threatened to 
 remove the obelisk, and break .it up ; seven years did the General ag^itate 
 the Government, the press, and his personal friends, but in vain. He 
 estimated the cost of transit as only ,^3000 or ;^400o. 
 
 ^ Erasmus Wilson is the son of the late William Wilson, Surg-eon, R.N. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 133 
 
 a site for the monument when it should be landed." 
 The Board of Works agreed, that in the event of the 
 obelisk being brought to London without cost to the 
 Government, a site would be found for it on the 
 Thames Embankment, wherever Mr. Wilson and 
 his friends might afterwards decide; all risks and 
 expenses were to be strictly borne by the donor of the 
 obelisk. Fortified with that consent Mr. Wilson 
 consulted an engineer, Mr. John Dixon, and he 
 offered to remove the obelisk from Alexandria to 
 London, and set it up again, bearing all risks, 
 for a sum of ;/^ 10,000. The contract was entered 
 into on both parts, con amove as far as personal 
 profits are concerned, and early in July Mr. Dixon 
 arrived in Alexandria, where, not without having met 
 with difficulties from the avarice of the natives, he 
 soon unearthed and cleared out the obelisk, and to 
 his great delight found it far less injured than had 
 been anticipated. A tubular casing of iron 95 ft. long 
 by 15 ft. diameter, was prepared to encase the obelisk 
 which it was first proposed to protect from injury by 
 nailing it up in thick planking, but no wood casing 
 was required ; diaphragms were fixed around the shaft 
 at regular distances, so as to form watertight com- 
 partments ; the iron plates were fastened to the cir- 
 cumference of these diaphragms, and so the cylinder 
 was constructed. 
 
 When complete, the bank between it and the sea 
 was removed, so that nothing but a moveable inclined 
 plane lay between it and the waters ; wooden ways 
 were laid to prevent the cylinder from touching the 
 ground, and so the movement was commenced ; a 
 rough bit of rock unfortunately pierced the casing, 
 and the opening being under water, could not be got 
 at, until the water was got rid of; this caused a 
 temporary delay, and then the rolling was resumed 
 with success ; when she floated, the cylinder was towed 
 
 ^ See Appendix, Wilson's Narrative. 
 
134 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 round to the western bay, and placed in the Khedive's 
 dry dock ; and when repaired and fitted, was launched 
 and started on September 21, 1877. 
 
 The following translation of the two faces ' of the 
 obelisk, those only which Burton was able to copy, is 
 by M. Chabas : — 
 
 OBELISK OF LONDON? 
 
 The inscriptions of this monolith are disposed 
 exactly in the same order as those on the erect 
 obelisk of Alexandria. The central column is by 
 Thothmes III., and the two lateral ones from 
 Rameses II. The copy was easier to obtain than 
 that of the erect obelisk. Therefore the text is in 
 a somewhat better state of preservation. But the 
 side resting upon the ground was then invisible, and 
 its inscriptions of course remained unknown. 
 
 Central Column {Thothmes III), First , Side. 
 
 " The kingly Horus, 
 Strong bull, crowned in Thebes, 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ra-men-Kheper, 
 He made (this) in his monuments to his father 
 
 Horemakhou, 
 He erected two very great obelisks capped with gold 
 (When he celebrated) the panegyry of his father 
 
 who loves him.^ He did (it) 
 The son of the sun, 
 
 ' Also fig-ured In Champollion le Jeune's Monumens de VEgypte. 
 ' From Burton's Excerpla HierogLyphica, pi. 51. 
 3 This passage is badly copied in Burton's work. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 135 
 
 Thothmes, the best of existences, 
 Beloved of Horemakhou.'' 
 
 Second Side. 
 
 " The kingly Horus, 
 Strong bull, ruling in truth, 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ra-men-Kheper. 
 For him the Lord of gods has multiplied the 
 
 panegyrics' in Habennou,' 
 Knowing that he is his son. 
 The elder, the divine flesh, 
 Issuing (from himself) 
 To be . . ' 
 The son of the sun, 
 Thothmes, Lord of Heliopolis, 
 Beloved of Horemakhou." 
 
 Third Side, 
 
 '' The kingly Horus, 
 Strong bull, beloved of Ra,^ 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ra-men-Kheper. 
 His father Tum has established him, making for 
 
 him a grandeur of name in expanded royalty, 
 
 in Heliopolis, 
 
 (And) giving him the throne of Seb (and) the 
 
 office of Kheper-Ra ; 
 The son of the sun, 
 
 ^ Festivals of thirty years. ^ The temple of the sun in Heliopolis. 
 
 ^ The copy here is wrong. * The sun. 
 
136 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Thothmes, the best of existences, 
 Beloved of the Bennou' of HeHopoHs." 
 
 Inscriptions of Rameses 11. in the right and left 
 columns of each of the visible sides. 
 
 First Side I, 
 
 " The kingly Horus, 
 Strong bull, son of Turn, 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 Lord of diadems, 
 Who protects Egypt 
 And chastises nations, 
 Son of the sun, 
 Rameses Meriamen, 
 Who throws down southern peoples 
 As far as the Indian Ocean 
 And the northern peoples 
 As far as the prop of the sky. 
 The Lord of the two lands, 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 Son of the sun, 
 Rameses Meriamen, 
 Vivifier like the sun." 
 
 Second Side I. 
 
 *^ The kingly Horus, 
 Strong bull, beloved of Ma,' 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 ' Sacred bird. » Truth. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 137 
 
 Ra-ousor-ma-Sotep-en-Ra, 
 
 Lord of panegyrics like his father Ptah Totanen, 
 
 Son of the sun, 
 
 Rameses Meriamen, 
 
 Strong bull, like the son of Ma, 
 
 None could stand (against him) in his time, 
 
 The Lord of the two lands, 
 
 Prenomeri^ 
 
 Son of the sun. 
 
 Car touch: Rameses II." 
 
 Second Side, 
 
 '* The kingly Horus, 
 
 Strong bull, son of Khepera, 
 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Prenoinen. 
 
 Golden hawk, 
 
 Of abundant years, 
 
 Very victorious, 
 
 Son of the sun, 
 
 CartoiicJi: Rameses II. 
 
 (He) enabled men to behold he has done, 
 
 Never was uttered denial (against it). 
 
 The Lord of the two lands, 
 
 Prenoineiiy 
 
 Son of the sun, 
 
 CartoiLch : Rameses II., 
 
 Splendour of the sun . . . 
 
 The kingly Horus, 
 
 Strong bull, beloved of Truth, 
 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 Preiionien, 
 
138 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Son of the sun, offspring of the gods, possessor 
 
 of the two lands, 
 Son of the sun, 
 Cartouch: Rameses II., 
 
 Who made his frontiers to the place he chose, 
 And got peace through his victory, 
 The Lord of the two lands, 
 Cartouch : Prenoineny 
 Son of the sun, 
 Cartouch: Rameses II., 
 Splendour of the sun." 
 
 Third Side. 
 
 " The kingly Horus, 
 Strong bull, beloved of Ra, 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 Cartouch : Pre7ionien^ 
 (Lord) of panegyrics like his father Ptah, 
 Son of the sun, 
 Cartouch: Rameses II,, 
 
 Son of Tum, from his loins, who loves him ; 
 Hathor generated him ; 
 He who opened the two lands, 
 Lord of the two lands, 
 Preuomeii, 
 Son of the sun, 
 Cartouch: Rameses 11. , 
 Vivifier like the sun. 
 ; The kingly Horus, 
 Strong bull, son of . . .' 
 The king of upper and lower Egypt, 
 
 * Name undistinguishable. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 139 
 
 CartoitcJi : Prenomen, 
 
 Lord of diadems, who cares for Egypt and 
 
 chastises nations, 
 Son of the sun, 
 Cartouch: Rameses II." 
 
 Here the copy of Burton's Excerpta is wrong, and 
 the meaning of the passage is very doubtful. The 
 inscription was ended Hke the others, by the prenomen 
 and name of Rameses II. 
 
140 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Cliff Field, Westgate-on-Sea, 
 Margate, 
 
 October 3, 1877. 
 
 My Dear Sir, 
 
 The only way by which I can meet 
 your requirements is to set down, as Wilkie Collins 
 says, 
 
 WILSON'S NARRATIVE, 
 
 In the autumn of 1876 I received a note from 
 Sir James Alexander on professional matters, in 
 which he referred to Cleopatra's Needle, which he 
 was then busy in drawing attention to. As a sailor's 
 son I took an interest in the matter ; and on my 
 return to London, having had a visit from Sir James, 
 I was informed that a site for the obelisk had been 
 awarded by the Metropolitan Board of Works on 
 Sir James's solicitation; and that Mr. John Dixon, an 
 engineer, had contemplated the means of effecting 
 the object. A few days afterwards (we were then in 
 November) I called upon Mr. Dixon, whom I had 
 never seen before nor heard of, save through Sir 
 James Alexander. Sir James Alexander had left 
 him a few minutes before I entered. I soon found 
 that Mr. Dixon was a Freemason, hence, all formality 
 and ceremony were at once banished. He told me 
 
APPENDIX. 141 
 
 that he had long contemplated bringing the obelisk 
 to England, and hoped some day to do it himself, 
 when he should be rich enough ; he said that he and 
 Mr. Fowler had talked over bringing it, but that 
 political reasons had left the matter in abeyance. He 
 then said, I should enclose the monolith in boiler 
 plate, and roll it into the sea, I would then steady the 
 cylinder by means of bilge plates, ballast it, fix a 
 rudder, fix a cabin and spar deck, and then tow her 
 to England. He said, he thought it might be done 
 for ;^ 5, 000, but he would enter into a contract to do 
 
 it for ^7,000. 
 
 ******** 
 
 Some further conversation took place, and Mr. 
 Dixon was so confidant of his success, that we said 
 this: "The undertaking is not an easy one; there 
 may be unexpected difficulties, we must succeed ; you 
 say you can do it for ;^ 7,000, will you undertake to 
 set it up safely on the banks of the Thames for 
 ;f 10,000; no cure no pay." "Willingly," was his 
 answer, and we parted for the second time. " Mr. 
 Dixon I have one more favour to ask of you, 
 which is to give an interview to my friend, H. P. 
 Stephenson, who is a civil engineer, and will influence 
 us with his opinion ; also a Freemason." 
 
 The following week, we four met at the solicitor's 
 office in Bedford Row and agreed to the terms of a 
 contract. Our next meeting was to sign that contract, 
 in January. 
 
 Mr. Dixon then went to work in earnest, the 
 cylinder was built on the banks of the Thames, and 
 sent out in pieces. The rest you know. 
 
 A telegram of this day's date tells me that the Olga 
 put into Algiers for coal yesterday, and at noon today 
 started for Gibraltar. 
 
 Then we applied to Lord Derby for permission ; 
 then we were told that that permission should be 
 asked for from the Khedive, as England had refused 
 
142 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 the gift ; then obtaining the Khedive's assent in spite 
 of previous refusal, we went upon the ground to 
 take possession of the obeHsk, but were stopped by 
 M. Demetri, who said: **A short time back I wished 
 to determine the property of the obeHsk, and went to 
 the courts demanding damages as rent from the 
 Khedive ; the answer of the court was unsatisfactory: 
 * Do what you Hke with the obeHsk, we have 
 nothing to do with it ; ' and now, the man in whose 
 interest this is said, gives authority to you to trespass 
 on my land." 
 
 ^/F <fF T^ * "^ ^ inF ^|F 
 
 M. Demetri, however, in a true scientific spirit said, 
 " I give the obelisk over to you Mr. Dixon, and those 
 whom you represent ; but I repudiate the authority 
 of the Khedive." 
 
 Bisallah ! What more shall I say t Can you adapt 
 your story to the thread which I now send you } 
 
 The game then lies between Dixon and Wilson; 
 the Government is out of the game altogether ; but 
 we can't plant our baby on British ground without 
 Government permission ; and, moreover, we expect 
 Government to take care of it when it is so planted. 
 
 I suppose Parliament Square is out of the realm of 
 the Metropolitan Board of Works, but the Metro- 
 politan Board has not shown any backwardness in 
 allowing us a site. There can be no question as to 
 the proper site, the best of all being Parliament 
 Square ; there we should have a foundation of 
 masonry and iron girders ; on the Thames Embank- 
 ment, or in St. James's Park, we should have to make 
 a foundation on piles. 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 ERASMUS WILSON. 
 
 P.S. Tomorrow or next day I shall be able to 
 send you a copy of my pamphlet, Ayhich is now in the 
 
APPENDIX. 143 
 
 printer's hands. In it you will find the special details 
 you are in want of; but, as touching the obelisk, 
 by-gones should be by-gones, and all recrimination 
 wiped away. If you or I had been in the Government 
 we should doubtless have acted as the Government 
 has done, that is I hope so ; but not being in the 
 Government we needn't dictate to them what they 
 ought to have done and didn't do. 
 
 Let me know of anything that I can further explain. 
 
 E. W. 
 
144 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 The Execution of the Obelisk. 
 
 PROSTRATE and half covered with sand, on the 
 floor of the granite quarries of Syene, lies a 
 stupendous obelisk, still partly attached to its native 
 rock, and as perfect as on the day when the Egyptian 
 miner took his chisel from its surface to finish his 
 work another time ; which other time has not come yet, 
 though forty centuries have passed away since then. 
 This obelisk, had it been completed, would have been 
 one of the largest of its species, for it still measures 
 95 ft. long, by a diameter of ii ft. i in.' At its side 
 are yet to be seen the marks left by the wedges of 
 the quarrymen of Pharaoh; and indications of the 
 inclined road leading to the river can also be traced. 
 From an examination of this obelisk, and of the walls 
 of the quarry in which it was hewn, the method 
 adopted by the Egyptians for severing such huge 
 masses of stone from the rock becomes obvious ; and 
 it was precisely the same principle as is now adopted by 
 the natives of India, who have practised it from im- 
 memorial centuries. *' The workman having found a 
 portion of the rock sufficiently extensive, and situated 
 near the edge of the part already quarried, lays bare 
 the upper surface, and marks on it a line in the direc- 
 tion of the intended separation, along which a 
 groove is cut with a chisel about a couple of inches in 
 depth; above this groove a narrow line of fire is then 
 kindled, and maintained till the rock below is 
 thoroughly heated; immediately on which a line of 
 men and women, each provided with a pot full of 
 cold water, suddenly sweep off the ashes, and pour 
 the water into the heated groove, when the rock at 
 once splits with a clear fracture. Square blocks of 
 
 ' Wilkinson's Egypt, p. 404; 11 ft. i^ in., is the exact width. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 145 
 
 6 ft. in the side, and upwards of 80 ft. in length, are 
 sometimes detached by this method.'" This account 
 agrees also with the statement of Agatharchides, that 
 the rocks in the gold mines of Egypt were split by 
 burning wood.' In addition to the simple line of 
 incision in the rock, the Egyptian masons used large 
 wedges of soft wood, which they afterwards saturated 
 with water, and thus rent the blocks asunder, carefully 
 chiselling away at the same time, and in all probability 
 using a large coarse saw to deepen the cuts. When 
 the mass of stone was nearly all cut through, the 
 props which sustained it were knocked away, and it 
 was allowed to break itself off from the rock by its 
 own weight, a rather singular proceeding, as it risked 
 the safety of the monolith. There is no doubt, how- 
 ever, that that plan was adopted, since several of the 
 large sarcophagi in the British Museum, as well as 
 that of Seti I. in the Soane Museum, show where they 
 have been sawn nearly through to the base, and then 
 broken off. In the Museum specimen the fracture 
 has carried away a part of the basalt sarcophagus, and 
 the hieroglyphics which run round its sides have only 
 been slightly cut into the broken surface. In the 
 sarcophagus at the Soane Museum, on the other hand, 
 the saw-break projects; and though the whole of the 
 monument has been beautifully chiselled and polished, 
 yet at the end the broken stone is allowed to protrude 
 in all its original roughness. 
 
 When the obelisk was completely detached from 
 the quarry, it was pushed upon rollers made of small 
 palm stems to the waters edge. There it was 
 
 ^ Sir J. F. Herschell's Discourse^ quoted in Long's Egyptians^ p. 304. 
 He refers to the erection of a granite obelisk at Seringapatam. Phil. 
 Trans.y IX., p. 312. 
 
 ' These mines were situated in the Wady Ollaki ; they were worked in 
 all the greater dynasties of Egypt, and a series of interesting royal inscrip- 
 tions, relating to the Pharaohs who visited them, is given in Records of the 
 Past, Vol. VI II., p. 66. 
 
 U 
 
146 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 surrounded with a casing of timber, and allowed to wait 
 till the next inundation of the Nile conveyed it to 
 the city where it was to be set up. Arrived at its 
 destination the obelisk was once more propelled by 
 rollers and levers up an inclined plane to the front of 
 the temple where its base was already in position ; a 
 firmer road of sand covered with planking was then 
 made up to the very edge of the base and flush with 
 its surface ; a deep and broad groove was next cut 
 along the base, parallel to one of its sides, and parallel 
 also to the edge of the base of the obelisk ; the obelisk 
 was next urged inwards till its lowermost edge 
 rested in the groove on the pedestal ; long rollers, each 
 thicker than the preceding, were then pushed by main 
 force under the apex of the obelisk towards the base, 
 till the monolith was gradually tilted upwards. Thus 
 much achieved, strong date palm ropes were carried 
 over the pylons of the temple in front of the obelisk, 
 others were drawn round strong stays fixed in the 
 ground, and by long-continued efforts, and the exer- 
 tions of many hundred hands, the obelisk was at last 
 lifted into position ; and it says much for the me- 
 chanical accuracy of the Egyptian masons, that so 
 true was the level, both of the under surface of the 
 obelisk and the top of the base, that none of the 
 obelisks when erected were ever out of the perpen- 
 dicular; a most important consideration, as owing to 
 their great height and the narrowness of their founda- 
 tions, a very small inequality would have sufficed to 
 have overthrown them. 
 
 A point which must not be overlooked, was the 
 rapidity with which, in some instances, the massive 
 works were wrought and erected. The beautiful 
 obelisks of Hatasu were quarried, set up, and covered 
 with their hieroglyphic inscriptions within a space of 
 seven months, an undertaking that, with all the 
 modern resources of steam power and improved 
 machinery, would almost be impossible to European 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 147 
 
 architects.' There are no representations as yet dis- 
 covered in the Egyptian bas-reliefs of the operation of 
 raising or removing an obeHsk, though there is a well- 
 known one of the transport of a colossal statue. 
 Wheeled vehicles seem to have been very little used 
 for the carriage of great weights, a kind of sledge or 
 slip having been used instead. The pulley of the 
 Egyptians was also a simple one, and there is no 
 indication of the knowledge of a compound lever. 
 Yet with all these imperfections they never seem to 
 have failed in any of their undertakings ; probably, or 
 indeed most certainly, a devotional spirit, such as is 
 the life of all true art, sustained and directed them in 
 their enterprizes. One anecdote relating to the erec- 
 tion of an obelisk has been preserved by Pliny, but 
 the extravagance of his details prevents any credence 
 being attached to his relation ; and the action of the 
 monarch in the impending failure of the engineers is 
 utterly antagonistic to Egyptian thought or Egyptian 
 manners. The Roman historian, starting as usual 
 with an imaginary chronology, thus narrates : 
 
 ** Rameses, too," who was reigning at the time of 
 the capture of Troy, erected one (an obelisk) 
 140 cubits high. Having quitted the spot where 
 the palace of Mnevis^ stood, this monarch erected 
 another obelisk, 120 cubits in height, but of prodigious 
 thickness, the sides being no less than 1 1 cubits in 
 breadth. It is said that 120,000 men were employed 
 upon this work;^ and that the king, when it was on 
 
 ' Birch's Egypt, p. S6. 
 
 ^ This must be meant for Rameses III., who came into contact with 
 some of the Pelasgic peoples. See also Gladstone's Homeric Synchronisms, 
 for a series of clever conjectures as to the Eg^yptian prince Memnon of Homer. 
 
 3 Qy., the palace temple of the bull g-od Mnevis or Ba-en-Tattu, "The 
 Spirit that is in Tattu," the abode of Osiris, at Memphis. 
 
 ^ "This," Hardouin says, "was the same obelisk that was afterwards 
 erected by Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, in the Circus Maxi- 
 mus at Rome, whence it was removed by Pope Sixtus V., in the year 15S8, 
 to the Basilica of the Lateran." Note to Bohn's Plivy. 
 
 11* 
 
148 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 the point of being elevated, being apprehensive that 
 the machinery employed might not prove strong 
 enough for the weight, with the view of increasing the 
 peril that might be entailed by due want of precaution 
 on the part of the workmen, had his own son fastened 
 to the summit, in order that the safety of the prince 
 at the same time might ensure the safety of the mass 
 of stone. It was in his admiration of this work, that, 
 when king Cambyses took the city by storm, and the 
 conflagration had already reached the very foot of the 
 obelisk, he ordered the fire to be extinguished ; he 
 entertaining a respect for this stupendous erection 
 which he had not entertained for the city itself.'" 
 
 When the obelisk was once placed in position, the 
 labours of the sculptor and workmen were not over, 
 for a scaffold had next to be erected, to enable the 
 engraver to cut the hieroglyphic inscriptions, a work 
 of considerable nicety and difficulty ; for the characters 
 of the hieroglyphics in good Egyptian work were never 
 crowded or confused, a due systematisation of space 
 was always preserved; and, the better to effect this 
 purpose, one hieroglyph was substituted for another 
 of a similar phonetic or syllabic value, to avoid con- 
 fusion or defect. No allowance was made for optical 
 perspective, since the characters were of the same 
 size all the way up ; indeed, those of the apex, con- 
 taining a separate text, were generally in a smaller 
 size, as were also the dedicating lines at the bottom of 
 the monument; and from summit to base every portion 
 of the obelisk was carefully sculptured and highly 
 polished. Nothing was left unfinished ; and with such 
 precision and truth were the laudatory sentences in- 
 scribed upon the rigid stone, that neither the mallet 
 of the Persians, the fire of the Romans, the salt sand 
 of the desert, or the corrosive rains of the equinox, 
 have been able to efface, or even to disfigure them. 
 
 * Pliny, Nat, Hist.., Book xxxvi., Chap. 14. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 149 
 
 Such were the Egyptian obehsks, unique, grand, and 
 symbolical, which devotion reared upwards to the sun 
 ere any of the empires of the West had emerged from 
 obscurity. They were ancient at the foundation of 
 Nineveh ; their history had become lost in the 
 clouds of mythology, long ere the erection of the 
 walls of Rome ; to Solomon's Egyptian bride they 
 must have been ancestral monuments ; to Pythagoras 
 and Solon, records of a traditional past antecedent 
 to all recollection. Before the obelisk of Usir- 
 tesen, Potipherah the priest of On must often have 
 bowed, attended by his slave-boy Joseph ; and from 
 the nunneries' which were gathered round it, and 
 whose ruins still lie hidden underground, that slave- 
 boy, then a rising minister, took his Egyptian wife. 
 In the college to which that obelisk was attached, 
 Moses, the meekest of all men, learnt the wisdom of 
 the Egyptians. When, after the terrible last tenth 
 plague, the mixed multitude were driven forth from 
 Egypt, the light of the pillar of fire threw the shadow 
 of that obelisk across the path of the fugitives. 
 Centuries later, when the wrecked empire of Judaea 
 was dispersed, it was again in the precincts of the 
 obelisk of On that the exiled people of the Lord 
 took shelter. Thither were carried some of those 
 translators of the Holy Scriptures, who, at the com- 
 mand of Ptolemy Philadelphus, transcribed the Septua- 
 gint. Last of all, it was to the village of Matarieh, 
 still in view of the obelisk of Usirtesen, that the infant 
 
 ^ Every Egyptian temple had, what mig-ht be called its nunnery, where 
 young women of good family were educated by the wives of the higher 
 clergy, and were taught to serve in the temple of the divinity, not exactly 
 as priestesses, but as assistants. Ahi-t was the Egyptian term for them. 
 They must not be confounded with the Pallakists, or wives of the gods; for 
 these women could, and indeed generally did, marry out of the temple 
 boundaries, and were very probably perfectly chaste. They were simply 
 dedicated to the divinity, as in Catholic countries many young children 
 are dedicated to the B. V, M., and wear a peculiar dress, without any 
 ultimate intention of taking the veil. 
 
150 EGYPTIAN OBELISKS. 
 
 Jesus was carried in the arms of his mother, in obedi- 
 ence to the command of the angel in a dream, *' Arise, 
 and take the young child and his mother, and flee 
 into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee 
 word." ' Upon how many scenes has not that obelisk 
 looked ? Amidst how many changes of dynasty has it 
 not held itself erect ? Admired, if not worshipped, 
 honoured, if alone, still it stands, where Usirtesen 
 placed it four thousand years ago, the oldest and most 
 typical of all the obelisks of Egypt. 
 
 ^ Matt. ii. 13. 
 
SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY. 
 
 33, BLOOMSBURY STREET, W.C. 
 
 Instituted for the investigation of the Archaeology, 
 History, Arts, and Chronology of Ancient and Modem 
 Assyria, Palestine, Egypt, Arabia, and other Biblical 
 Lands : the promotion of the study of the Antiquities of 
 those countries, and the Record of Discoveries hereafter 
 to be made in connexion therewith. Also for the forma- 
 tion of a Library of Geographical and Archaeological 
 Works, under due regulation to be circulated among the 
 Members. 
 
 The Meetings are held on the first Tuesdays in the 
 month from November to June at 8-30 p.m. 
 
 MEMBERSHIR 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen desirous of becoming Members 
 of the Society are requested to communicate by letter with 
 the Secretary, Mr. W. R. Cooper, 33, Bloomsbury Street, 
 AV.C, who will submit their names to the Council, by whom 
 all Candidates are nominated. The Subscription is one 
 guinea per annum, payable in advance, which entitles the 
 Member to receive all the Publications and attend all the 
 meetings of the Society. 
 
 There is no Entrance Fee. 
 
ASSYRIAN AND EGYPTIAN CLASSES. 
 
 FOURTH SESSION, NOVEMBER to MARCH, 1877-8. 
 
 These Classes are held as before in the Rooms of 
 the Society of BibHcal Archaeology, t^'^, Bloomsbury 
 Street, W.C. 
 
 The Assyrian Class is conducted by Mr. St. Chad 
 BoscAWEN, at Five p.m., on each successive Saturday, 
 punctually. 
 
 The Egyptian Class will be resumed by Mr. P. Le 
 Page Renouf early in the new year. 
 
 Exercise Sheets will be prepared as before. 
 
 It is intended to offer two Prizes oi j[^^ each, one in 
 Ass)n:ian, and one in Egyptian translation, to be competed 
 for by the Students during the present Session, Prof. 
 Sayce and Dr. Birch being the adjudicators. 
 
 Admission by Tickets, One Guinea each course. Issued 
 at 33, Bloomsbury Street, W.C. 
 
 // 
 

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