The largest Egyptian obelisk hitherto brought over to this country Is that which was removed from the island of ['hike by Belzoni, at the cost of W. Ratans. Esq., and which is now erected at the family seat, Kingston Ball, near Weymouth, Doreetebira It is a monolith of red Egyptian granite, 22 ft. I In. in length, and its larger end, or base, 2 ft. 2 ha square, the other end being 1 ft. 51 in. It has* peculiar interest with Egyptologists, from a Greek inscription on its pedestal having enabled Champollion to determine the names of Cleopatra and Ptolemy, " to extend the alphabet., and to lay the foundation for the future decipherment and interpretation of the hieroglyphics." [If IEROGLYPU ice.] The two small obelisks in the British 31usenni are also very inte resting for their inscriptions, which arc admirably executed. We give cuts of them as illustrations of the manner in which the obelisks are engraved : the animals are in the best style of Egyptian hieroglyphic art. They are of green basalt, and about eight feet in height, but as will be seen have been much broken.
The obelisk removed by the French from before the propylaea of the teuiple of Luxor is the smaller of the two shown in situ in the emit above (eel. 9). It now stands in the centre of the Place de la Concorde, where it was fixed in 1836.
Before the cathedral of Catania, In Sicily, is a small obelisk, placed on the back of an elephant ; and there is one at Arles (see the cut meter the article A HUM, in tlsoo. Div.), but these are not really Egyptian, though frequently so described. In the At Nieidan, in Con stantinople, is an obelisk about 50 feet high, which is said to have been erected by the emperor Theodosius.
Much surprise has been expressed by writers that the Egyptians ahould have been able to quarry, remove, and raise such vast masses of granite. Ilut the Egyptians were a people whose culture in the arts had reached a high point; they almost beyond any other people had experience in quarrying and working, large manses of granite ; they were familiar with the principles of mechanics, and with mechanical contrivances ; and they hail an almost unlimited command of human labour. An examination of Sir J. 0. Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt and the Egyptians' would remove tho difficulty, if wo did not see by the examples afforded by a much leas advanced people, the modern Indians, who by the simplest means first quarried and then removed and raised to its position the vast granite monolithic obelisk erected at Seringapatain in 1905, that with sufficient patient well-directed labour such teaks are accomplished with comparative ease. As to the removal of the
obelisks—the proceedings of Belzoni, of the French in removing the Luxor obelisk, and especially those of Layard at Niiieveh, are still more to the point. For descriptions of the methods adopted, it will be enough to refer to the authorities named below.
Assyrian Obeliska—Arnong the remarkable discoveries made on the site or in the vicinity of the long-buried Nineveh, the finding of some monoliths resembling obelisks is uot the least interesting. That now in the British Museum is the most important. It is a block of coarse black marble, 6 ft. 6 in. high, 2 ft. wide at the bottom, and 1 ft. 6 in. at top—where In the Egyptian obelisk the pyramidion would commence. The top in this instance, however, instead of sloping off to a point, as in the pyramidion of an Egyptian oholisk, diminishes by three steps, the termination being flat ; Mr. Fergusson supposes this top to be a model of an Assyrian temple. As in the Egyptian obelisk, the sides of the shaft are narrower than the front and back. As a work of art, it is, both in design and execution, far inferior to the Egyptian obelisk ; but as an historical monument it is of immense value. Each of the sides has five tires of bassi-rilicvi, representing the king of Assyria receiving tribute from various conquered nations, consisting of prisoners, rare animals, vases, and other costly articles ; and above, between, and below these are, in all, 210 lines of an inscription in cuneiform characters, which, as deciphered by Sir II. Ilawlinson, was found to give an historical account of 31 years of the reign of Temen bar, ending about 885 n.e.
The very curious obelisk at Axum in Abyssinia, a granite monolith 60 feet high, but differing greatly in form from those of Egypt, is figured under Axon, in the Geoe. Div. There were once, it is said, more than 50 of these monoliths at Aaiun, of which four were equal in size to the one still standing. It stands on a bane of three plinths ; has rude sculptures, not hieroglyphics, on the sides ; and is terminated with a round-topped patera. Its date is not ascertained ; but it has been conjectured to be of Greek workmanship, and contemporanetais with a stone inscribed in rude Greek and, as Mr. Salt conjectures, Ethiopian characters, of about the year A.D. 300.
(Wilkinmou, Ancient Egyptians ; Fig tian Antiquities, in Lib. of Ent. Knowledge ; ' Hamilton, ,Egyptiaea; Zooga, 1k ;au rl erigine Mc/ince-um ; ltossellini, Monuntenti dell 'Egitto ; and the great work of the French government on Egypt; L,ayard, Nineveh; Bononii, and its Palaces.)