Cleopatra's Needle / A History of the London Obelisk, with an Exposition of the Hieroglyphics

THE HIEROGLYPHICS ON CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE.

(The central columns were cut by Thothmes III., the side columns by Rameses II. The Inscriptions at the base of each side are much mutilated, and those on the Pyramidion are not shown in the Plate.)

BY-PATHS OF BIBLE KNOWLEDGE.

I.

CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE:

A HISTORY OF THE LONDON OBELISK,

WITH AN

EXPOSITION OF THE HIEROGLYPHICS.

BY THE
REV. JAMES KING, M.A.,
AUTHORIZED LECTURER TO THE PALESTINE EXPLORATION FUND.

“The Land of Egypt is before thee.”—Gen. xlvii. 6.

LONDON:
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
56, Paternoster Row, 65, St. Paul’s Churchyard,
And 164, Piccadilly.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

[The illustrations of the obelisk at Constantinople, and of Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment, are taken, by the kind permission of Sir Erasmus Wilson, from his work, “The Egypt of the Past.”]

INTRODUCTION.

The London Obelisk, as the monument standing on the Thames Embankment is now called, is by far the largest quarried stone in England; and the mysterious-looking characters covering its four faces were carved by workmen who were contemporaries of Moses and the Israelites during the time of the Egyptian Bondage. It was set up before the great temple of the sun at Heliopolis about 1450 B.C., by Thothmes III., who also caused to be carved the central columns of hieroglyphs on its four sides. The eight lateral columns were carved by Rameses II. two centuries afterwards. These two monarchs were the two mightiest of the kings of ancient Egypt.

In 1877 the author passed through the land of Egypt, and became much interested during the progress of the journey in the study of the hieroglyphs covering tombs, temples, and obelisks. He was assisted in the pursuit of Egyptology by examining the excellent collections of Egyptian antiquities in the Boolak Museum at Cairo, the Louvre at Paris, and the British Museum. He feels much indebted to Dr. Samuel Birch, the leading English Egyptologist, for his kind assistance in rendering some obscure passages on the Obelisk.

This little volume contains a verbatim translation into English, and an exposition, of the hieroglyphic inscriptions cut by Thothmes III. on the Obelisk, and an exposition of those inscribed by Rameses II. Dr. Samuel Birch, the late W. R. Cooper, and other Egyptologists, have translated the inscription in general terms, but no attempt was made by these learned men to show the value of each hieroglyph; so that the student could no more hope to gain from these general translations a knowledge of Egyptology, than he could hope to gain a knowledge of the Greek language by reading the English New Testament.

In the march of civilisation, Egypt took the lead of all the nations of the earth. The Nile Valley is a vast museum of Egyptian antiquities, and in this sunny vale search must be made for the germs of classical art.

The London Obelisk is interesting to the architect as a specimen of the masonry of a people accounted as the great builders of the Ancient World. It is interesting to the antiquary as setting forth the workmanship of artists who lived in the dim twilight of antiquity. It is interesting to the Christian because this same venerable monument was known to Moses and the Children of Israel during their sojourn in the land of Goshen.

The inscription is not of great historical value, but the hieroglyphs are valuable in setting forth the earliest stages of written language, while their expressive symbolism enables us to interpret the moral and religious thoughts of men who lived in the infancy of the world.

Egypt is a country of surpassing interest to the Biblical student. From the early days of patriarchal history down to the discovery in 1883 of the site of Pithom, a city founded by Rameses II., Egyptian and Israelitish and Christian history have touched at many points. Abraham visited the Nile Valley; Joseph, the slave, became lord of the whole country; God’s people suffered there from cruel bondage, but the Lord so delivered them that “Egypt was glad at their departing;” the rulers of Egypt once and again ravaged Palestine, and laid Jerusalem under tribute. When, in the fulness of time, our Saviour appeared to redeem the world by the sacrifice of Himself, He was carried as a little child into Egypt, and there many of His earliest and most vivid impressions were received. Thus, from the time of Abraham, the father of the faithful, to the advent of Jesus, the Lord and Saviour of all, Egypt is associated with the history of human redemption.

And although the Obelisk which forms the subject of this volume tells us in its inscriptions nothing about Abraham, Joseph, or Moses, yet it serves among other important ends one of great interest. It seems to bring us into very direct relationship with these men who lived so many generations ago. The eyes of Moses must have rested many times upon this ancient monument, old even when first he looked upon it, and read its story of past greatness; the toiling, suffering Israelites looked upon it, and we seem to come into a closer fellowship with them as we realize this fact.

The recent wonderful discovery of mummies and Egyptian antiquities, of which an account is given in this volume, and the excavations now being carried on at Pithom and Zoan, are exciting much fresh interest in Egyptian research.

This little volume will have served its end if it interests the reader in the historical associations of the monument, which he can visit, if he cares to do so, and by its aid read for himself what it has to tell us of the men and deeds of a long-distant past.

It also seeks to stimulate wider interest and research into all that the monuments of Egypt can tell us in confirmation of the historical parts of the Bible, and of the history of that wondrous country which is prominent in the forefront of both Old and New Testaments, from the day when “Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there,” until the day when Joseph “arose and took the young Child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt: and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My Son.”

CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE.

CHAPTER I.

The Religious Character of the Ancient Egyptians.

Standing some time ago on the top of the great pyramid, the present writer gazed with wonder at the wide prospect around. Above Cairo the Nile Valley is hemmed in on both sides by limestone ridges, which form barriers between the fertile fields and the barren wastes on either side; and on the limestone ridge by the edge of the great western desert stand the pyramids of Egypt. Looking forth from the summit of the pyramid of Cheops eastwards, the Nile Valley was spread out like a panorama. The distant horizon was bounded by the Mokattam hills, and near to them rose the lofty minarets and mosques of Grand Cairo.

The green valley presented a pleasing picture of richness and industry. Palms, vines, and sycamores beautified the fertile fields; sowers, reapers, builders, hewers of wood and drawers of water plied their busy labours, while long lines of camels, donkeys, and oxen moved to and fro, laden with the rich products of the country. The hum of labour, the lowing of cattle, the bleating of sheep, the song of women, and the merry laughter of children, spoke of peace and plenty.

Looking towards the west how changed was the scene! The eye rested only on the barren sands of the vast desert, the great land of a silence unbroken by the sound of man or beast. Neither animal nor vegetable life exists there, and the solitude of desolation reigns for ever supreme; so that while the bountiful fields speak of activity and life, the boundless waste is a fitting emblem of rest and death.

It is manifest that this striking contrast exercised a strong influence upon the minds of the ancient Egyptians. To the edge of the silent desert they carried their dead for burial, and on the rocky platform that forms the margin of the sandy waste they reared those vast tombs known as the pyramids. The very configuration of Egypt preached a never-ending sermon, which intensified the moral feelings of the people, and tended to make the ancient Egyptians a religious nation.

The ancient Egyptians were a very religious people. The fundamental doctrine of their religion was the unity of deity, but this unity was never represented by any outward figure. The attributes of this being were personified and represented under positive forms. To all those not initiated into the mysteries of religion, the outward figures came to be regarded as distinct gods; and thus, in process of time, the doctrine of divine unity developed into a system of idolatry. Each spiritual attribute in course of time was represented by some natural object, and in this way nature worship became a marked characteristic of their mythology.

The sun, the most glorious object of the universe, became the central object of worship, and occupies a conspicuous position in their religious system. The various aspects of the sun as it pursued its course across the sky became so many solar deities. Horus was the youthful sun seen in the eastern horizon. He is usually represented as holding in one hand the stylus or iron pen, and in the other, either a notched stick or a tablet. In the hall of judgment, Thoth was said to stand by the dreadful balance where souls were weighed against truth. Thoth, with his iron pen, records on his tablet the result of the weighing in the case of each soul, and whether or not, when weighed in the balance, it is found wanting. According to mythology, Thoth was the child of Kneph, the ram-headed god of Thebes.

Ra or Phra was the mid-day sun; Osiris the declining sun; Tum or Atum the setting sun; and Amun the sun after it had sunk below the horizon. Ptah, a god of the first order, worshipped with great magnificence at Memphis, represented the vivifying power of the sun’s rays: hence Ptah is spoken of as the creative principle, and creator of all living things. Gom, Moui, and Khons, were the sons of the sun-god, and carried messages to mankind. In these we notice the rays personified. Pasht, literally a lioness, the goddess with the lioness head, was the female personification of the sun’s rays.

The moon also as well as the sun was worshipped, and lunar deities received divine adoration as well as solar deities.

Thoth.

Thoth, the reputed inventor of hieroglyphs and the recorder of human actions, was a human deity, and represented both the light moon and the dark moon. He is also called Har and Haremakhu—the Harmachis of Greek writers—and is the personification of the vigorous young sun, the conqueror of night, who each morning rose triumphant from the realms of darkness. He was the son of Isis and Osiris, and is the avenger of his father. Horus appears piercing with his spear the monster Seth or Typho, the malignant principle of darkness who had swallowed up the setting sun. The parable of the sun rising was designed to teach the great religious lesson of the final triumph of spiritual light over darkness, and the ultimate victory of life over death. Horus is represented at the coronation of kings, and, together with Seth, places the double crown upon the royal head, saying: “Put this cap upon your head, like your father Amen-Ra.” Princes are distinguished by a lock of hair hanging from the side of the head, which lock is emblematic of a son. This lock was worn in imitation of Horus, who, from his strong filial affection, was a model son for princes, and a pattern of royal virtue. The sphinx is thought to be a type of Horus, and the obelisks also seem to have been dedicated, for the most part, to the rising sun.

There were also sky divinities, and these were all feminine. Nu was the blue mid-day sky, while Neit was the dark sky of night. Hathor or Athor, the “Queen of Love,” the Egyptian Venus, represented the evening sky.

There were other deities and objects of worship not so easily classified. Hapi was the personification of the river Nile. Anubis, the jackal-headed deity, was the friend and guardian of the souls of good men. Thmei or Ma, the goddess of truth, introduced departed souls into the hall of judgment.

Amenti, the great western desert, in course of time was applied to the unknown world beyond the desert. Through the wilderness of Amenti departed spirits had to pass on their way to the judgment hall. In this desert were four evil spirits, enemies of the human soul, who endeavoured to delude the journeying spirits by drawing them aside from the way that led to the abode of the gods. On many papyri, and on the walls of tombs, scenes of the final judgment are frequently depicted. Horus is seen conducting the departed spirits to the regions of Amenti; a monstrous dog, resembling Cerberus of classic fable, is guardian of the judgment hall. Near to the gates stand the dreadful scales of justice. On one side of the scales stands Thoth, the recorder of human actions, with a tablet in his hand, ready to make a record of the sentence passed on each soul. Anubis is the director of the weights; in one scale he places the heart of the deceased, and in the other a figure of the goddess of truth. If on being weighed the heart is found wanting, then Osiris, the judge of the dead, lowers his sceptre in token of condemnation, and pronounces judgment against the soul, condemned to return to earth under the form of a pig. Whereupon the soul is placed in a boat and conveyed through Amenti under charge of two monkeys. If the deeds done in the flesh entitle the soul to enter the mansions of the blest, then Horus, taking the tablet from Thoth, introduces the good spirit into the presence of Osiris, who, with crook and flagellum in his hands, and attended by his sister Isis, with overspreading wings, sits on a throne rising from the midst of the waters. The approved soul is then admitted to the mansions of the blest.

To this belief in a future life, the custom among the Egyptians of embalming the dead was due. Each man as he died hoped to be among those who, after living for three thousand years with Osiris, would return to earth and re-enter their old bodies. So they took steps to ensure the preservation of the body against the ravages of time, and entombed them in massive sarcophagi and in splendid sepulchres. So well did they ensure this end that when, a few months ago, human eyes looked upon the face of Thothmes III., more than three thousand years after his body had been embalmed, it was only the sudden crumbling away of the form on exposure to the air, that recalled to the remembrance of the onlookers the many ages that had passed since men last saw that face.

It is with the worship of the sun that the obelisk now on the Embankment is associated, as it stood for many ages before one of the great temples at Heliopolis, the Biblical On.

Impressive as this ancient Egyptian religious life was, it cannot be compared for a moment, judged even on the earthly standard of its moral power, to the monotheism and the religious life afterwards revealed to the Hebrews, when emancipated from Egyptian bondage. The religion first made known through God’s intercourse with the Patriarchs, continued by Moses and the Prophets, and culminating in the incarnation and death of Christ the Lord, lacks much of the outward splendour and magnificence of the Egyptian religion, but satisfies infinitely better the hearts of weary sinful men. The Egyptian worship and religious life testify to a constant degradation in the popular idea of the gods and in the moral life of their worshippers. The worship and religious life of which the God of the Hebrews is the centre, tends ever more and more to lead men in that “path of the just, which is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.”[1] Now in Christ Jesus those that once “were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”[2] “The times of ignorance” are now past, and God “commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent: inasmuch as He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained.”[3]

CHAPTER II.

Obelisks, and the Obelisk Family.

An obelisk is a single upright stone with four sides slightly inclined towards each other. It generally stands upon a square base or pedestal, also a single stone. The pedestal itself is often supported upon two broad, deep steps. The top of the obelisk resembles a small pyramid, called a pyramidion, the sides of which are generally inclined at an angle of sixty degrees. The obelisks of the Pharaohs are made of red granite called Syenite.

In the quarries at Syene may yet be seen an unfinished obelisk, still adhering to the native rock, with traces of the workmen’s tools so clearly seen on its surface, that one might suppose they had been suddenly called away, and intended soon to return to finish their work. This unfinished obelisk shows the mode in which the ancients separated these immense monoliths from the native rock. In a sharply cut groove marking the boundary of the stone are holes, evidently designed for wooden wedges. After these had been firmly driven into the holes, the groove was filled with water. The wedges gradually absorbing the water, swelled, and cracked the granite throughout the length of the groove.

The block once detached from the rock, was pushed forwards upon rollers made of the stems of palm-trees, from the quarries to the edge of the Nile, where it was surrounded by a large timber raft. It lay by the riverside until the next inundation of the Nile, when the rising waters floated the raft and conveyed the obelisk down the stream to the city where it was to be set up. Thousands of willing hands pushed it on rollers up an inclined plane to the front of the temple where it was designed to stand. The pedestal had previously been placed in position, and a firm causeway of sand covered with planks led to the top of it. Then, by means of rollers, levers, and ropes made of the date-palm, the obelisk was gradually hoisted into an upright position. It speaks much for the mechanical accuracy of the Egyptian masons, that so true was the level of the top of the base and the bottom of the long shaft, that in no single instance has the obelisk been found to be out of the true perpendicular.

There has not yet been found on the bas-reliefs or paintings any representation of the transport of an obelisk, although there is sufficient external evidence to prove that the foregoing mode was the usual one. In a grotto at El Bersheh, however, is a well-known representation of the transportation of a colossal figure from the quarries. The colossus is mounted on a huge sledge, and as a man is represented pouring oil in front of the sledge, it would appear that on the road prepared for its transport there was a sliding groove along which the colossus was propelled. Four long rows of men, urged on in their work by taskmasters, are dragging the figure by means of ropes.

Obelisk of Usertesen I., still standing at Heliopolis.

The Syenite granite was very hard, and capable of taking a high polish. The carving is very beautifully executed, and the hieroglyphs rise from a sunken surface, in a style known as “incavo relievo.” In this mode of carving the figures never project beyond the surface of the stone, and consequently are not so liable to be chipped off as they would have been had they projected in “high relief.” The hieroglyphs are always arranged on the obelisks with great taste, in long vertical columns, and these were always carved after the obelisk was placed in its permanent position.

The hewing, transport, hoisting, and carving of such a monolith was a gigantic undertaking, and we are not therefore surprised to learn that “the giant of the obelisk race,” now in front of St. John Lateran, Rome, occupied the workmen thirty-six years in its elaboration.

The chief obelisks known, taking them in chronological order, are as follows:—Three were erected by Usertesen I., a monarch of the XIIth dynasty, who lived about 1750 B.C. He is thought by some to be the Pharaoh that promoted Joseph. Of these three obelisks one still stands at Heliopolis in its original position, and from its great age it has been called “the father of obelisks.” It is sixty-seven and a-half feet high, and is therefore about a foot shorter than the London obelisk. Its companion is missing, and probably lies buried amid the ruins of the sacred city. The third is at Biggig, in the Fyoom, and, unfortunately, is broken into two parts. Its shape is peculiar, and on that account Bonomi and others say that it cannot with propriety be classed among the obelisks.

After the XIIth dynasty Egypt was ruled for many centuries by monarchs of Asiatic origin, called the Hykshos or “Shepherd Kings.” During the rule of those foreigners it does not appear that any obelisks were erected.

Thothmes I., of the XVIIIth dynasty, erected two in front of the Osiris temple at Karnak. One of these is still standing, the other lies buried by its side. Hatasu, daughter of Thothmes I., and queen of Egypt, erected two obelisks inside the Osiris temple of Karnak, in honour of her father. One, still standing, is about one hundred feet high, and is the second highest obelisk in the world. Its companion has fallen to the ground. According to Mariette Bey, Hatasu erected two other obelisks in front of her own temple on the western bank of the Nile. These, however, have been destroyed, although the pedestals still remain.

Thothmes III., the greatest of Egyptian monarchs, and brother of Hatasu, erected four obelisks at Heliopolis, and probably others in different parts of Egypt. These four have been named “The Needles”—two of them “Pharaoh’s Needles,” and two “Cleopatra’s Needles.” The former pair were removed from Heliopolis to Alexandria by Constantine the Great. Thence one was taken, according to some Egyptologists, to Constantinople, where it now stands at the Atmeidan. It is only fifty feet high, but it is thought that the lower part has been broken off, and that the part remaining is only the upper half of the original obelisk.

The Obelisk of Thothmes III., at Constantinople.

The other was conveyed to Rome, and now stands in front of the church of St. John Lateran, and from its great magnitude it is regarded as “the giant of the obelisk family.”

Amenophis II., of the XVIIIth dynasty, set up a small obelisk, of Syenite granite, about nine feet high. It was found amid the ruins of a village of the Thebaid, and presented to the late Duke of Northumberland, then Lord Prudhoe.

Amenophis III., of the XVIIIth dynasty, erected two obelisks in front of his temple at Karnak; but the temple is in ruins, and the obelisks have entirely disappeared.

Seti I. set up two; one, known as the Flaminian obelisk, now stands at the Porta del Popolo, Rome, and the other at Trinita de Monti, in the same city.

Rameses II. was, next to Thothmes III., the mightiest king of Egypt; and in the erection of obelisks he surpassed all other monarchs. He set up two obelisks before the temple of Luxor; one is still standing, but the other was transported to Paris about forty years ago. The latter is seventy-six feet high, and seven and a-half feet higher than the London one. Two obelisks, bearing the name of Rameses II., are at Rome, one in front of the Pantheon, the other on the Cœlian Hill.

Ten obelisks, the work of the same monarch, lie buried at Tanis, the ancient Zoan.

Menephtah, son and successor of Rameses, set up the obelisk which now stands in front of St. Peter’s, Rome. It is about ninety feet high, and as regards magnitude is the third obelisk in the world.

Psammeticus I., of the XXVIth dynasty, set up an obelisk at Heliopolis in the year 665 B.C. It now stands at Rome on the Monte Citorio. Psammeticus II., about the same time that Solomon’s temple was destroyed, erected an obelisk which now stands at Rome, on the back of an elephant. Nectanebo I. made two small obelisks of black basalt. They are now in the British Museum, and, according to Dr. Birch, were dedicated to Thoth, the Egyptian god of letters. They were found at Cairo, built into the walls of some houses. One was used as a door-sill, the other as a window-sill. They came into possession of the English when the French in Egypt capitulated to the British, and were presented to the British Museum by King George III. in 1801. They are only eight feet high.

Nectanebo II., of the XXXth dynasty, who lived about four centuries before the Christian era, set up two obelisks. One hundred years afterwards they were placed by Ptolemy Philadelphus in front of the tomb of his wife Arsinoë. They were taken to Rome, and set up before the mausoleum of Augustus, where they stood till the destruction of the city in 450 A.D. They lay buried amid the débris of Rome for many hundreds of years, but about a century ago they were dug out. One now stands behind the Church of St. Maria Maggiore, the other in the Piazza Quirinale. Each is about fifty feet high.

Two large obelisks were transported from Egypt to Nineveh in 664 B.C. by Assurbanipal. These two monoliths probably lie buried amid the ruins of that ancient city. The above include the chief obelisks erected by the Pharaohs; but several others were erected by the Roman Emperors. Domitian set up one thirty-four feet high, which now stands in the Piazza Navona, in front of the Church of St. Agnes. Domitian and Titus erected a small obelisk of red granite nine feet high, which now stands in the cathedral square of Benevento. Hadrian and Sabina set up two obelisks, one of which, thirty feet high, now stands on Monte Pincio. An obelisk twenty-two feet high, of Syenite granite, was brought by Mr. Banks from Philæ to England, and now stands in front of Kingston Lacy Hall, Wimborne.

Among obelisks of obscure origin is one of sandstone nine feet high at Alnwick; two in the town of Florence, and one sixty feet high, in the city of Arles, made of grey granite from the neighbouring quarries of Mont Esterel. The total number of existing obelisks is fifty-five. Of these thirty-three are standing, and twenty-two lie prostrate on the ground or are buried amid rubbish. Of those standing, twenty-seven are made of Syenite granite.

CHAPTER III.

The Largest Stones of the World.

It is interesting to compare the obelisk on the Embankment with the other large stones of the world; stones, of course, that have been quarried and utilized by man. Of this kind, the largest in England are the blocks at Stonehenge. The biggest weighs about eighteen tons, and is raised up twenty-five feet, resting, as it does, on two upright stones. These were probably used for religious purposes, and their bulk has excited in all ages the wonder of this nation.

The London Obelisk weighs one hundred and eighty-six tons, and therefore is about ten times the weight of Stonehenge’s largest block. It is therefore by far the largest stone in England. The obelisk was moreover hoary with the age of fifteen centuries when the trilithons of Stonehenge were set up, and therefore its colossal mass and antiquity may well fill our minds with amazement and veneration.

The individual stones of the pyramids, large though they are, and wonderful as specimens of masonry, are nevertheless small compared with the giant race of the obelisks.

The writer, when inspecting the outer wall of the Temple Hill at Jerusalem, measured a magnificent polished stone, and found it to be twenty-six feet long, six feet high, and seven feet wide. It is composed of solid limestone, and weighs about ninety tons. This stone occupies a position in the wall one hundred and ten feet above the rock on which rest the foundation stones, and arouses wonder at the masonic and engineering skill of the workmen of King Solomon and Herod the Great. This block, however, is only half the weight of Cleopatra’s Needle, and even this obelisk falls far short in bulk of many of Egypt’s gigantic granite stones.

At Alexandria, Pompey’s Pillar is still to be seen. It is a beautifully finished column of red granite, standing outside the walls of the old town. Its total length is about one hundred feet, and its girth round the base twenty-eight feet. The shaft is made of one stone, and probably weighs about three hundred tons.

Even more gigantic than Pompey’s Pillar is a colossal block found on the plain of Memphis. Next to Thebes, in Upper Egypt, Memphis was the most important city of ancient Egypt. Here lived the Pharaohs while the Israelites sojourned in the land, and within sight of this sacred city were reared the mammoth pyramids. “As the hills stand round about Jerusalem, so stand the pyramids round about Memphis.”

A few grassy mounds are the only vestiges of the once mighty city; and in the midst of a forest of palm trees is an excavation dug in the ground, in which lies a huge granite block, exposed to view by the encompassing débris being cleared away. This huge block is a gigantic statue lying face downwards. It is well carved, the face wears a placid countenance, and its size is immense. The nose is longer than an umbrella, the head is about ten feet long, and the whole body is in due proportion; so that the colossal monolith (for it is one stone) probably weighs about four hundred tons.

Colossal Statue of Rameses II., at Memphis.

In the day of Memphis’ glory a great temple, dedicated to Ptah, was one of the marvels of the proud city. “Noph” (Memphis) “shall be waste and desolate,” saith Jeremiah; a prediction literally fulfilled. Of the great temple not a vestige remains; but Herodotus says that in front of the great gateway of the temple, Rameses II., called by the Greeks Sesostris, erected a colossal statue of himself. The colossal statue has fallen from its lofty position, and now lies prostrate, buried amid the ruins of the city, as already described. On the belt of the colossus is the cartouche of Rameses II. The fist and big toe of this monster figure are in the British Museum. In the Piazza of St. John Lateran, at Rome, the tall obelisk towers heavenwards like a lofty spire, adorning that square. Originally it was one hundred and ten feet long, and therefore the longest monolith ever quarried. It was also the heaviest, weighing, as it does, about four hundred and fifty tons, and therefore considerably more than twice the weight of the London obelisk.

As the sphinx is closely associated with the obelisk, and as Thothmes is four times represented by a sphinx on the London Obelisk, and as, moreover, two huge sphinxes have lately been placed on the Thames Embankment, one on each side of the Needle, it may not be out of place to say a few words respecting this sculptured figure. An Egyptian sphinx has the body of a lion couchant with the head of a man. The sphinxes seem for the most part to have been set up in the avenues leading to the temples. It is thought by Egyptologists that the lion’s body is a symbol of power, the human head is a symbol of intellect. The whole figure was typical of kingly royalty, and set forth the power and wisdom of the Egyptian monarch.

In ancient Egypt, sphinxes might be numbered by thousands, but the gigantic figure known by pre-eminence as “The Sphinx,” stands on the edge of the rocky platform on which are built the pyramids of Ghizeh. When in Egypt, the writer examined this colossal figure, and found that it is carved out of the summit of the native rock, from which indeed it has never been separated. On mounting its back he found by measurement that the body is over one hundred feet long. The head is thirty feet in length, and fourteen feet in width, and rears itself above the sandy waste. The face is much mutilated, and the body almost hidden by the drifting sand of the desert. It is known that the tremendous paws project fifty feet, enclosing a considerable space, in the centre of which formerly stood a sacrificial altar for religious purposes. On a cartouche in front of the figure is the name of Thothmes IV.; but as Khufu, commonly called Cheops, the builder of the great pyramid, is stated to have repaired the Sphinx, it appears that the colossus had an existence before the pyramids were built. This being so, “The Sphinx” is not only the most colossal, but at the same time the oldest known idol of the human race.

One of the most appreciative of travellers thus describes the impression made upon him by this hoary sculpture:—

“After all that we have seen of colossal statues, there was something stupendous in the sight of that enormous head—its vast projecting wig, its great ears, its open eyes, the red colour still visible on its cheek; the immense proportion of the whole lower part of its face. Yet what must it have been when on its head there was the royal helmet of Egypt; on its chin the royal beard; when the stone pavement by which men approached the pyramids ran up between its paws; when immediately under its breast an altar stood, from which the smoke went up into the gigantic nostrils of that nose, now vanished from the face, never to be conceived again! All this is known with certainty from the remains that actually exist deep under the sand on which you stand, as you look up from a distance into the broken but still expressive features. And for what purpose was this sphinx of sphinxes called into being, as much greater than all other sphinxes as the pyramids are greater than all other temples or tombs? If, as is likely, he lay couched at the entrance, now deep in sand, of the vast approach to the second, that is, the central pyramid, so as to form an essential part of this immense group; still more, if, as seems possible, there was once intended to be a brother sphinx on the northern side as on the southern side of the approach, its situation and significance were worthy of its grandeur. And if further the sphinx was the giant representative of royalty, then it fitly guards the greatest of royal sepulchres, and with its half human, half animal form, is the best welcome and the best farewell to the history and religion of Egypt.”—Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, p. lviii.

Standing amid the sand of the silent desert, gazing upon the placid features so sadly mutilated by the devastations of ages, the colossal figure seemed to awake from sleep, and speak thus to the writer:—

“Traveller, you have wandered far from your peaceful home in sea-girt England, and you long to gaze upon the crumbling glories of the ages that are passed. You have come to see the marvels of Egypt—the land which in the march of civilization took the lead of all the nations of antiquity. Here as strangers and pilgrims sojourned the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob. This was the adopted land of the princely Joseph, the home of Moses, and the abode of Israel’s oppressed race. I remember them well, for from the land of Goshen they all came to see me, and as they gazed at my countenance they were filled with amazement at my greatness and my beauty. You have heard of the colossal grandeur of Babylon and Nineveh, and the might of Babylonia and Assyria. You know by fame of the glories of Greece, and perhaps you have seen on the Athenian Acropolis those chaste temples of Pericles, beautiful even in their decay. You have visited the ruins of ancient Rome, and contemplated with wonder the ruined palace of the Cæsars, Trajan’s column, Constantine’s arches, Caracalla’s baths, and the fallen grandeur of the Forum.

“Traveller, long before the foundation of Rome and Athens; yea, long before the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia rose from the dim twilight, I stood here on this rocky platform, and was even old when Romulus and Cecrops, when Ninus and Asshur, were in their infancy. You have just visited the pyramids of Cheops and Cephren; you marvel at their greatness, and revere their antiquity. Over these mighty sepulchres I have kept guard for forty centuries, and here I stood amid the solitude of the desert ages before the stones were quarried for these vast tombs. Thus have I seen the rise, growth, and decay of all the great kingdoms of the earth. From me then learn this lesson: ‘grander than any temple is the temple of the human body, and more sacred than any shrine is the hidden sanctuary of the human soul. Happiness abideth not in noisy fame and vast dominion, but, like a perennial stream, happiness gladdens the soul of him who fears the Most High, and loves his fellow-men. Be content, therefore, with thy lot, and strive earnestly to discharge the daily duties of thine office.’

“This world, with all its glittering splendours, the kings of the earth, and the nobles of the people, are all mortal, even as thou art. The tombs which now surround me, where reposes the dust of departed greatness, proclaim that you are fast hastening to the destiny they have reached. Change and decay, which you now see on every side, is written on the brow of the monarch as much as on the fading flower of the field. Only the ‘Most High’ changeth not. He remaineth the same from generation to generation. Trust in Him with all thine heart, serve Him with all thy soul, and all will be well with thee, even for evermore.”

CHAPTER IV.

The London Obelisk.

Seven hundred miles up the Nile beyond Cairo, on the frontiers of Nubia, is the town of Syene or Assouan. In the neighbourhood are the renowned quarries of red granite called Syenite or Syenitic stone. The place is under the tropic of Cancer, and was the spot fixed upon through which the ancients drew the chief parallel of latitude, and therefore Syene was an important place in the early days of astronomy. The sun was of course vertical to Syene at the summer solstice, and a deep well existed there in which the reflection of the sun was seen at noon on midsummer-day.

About fifteen centuries before the Christian era, in the reign of Thothmes III., by royal command, the London Obelisk, together with its companion column, was quarried at Syene, and thence in a huge raft was floated down the Nile to the sacred city of Heliopolis, a distance of seven hundred miles. Heliopolis, called in the Bible On, and by the ancient Egyptians An, was a city of temples dedicated to the worship of the sun. It is a place of high antiquity, and was one of the towns of the land of Goshen. Probably the patriarch Abraham sought refuge here when driven by famine out of the land of Canaan. Heliopolis is inseparably connected with the life of Joseph, who, after being sold to Potiphar as a slave, and after suffering imprisonment on a false accusation, was by Pharaoh promoted to great honour, and by royal command received “to wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On” (Gen. xli. 45). Heliopolis was probably the scene of the affecting meeting of Joseph and his aged father Jacob. The place was not only a sacred city, but it was also a celebrated seat of learning, and the chief university of the ancient world. “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” and his wisdom he acquired in the sacred college of Heliopolis. Pythagoras and Plato, and many other Greek philosophers, were students at this Egyptian seat of learning.

On arriving at Heliopolis, the two obelisks now called Cleopatra’s Needles were set up in front of the great temple of the sun. There they stood for fourteen centuries, during which period many dynasties reigned and passed away; Greek dominion in Egypt rose and flourished, until the Ptolemies were vanquished by the Cæsars, and Egypt became a province of imperial Rome.

Possibly Jacob and Joseph, certainly Moses and Aaron, Pythagoras and Plato, have gazed upon these two obelisks; and therefore the English nation should look at the hoary monolith on the Thames Embankment with feelings of profound veneration.

Cleopatra’s Needle, at Alexandria.

In the eighth year of Augustus Cæsar, 23 B.C., the Roman Emperor caused the two obelisks to be taken down and transported from Heliopolis to Alexandria, there to adorn the Cæsarium, or Palace of the Cæsars. “This palace stood by the side of the harbour of Alexandria, and was surrounded by a sacred grove. It was ornamented with porticoes, and fitted up with libraries, paintings and statues, and was the most lofty building in the city. In front of this palace Augustus set up the two ancient obelisks which had been made by Thothmes III., and carved by Rameses II., and which, like the other monuments of the Theban kings, have outlived all the temples and palaces of their Greek and Roman successors.” The obelisks were set up in front of the Cæsarium seven years after the death of Cleopatra, the beautiful though profligate queen of Egypt, and the last of the race of the Ptolemies. Cleopatra may have designed the Cæsarium, and made suggestions for the decoration of the palace. The setting up of the two venerable obelisks may have been part of her plan; but although the monoliths are called Cleopatra’s Needles, it is certain that Cleopatra had nothing to do with their transfer from Heliopolis to Alexandria.

Cleopatra, it appears, was much beloved by her subjects; and it is not improbable that they associated her name with the two obelisks as a means of perpetuating the affectionate regard for her memory.

The exact date of their erection at Alexandria was found out by the recent discovery of an inscription, engraved in Greek and Latin, on a bronze support of one of the obelisks. The inscription in Latin reads thus: “Anno viii Caesaris, Barbarus praefectus Ægypte posuit. Architecture Pontio.” “In the eighth year of Cæsar, Barbarus, prefect of Egypt, erected this, Pontius being the architect.”

The figure of an obelisk is often used as a hieroglyph, and is generally represented standing on a low base. The bronze supports reproduced at the bottom of the London Obelisk never appear in the hieroglyphic representations, and were probably an invention of the Ptolemies or the Cæsars.

For about fifteen centuries the two obelisks stood in their new position at Alexandria. The grand palace of the Cæsars, yielding to the ravages of Time’s resistless hand, has for many ages disappeared. The gradual encroachment of the sea upon the land continued through the course of many centuries, and ultimately, by the restless action of the waves, the obelisk which now graces our metropolis became undermined, and about 300 years ago the colossal stone fell prostrate on the ground, leaving only its companion to mark the spot where once stood the magnificent palace of the imperial Cæsars.

In 1798 Napoleon Buonaparte, with forty thousand French troops, landed on the coast of Egypt, and soon conquered the country. Admiral Nelson destroyed the French fleet in Aboukir Bay; and at a decisive battle fought within sight of Cleopatra’s Needle in 1801, Sir Ralph Abercrombie completely defeated the French army, and rescued Egypt from their dominion. Our soldiers and sailors, wishful to have a trophy of their Nile victories, conceived the idea of bringing the prostrate column to England. The troops cheerfully subscribed part of their pay, and set to work to move the obelisk. After considerable exertions they moved it only a few feet, and the undertaking, not meeting with the approval of the commanders of the army and navy, was unfortunately abandoned. Part of the pedestal was, however, uncovered and raised, and a small space being chiselled out of the surface, a brass plate was inserted, on which was engraved a short account of the British victories.

George IV., on his accession to the throne in 1820, received as a gift the prostrate obelisk from Mehemet Ali, then ruler of Egypt. The nation looked forward with hope to its speedy arrival in England, but for some reason the valuable present was not accepted. In 1831 Mehemet Ali not only renewed his offer to King William IV., but promised also to ship the monolith free of charge. The compliment, however, was declined with thanks. In 1849 the Government announced in the House of Commons their desire to transport it to London, but as the opposition urged “that the obelisk was too much defaced to be worth removal,” the proposal was not carried out. In 1851, the year rendered memorable by the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, the question was again broached in the House, but the estimated outlay of £7,000 for transport was deemed too large a grant from the public purse. In 1853 the Sydenham Palace Company, desirous of having the obelisk in their Egyptian court, expressed their wish to set it up in the transept of the Palace, and offered to pay all expenses. The consent of the Government was asked for its removal, but the design fell through, because, as was urged, national property could only be lent, not given to a private company.

Great diversity of opinion existed about that time respecting its value, even among the leading Egyptologists; for in 1858 that enthusiastic Egyptian scholar, Sir Gardner Wilkinson, referring to Mehemet Ali’s generous offer, said:—“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.”

In 1867 the Khedive disposed of the ground on which the prostrate Needle lay to a Greek merchant, who insisted on its removal from his property. The Khedive appealed to England to take possession of it, otherwise our title to the monument must be given up, as it was rapidly being buried amid the sand. The appeal, however, produced no effect, and it became evident to those antiquaries interested in the treasures of ancient Egypt, that if ever the obelisk was to be rescued from the rubbish in which it lay buried, and transported to the shores of England, the undertaking would not be carried out by our Government, but by private munificence.

The owner of the ground on which it lay actually entertained the idea of breaking it up for building material, and it was only saved from destruction by the timely intervention of General Alexander, who for ten successive years pleaded incessantly with the owner of the ground, with learned societies and with the English Government, for the preservation and removal of the monument. The indefatigable General went to Egypt to visit the spot in 1875. He found the prostrate obelisk hidden from view and buried in the sand; but through the assistance of Mr. Wyman Dixon, C.E., it was uncovered and examined.

On returning to England, the General represented the state of the case to his friend Professor Erasmus Wilson, and the question of transport was discussed by these two gentlemen together with Mr. John Dixon, C.E. The latter after due consideration gave the estimated cost at £10,000, whereupon Professor Wilson, inspired with the ardent wish of rescuing the precious relic from oblivion, signed a bond for £10,000, and agreed to pay this sum to Mr. Dixon, on the obelisk being set up in London. The Board of Works offered a site on the Thames Embankment, and Mr. Dixon set to work con amore to carry out the contract.

Cleopatra’s Needle, on the Thames Embankment.

Early in July, 1877, he arrived at Alexandria, and soon unearthed the buried monolith, which he was delighted to find in much better condition than had been generally represented. With considerable labour it was encased in an iron watertight cylinder about one hundred feet long, which with its precious treasure was set afloat. The Olga steam tug was employed to tow it, and on the 21st September, 1877, steamed out of the harbour of Alexandria en route for England. The voyage for twenty days was a prosperous one, but on the 14th October, when in the Bay of Biscay, a storm arose, and the pontoon cylinder was raised on end. At midnight it was thought to be foundering, and to save the crew its connection with the Olga was cut off. The captain, thinking that the Needle had gone to the bottom of the sea, sailed for England, where the sorrowful tidings soon spread of the loss of the anxiously expected monument. To the great delight of the nation, it was discovered that the pontoon, instead of sinking, had floated about for sixty hours on the surface of the waters, and having been picked up by the steamer Fitzmaurice, had been towed to Vigo, on the coast of Spain. After a few weeks’ delay it was brought to England, and set up in its present position on the Thames Embankment.

The London Needle is about seventy feet long, and from the base, which measures about eight feet, it gradually tapers upwards to the width of five feet, when it contracts into a pointed pyramid seven feet high. Set up in its original position at Heliopolis about fifteen centuries before the Christian era, this venerable monument of a remote antiquity is nearly thirty-five centuries old.

“Such is the British Obelisk, unique, grand, and symbolical, which devotion reared upward to the sun ere many empires of the West had emerged from obscurity. It was ancient at the foundation of the city of Rome, and even old when the Greek empire was in its cradle. Its history is lost in the clouds of mythology long before the rise of the Roman power. To Solomon’s Egyptian bride the Needle must have been an ancestral monument; to Pythagoras and Solon a record of a traditional past antecedent to all historical recollection. In the college near the obelisk, Moses, the meekest of all men, learned the wisdom of the Egyptians. When, after the terrible last plague, the mixed multitude of the Israelites were driven forth from Egypt, the light of the pillar of fire threw the shadow of the obelisk across the path of the fugitives. Centuries later, when the wrecked empire of Judæa was dispersed by the king of Babylon, it was again in the precincts of the obelisk of On that the exiled people of the Lord took shelter. Upon how many scenes has that monolith looked!” Amid the changes of many dynasties and the fall of mighty empires it is still preserved to posterity, and now rises in our midst—the most venerable and the most valuable relic of the infancy of the world.

“This British Obelisk,” says Dean Stanley, “will be a lasting memorial of those lessons which are taught by the Good Samaritan. What does it tell us as it stands, a solitary heathen stranger, amidst the monuments of our English Christian greatness—near to the statues of our statesmen, under the shadow of our Legislature, and within sight of the precincts of our Abbey? It speaks to us of the wisdom and splendour which was the parent of all past civilization, the wisdom whereby Moses made himself learned in all the learning of the Egyptians for the deliverance and education of Israel—whence the earliest Grecian philosophers and the earliest Christian Fathers derived the insight which enabled them to look into the deep things alike of Paganism and Christianity. It tells us—so often as we look at its strange form and venerable characters—that ‘the Light which lighteneth every man’ shone also on those who raised it as an emblem of the beneficial rays of the sunlight of the world. It tells us that as true goodness was possible in the outcast Samaritan, so true wisdom was possible even in the hard and superstitious Egyptians, even in that dim twilight of the human race, before the first dawn of the Hebrew Law or of the Christian Gospel.”

CHAPTER V.

How the Hieroglyphic Language was Recovered.

On the triumph of Christianity, the idolatrous religion of the ancient Egyptians was regarded with pious abhorrence, and so in course of time the hieroglyphics became neglected and forgotten. Thus for fifteen centuries the hieroglyphic inscriptions that cover tombs, temples, and obelisks were regarded as unmeaning characters. Thousands of travellers traversed the land of Egypt, and yet they never took the trouble to copy with accuracy a single line of an inscription. The monuments of Egypt received a little attention about the middle of the eighteenth century, and vague notions of the nature of hieroglyphs were entertained by Winckelman, Visconti, and others. Most of their suggestions are of little value; and it was not until the publication of the description of ancient Egypt by the first scientific expedition under Napoleon that the world regained a glimpse of the true nature of the long-forgotten hieroglyphs.

In 1798 M. Boussard discovered near Rosetta, situated at one of the mouths of the Nile, a large polished stone of black granite, known as “The Rosetta Stone.” This celebrated monument it appears was set up in the temple of Tum at Heliopolis about 200 B.C., in honour of Ptolemy V., according to a solemn decree of the united priesthood in synod at Memphis. On its discovery, the stone was presented to the French Institute at Cairo; but on the capture of Alexandria by the British in 1801, and the consequent defeat of the French troops, the Rosetta Stone came into the possession of the English general, and was presented by him to King George III. The king in turn presented the precious relic to the nation, and the stone is now in safe custody in the British Museum.

The Rosetta Stone.

The Rosetta Stone has opened the sealed book of hieroglyphics, and enabled the learned to understand the long-forgotten monumental inscriptions. On the stone is a trigrammatical inscription, that is, an inscription thrice repeated in three different characters; the first in pure hieroglyphs, the second in Demotic, and the third in Greek. The French savants made the first attempt at deciphering it; but they were quickly followed by German, Italian, Swedish, and English scholars. Groups of characters on the stone were observed amid the hieroglyphs to correspond to the words, Alexander, Alexandria, Ptolemy, king, etc., in the Greek inscription. Many of the opinions expressed were very conflicting, and most of them were ingenious conjectures. A real advance was made in the study when, in 1818, Dr. Young, a London physician, announced that many of the characters in the group that stood for Ptolemy must have a phonetic value, somewhat after the manner of our own alphabet. M. Champollion, a young French savant, deeply interested in Egyptology, availed himself of Dr. Young’s discovery, and pursued the study with ardent perseverance.

In 1822 another inscribed monument was found at Philæ, in Upper Egypt, which rendered substantial help to such Egyptologists as were eagerly striving to unravel the mystery of the hieroglyphs. It was a small obelisk with a Greek inscription at the base, which inscription turned out to be a translation of the hieroglyphs on the obelisk. Champollion found on the obelisk a group of hieroglyphs which stood for the Greek name Kleopatra; and by carefully comparing this group with a group on the Rosetta Stone that stood for Ptolemy, he was able to announce that Dr. Young’s teaching was correct, inasmuch as many of the hieroglyphs in the royal names are alphabetic phonetics, that is, each represents a letter sound, as in the case of our own alphabet.

Champollion further announced that the phonetic hieroglyph stood for the initial letter of the name of the object represented. Thus, in the name Kleopatra, the first hieroglyph is a knee, called in Coptic kne, and this sign stands for the letter k, the first letter in Kleopatra. The second hieroglyph is a lion couchant, and stands for l, because that letter is the first in labu, the Egyptian name of lion. Further, by comparing the names of Ptolemy and Kleopatra with that of Alexander, Champollion discovered the value of fifteen phonetic hieroglyphs. In the pursuit of his studies he also found out the existence of homophones, that is, characters having the same sound; and that phonetics were mixed up in every inscription with ideographs and representations.

In 1828, the French Government sent Champollion as conductor of a scientific expedition to Egypt. He translated the inscriptions with marvellous facility, and seemed at once to give life to the hitherto mute hieroglyphs. On a wall of a temple at Karnak, amidst the prisoners of King Shishak, he found the name “Kingdom of Judah.” It will be remembered that the Bible states that “In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, King of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem: and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house” (1 Kings xiv, 25, 26). The discovery, therefore, of the name “Kingdom of Judah” in hieroglyphs in connection with Shishak excited much interest in the Christian world, corroborating as it did the Biblical narrative.

In 1830 Champollion returned from Egypt laden with the fruits of his researches; and by his indefatigable genius he worked out the grand problem of the deciphering and interpretation of hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Since that time the study of Egyptology has been pursued by Rosellini, Bunsen, De Rouge, Mariette, Lenormant, Brugsch, Lepsius, Birch, Poole, etc. The number of hieroglyphs at present are about a thousand. A century ago there existed no hope of recovering the extinct language of the ancient Egyptians; but by the continued labours of genius, the darkness of fifteen centuries has been dispelled, and the endless inscriptions covering obelisks, temples and tombs, proclaim in a wondrous manner the story of Egypt’s ancient greatness.

Dr. Brugsch has written a long and elaborate history of Egypt, derived entirely from “ancient and authentic sources;” that is, from the inscriptions on the walls of temples, on obelisks, etc., and from papyri. The work has been translated into English, and published with the title, “Egypt under the Pharaohs.” The student also has only to turn to the article “Hieroglyphics” in Vol. XI. of the ninth edition of the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” to see what progress has been made recently in this direction.

But notwithstanding all this, the language of the hieroglyphs is not yet by any means perfectly understood and Egyptian grammar still presents many knotty problems that await solution. Rapid strides are daily being made in the study of Egyptology; and it may be hoped that the time is not far distant when the student will read hieroglyphic inscriptions with the same facility that the classic student reads a page of Greek and Latin.

CHAPTER VI.

The Interpretation of Hieroglyphics.

Hieroglyphs or hieroglyphics, literally “sacred sculptures,” is the term applied to those written characters by means of which the ancient Egyptians expressed their thoughts. Hieroglyphs are usually pictures of external objects, such as the sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, man, the members of man’s body, and various other objects.

They may be arranged in four classes.

First. Representational, iconographic, or mimic hieroglyphs, in which case each hieroglyph is a picture of the object referred to. Thus, the sun’s disk means the sun; a crescent the moon; a whip means a whip; an eye, an eye. Such hieroglyphs form picture-writing, and may be called iconographs, or representations.

Secondly. Symbolical, tropical, or ideographic hieroglyphs, in which case the hieroglyph was not designed to stand for the object represented, but for some quality or attribute suggested by the object. Thus, heaven and a star meant night; a leg in a trap, deceit; incense, adoration; a bee, Lower Egypt; the heart, love; an eye with a tear, grief; a beetle, immortality; a crook, protection. Such hieroglyphs are called ideographs, and are perhaps the most difficult to interpret, inasmuch as they stand for abstract ideas. Ideographic writing was carried to great perfection, the signs for ideas became fixed, and each ideograph had a stereotyped signification.

Thirdly. Enigmatic hieroglyphs include all those wherein one object stands for some other object. Thus, a hawk stands for a solar deity; the bird ibis, for the god Thoth; a seated figure with a curved beard, for a god.

Fourthly. Phonetic hieroglyphs, wherein each hieroglyph represents a sound, and is therefore called a phonetic. Each phonetic at first probably stood for a syllable, in which case it might be called a syllabic sign. Thus, a chessboard represents the sound men; a hoe, mer; a triple twig, mes; a bowl, neb; a beetle, khep; a bee, kheb; a star, seb.

It appears that when phonetic hieroglyphs were first formed, the spoken language was for the most part made up of monosyllabic words, and that the names given to animals were imitations of the sounds made by such animals; thus, ab means lamb; ba, goat; au, cow; mau, lion; su, goose; ui, a chicken; bak, a hawk; mu, an owl; khep, a beetle; kheb, a bee, etc.

It is easy to see how the figure of any such animal would stand for the name of the animal. According to Dr. Birch, the original monosyllabic words usually began with a consonant, and the vowel sound between the two consonants of a syllable was an indifferent matter, because the name of an object was variously pronounced in different parts; thus a guitar, which is an ideograph meaning goodness, might be pronounced nefer or nofer; a papyrus roll, which stood for oblation, was called hetep or hotep.

Most phonetics remained as syllabic signs, but many of them in course of time lost part of the sound embodied in the syllable, and stood for a letter sound only. Thus, the picture of a lion, which at first stood for the whole sound labo, the Egyptian name of lion, in course of time stood only for l, the initial sound of the word; an owl first stood for mu, then for m; a water-jug stood first for nen, then for n, its initial letter.

Phonetics which represent letters only and not syllables may be called alphabetic signs, in contradistinction to syllabic signs.

Plutarch asserts that the ancient Egyptians had an alphabet of twenty-five letters, and although in later epochs of Egyptian history there existed at least two hundred alphabetic signs, yet at a congress of Egyptologists held in London in 1874, it was agreed that the ancient recognized alphabet consisted of twenty-five letters. These were as follows:—An eagle stood for a; a reed, ȧ; an arm, ā; leg, l; horned serpent, f; mæander, h; pair of parallel diagonals, i; knotted cord, ḥ; double reed, ī; bowl, k; throne or stand, ḳ; lion couchant, l; owl, m; zigzag or waterline, n; square or window shutter, p; angle or knee, q; mouth, r; chair or crochet, s; inundated garden or pool, sh; semicircle, ṭ; lasso or sugar-tongs-shaped noose, th; hand, t; snake, t′; chicken, ui; sieve, kh.

1				a		Eagle		’Aa
2				ȧ		Reed		Au
3				ā		Arm		Aa
4				b		Leg		Bu
5				f		Cerastes Serpent		Fi
6				h		Mæander		Ha
7				ḥ		Knotted Cord		Hi
8				i		Pair of parallel diagonals		—
9				ī		Double Reed		iu
10				k		Bowl		Kâ
11				ḳ		Throne (stand)		Qa
12				l		Lion couchant		Lu or Ru
13				m		Owl		Mu
14				n		Zigzag or Water Line		Na
15				p		Square or Window-blind (shutter)		Pu
16				q		Angle (Knee)		Qa
17				r		Mouth		Ru, Lu
18				s		Chair or Crochet		Sen or Set
19				s		Inundated (?) Garden (Pool)		Shi
20				t		Semicircle		Tu
21				θ		Lasso (sugar-tongs-shaped) Noose		Ti
22				ṭ		Hand		Ti
23				t′		Snake		—
24				...		Chick		ui
25				χ		Sieve		Khi

About 600 B.C., during the XXVIth dynasty, many hieroglyphs, about a hundred in number, which previously were used as ideographs only, had assigned to them a phonetic value, and became henceforth alphabetic signs as well as ideographs. In consequence of this innovation, in the last ages of the Egyptian monarchy, we find many hieroglyphs having the same phonetic value. Such hieroglyphs are called homophones, and they are sometimes very numerous; for instance, as many as twenty hieroglyphs had each the value of a, and h was represented by at least thirty homophones. In spite of the great number of homophones, the Egyptians usually spelled their words by consonants only, after the manner of the ancient Hebrews; thus, hk stood for hek, a ruler; htp for hotep, an offering; km for kam, Egypt; ms for mes, born of.

The Egyptians began at an early age to use syllabic signs for proper names. Osiris was a well-known name; and as os in their spoken language meant a throne, and iri, an eye, a small picture of a throne followed by that of an eye, stood for Osiri, the name of their god.

An ideograph was often preceded and followed by two phonetic signs, which respectively represented the initial and final sound of the name of the ideograph. Thus a chessboard was an ideograph, and stood for a gift, and sometimes a building. It was called men, and sometimes the chessboard is preceded by an owl, the phonetic sign of m, and followed by a zigzag line, the phonetic sign of n. Such complementary hieroglyphs are intended primarily to show with greater precision the pronunciation of men, and they are known by the name of complements.

Phonetic hieroglyphs are often followed by a representation or ideograph of the object referred to. Such explanatory representations and ideographs are called determinatives, because they help to determine the precise value of the preceding hieroglyph.

They were rendered necessary on the monuments from the fact that the Egyptians had few vowel sounds; thus nib meant an ibis; nebi, a plough; neb, a lord; but each word was represented by the consonantal signs n-b; and consequently it was necessary to put after n-b a determinative sign of an ibis or a plough, to show which of the two was meant.

From the earliest to the latest ages of the Egyptian monarchy, all kinds of hieroglyphs are used in the same inscription, iconographs, ideographs, and phonetics are mingled together; and if it were not for the judicious use of complements and determinatives, it would often be impossible to interpret the inscriptions.

The hieroglyphs constitute the most ancient mode of writing known to mankind. They were used, as the name hieroglyphs, that is, “sacred sculptures,” implies, almost exclusively for sacred purposes, as may be proved from the fact that the numerous inscriptions found on temples, tombs and obelisks relate to the gods and the religious duties of man. Hence the Egyptians called their written language neter tu, which means “sacred words.” The hieroglyphs at present known are about a thousand, but further discoveries may augment their number. On the monuments they are arranged with artistic care, either in horizontal lines or in vertical columns, with all the animals and symbols facing one way, either to the right hand or the left.

The hieroglyphs on obelisks and other granite monuments are sculptured with a precision and delicacy that excite the admiration of the nineteenth century. In tombs and on papyri the hieroglyphs are painted sometimes with many colours, while on obelisks and on the walls of temples they are generally carved in a peculiar style of cutting known as cavo relievo, that is, raised relief sunk below the surface. The beautiful artistic effect of the coloured hieroglyphs as seen on some of the tombs is as much superior to our mode of writing as the flowing robes of the Orientals as compared with the dress of the Franks. The spoken language of the Egyptians was Semitic, but it had little in common with the Hebrew, for Joseph conversed with his brothers by means of an interpreter.

Hieroglyphic inscriptions are found in the earliest tombs. The cartouche of Khufu, or Cheops, a king of the IVth dynasty, was found on a block of the great pyramid; and as hieroglyphic inscriptions were used until the age of Caracalla, a Roman emperor of the third century, it follows that hieroglyphs were used as a mode of writing for about three thousand years.

The Egyptians had two modes of cursive writing. The hieratic, used by the priests and employed for sacred writings only. The hieratic characters, which are really abbreviated forms of hieroglyphics, bear the same relation to the hieroglyphs that our handwriting does to the printed text. Another mode of cursive writing used by the people and employed in law, literature, and secular matters, is known as demotic or enchorial. The characters in demotic are derived from the hieratic, but appear in a simpler form, and phonetics largely prevail over ideographs.

To any students who wish to pursue the absorbing study of hieroglyphics, the following works are recommended:—“Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphics,” by Dr. Samuel Birch; “Egyptian Texts,” by the same author, and “Egyptian Grammar,” by P. Le Page Renouf. The two latter works are published in Bagster’s series of Archaic Classics. Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” and Cooper’s “Egyptian Obelisks,” are instructive volumes. The author obtained much help from the works of Champollion, Rosellini, Sharpe, Lepsius, and from Vol. II. of “Records of the Past.”

CHAPTER VII.

Thothmes III.

Thothmes III. is generally regarded as the greatest of the kings of Egypt—the Alexander the Great of Egyptian history. The name Thothmes means “child of Thoth,” and was a common name among the ancient Egyptians. On the pyramidion of the obelisk he is represented by a sphinx presenting gifts of water and wine to Tum, the setting sun, a solar deity worshipped at Heliopolis. On the hieroglyphic paintings at Karnak, the fact of the heliacal rising of Sothis, the dog-star, is stated to have taken place during this reign, from which it appears that Thothmes III. occupied the throne of Egypt about 1450 B.C. This is one of the few dates of Egyptian chronology that can be authenticated.

Thothmes III. belonged to the XVIIIth dynasty, which included some of the greatest of Egyptian monarchs. Among the kings of this dynasty were four that bore the name of Thothmes, and four the name of Amenophis, which means “peace of Amen.” The monarchs of this dynasty were Thebans.

The father of Thothmes III. was a great warrior. He conquered the Canaanitish nations of Palestine, took Nineveh from the Rutennu, the confederate tribes of Syria, laid waste Mesopotamia, and introduced the war-chariots and horses into the army of Egypt.

Thothmes III., however, was even a greater warrior than his father; and during his long reign Egypt reached the climax of her greatness. His predecessors of the XVIIIth dynasty had extended the dominions of Egypt far into Asia and the interior of Africa. He was a king of great capacity and a warrior of considerable courage. The records of his campaigns are for the most part preserved on a sandstone wall surrounding the great temple of Karnak, built by Thothmes III. in honour of Amen-Ra. From these hieroglyphic inscriptions it appears that Thothmes’ first great campaign was made in the twenty-second year of his reign, when an expedition was made into the land of Taneter, that is, Palestine. A full account of his marches and victories is given, together with a list of one hundred and nineteen conquered towns.

This monarch lived before the time of Joshua, and therefore the records of his conquests present us with the ancient Canaanite nomenclature of places in Palestine between the times of the patriarchs and the conquest of the land by the Israelites under Joshua. Thothmes set out with his army from Tanis, that is, Zoan; and after taking Gaza, he proceeded, by way of the plain of Sharon, to the more northern parts of Palestine. At the battle of Megiddo he overthrew the confederated troops of native princes; and in consequence of this signal victory the whole of Palestine was subdued. Crossing the Jordan near the Sea of Galilee, Thothmes pursued his march to Damascus, which he took by the sword; and then returning homewards by the Judean hills and the south country of Palestine, he returned to Egypt laden with the spoils of victory.

In the thirtieth year of his reign Thothmes lead an expedition against the Rutennu, the people of Northern Syria. In this campaign he attacked and captured Kadesh, a strong fortress in the valley of Orontes, and the capital town of the Rutennu. The king pushed his conquests into Mesopotamia, and occupied the strong fortress of Carchemish, on the banks of the Euphrates. He then led his conquering troops northwards to the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates, so that the kings of Damascus, Nineveh, and Assur became his vassals, and paid tribute to Egypt.

Punt or Arabia was also subdued, and in Africa his conquests extended to Cush or Ethiopia. His fleet of ships sailed triumphantly over the waters of the Black Sea. Thus Thothmes ruled over lands extending from the mountains of Caucasus to the shores of the Indian Ocean, and from the Libyan Desert to the great river Tigris.

“Besides distinguishing himself as a warrior and as a record writer, Thothmes III. was one of the greatest of Egyptian builders and patrons of art. The great temple of Ammon at Thebes was the special object of his fostering care, and he began his career of builder and restorer by repairing the damages which his sister Hatasu had inflicted on that glorious edifice to gratify her dislike of her brother Thothmes II., and her father Thothmes I. Statues of Thothmes I. and his father Amenophis, which Hatasu had thrown down, were re-erected by Thothmes III. before the southern propylæa of the temple in the first year of his independent reign. The central sanctuary which Usertesen I. had built in common stone, was next replaced by the present granite edifice, under the directions of the young prince, who then proceeded to build in rear of the old temple a magnificent hall or pillared chamber of dimensions previously unknown in Egypt. This edifice was an oblong square one hundred and forty-three feet long by fifty-five feet wide, or nearly half as large again as the nave of Canterbury Cathedral. The whole of this apartment was roofed in with slabs of solid stone; two rows of circular pillars thirty feet in height supported the central part, dividing it into three avenues, while on each side of the pillars was a row of square piers, still further extending the width of the chamber, and breaking it up into five long vistas. In connection with this noble hall, on three sides of it, north, east, and south, Thothmes erected further chambers and corridors, one of the former situated towards the south containing the ‘Great Table of Karnak.’

“Other erections of this distinguished monarch are the enclosure of the temple of the Sun at Heliopolis, and the obelisks belonging to the same building, which the irony of fate has now removed to Rome, England, and America; the temple of Ptah at Thebes; the small temple at Medinet Abou; a temple at Kneph, adorned with obelisks, at Elephantine, and a series of temples and monuments at Ombos, Esneh, Abydos, Coptos, Denderah, Eileithyia, Hermonthis and Memphis in Egypt; and at Amada, Corte, Talmis, Pselus, Semneh, and Koummeh in Nubia. Large remains still exist in the Koummeh and Semneh temples, where Thothmes worships Totun, the Nubian Kneph, in conjunction with Usertesen III., his own ancestor. There are also extensive ruins of his great buildings at Denderah, Ombos, and Napata. Altogether Thothmes III. is pronounced to have ‘left more monuments than any other Pharaoh, excepting Rameses II.,’ and though occasionally showing himself as a builder somewhat capricious and whimsical, yet still on the whole to have worked in ‘a pure style,’ and proved that he was ‘not deficient in good taste.’

“There is reason to believe that the great constructions of this mighty monarch were, in part at least, the product of forced labours. Doubtless his eleven thousand captives were for the most part held in slavery, and compelled to employ their energies in helping towards the accomplishment of those grand works which his active mind was continually engaged in devising. We find among the monuments of his time a representation of the mode in which the services of these foreign bondsmen were made to subserve the glory of the Pharaoh who had carried them away captive. Some are seen kneading and cutting up the clay; others bear them water from a neighbouring pool; others again, with the assistance of a wooden mould, shape the clay into bricks, which are then taken and placed in long rows to dry; finally, when the bricks are sufficiently hard, the highest class of labourers proceed to build them into walls. All the work is performed under the eyes of taskmasters, armed with sticks, who address the labourers with the words: ‘The stick is in my hand, be not idle.’ Over the whole is an inscription which says: ‘Here are to be seen the prisoners which have been carried away as living captives in very great numbers; they work at the building with active fingers; their overseers are in sight; they insist with vehemence’ (on the others working), ‘obeying the orders of the great skilled lord’ (i.e., the head architect), ‘who prescribes to them the works, and gives directions to the masters; they are rewarded with wine and all kinds of good dishes; they perform their service with a mind full of love for the king; they build for Thothmes Ra-men-khepr a Holy of Holies for the gods. May it be rewarded to him through a range of many years.’”[4]

Colossal Head of Thothmes III.

“In person Thothmes III. does not appear to have been very remarkable. His countenance was thoroughly Egyptian, but not characterised by any strong individuality. The long, well-shaped, but somewhat delicate nose, almost in a line with the forehead, gives a slightly feminine appearance to the face, which is generally represented as beardless and moderately plump. The eye, prominent, and larger than that of the ordinary Egyptian, has a pensive but resolute expression, and is suggestive of mental force. The mouth is somewhat too full for beauty, but is resolute, like the eye, and less sensual than that of most Egyptians. There is an appearance of weakness about the chin, which is short, and retreats slightly, thus helping to give the entire countenance a womanish look. Altogether, the face has less of strength and determination than we should have expected, but is not wholly without indications of some of those qualities.”[5]

Thothmes III. died after a long and prosperous reign of fifty-four years, and when he was probably about sixty years old, his father having died when he was only an infant.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Hieroglyphics of Thothmes III.

Translation of the First Side.

“The Horus, powerful Bull, crowned in Uas, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, ‘Ra-men-Kheper.’ He has made as it were monuments to his father Haremakhu; he has set up two great obelisks capped with gold at the first festival of Triakonteris. According to his wish he has done it, Son of the Sun, Thothmes, beloved of Haremakhu, ever-living.”

Hawk (bak) Horus. Horus is a solar deity, and represented the rising sun, or the sun in the horizon. Horus is here represented by a hawk, surmounted by the double crown of Egypt called PSCHENT. The hawk flew higher than any other bird of Egypt, and therefore became the usual emblem of any solar deity, just as the eagle, from its lofty soaring, is an emblem of sublimity, and therefore an emblem of St. John. The double crown named PSCHENT is composed of a conical hat called HET, the crown and emblem of Upper Egypt, and the TESHER, or red crown, the emblem of Lower Egypt. The wearer of the double crown was supposed to exercise authority over the two Egypts. The oblong form upon the top of which the sacred hawk, the symbol of Horus, stands, is thought by some to be a representation of the standard of the monarch. Dr. Birch thinks it is the ground plan of a palace, and the avenue and approaches to the palace.

Bull (Mnevis). The Mnevis was the name of the black bull, or sacred ox of Heliopolis. It was regarded as an avatar or incarnation of a solar deity. On the London Obelisk Mnevis appears twelve times on the palatial titles, and twice on the lateral columns of Rameses II.

Arm with Stick (khu) powerful, is the common symbol of power. In the Bible also an arm stands for power. “The Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm” (Deut. xxvi. 8). There are twelve palatial titles on the obelisk, three on each face, and in eleven cases occurs the arm holding a stick in its hand. In each case this hieroglyph may be rendered by the word powerful. The same hieroglyph appears several times in both the central and lateral columns.

Crown (kha) crowned, because placed on the head at the time of coronation. This hieroglyph is thought by some to be a part of a dress.

Owl (em) in, is a preposition.

Sceptre (Uas) Western Thebes. The sceptre here depicted is that carried in the left hand of Theban kings. It is composed of three parts, the top is the head of a greyhound, the shaft is the long stalk of some reed, perhaps that of the papyrus or lotus, while the curved bottom represents the claws of the crocodile, an animal common in Upper Egypt in ancient times. This sceptre, called KAKUFA, was often represented by an ostrich feather, the common symbol of truth, and stands for Uas, the name of that part of Thebes which stood on the western bank of the Nile. The sceptre as an ideograph means power, in the same manner as the sceptre carried by our monarch on state occasions is a badge of authority.

Thus the palatial title may be rendered, “The powerful bull, crowned in Western Thebes.”

Above the cartouche will be noticed a group of four hieroglyphs, namely, a reed, bee, and two semicircles. This group is usually placed above the cartouche containing the prenomen or sacred name of the king, and the four are descriptive of the authority exercised by the monarch. They may be thus explained:—

Reed (su) is the symbol of Upper Egypt, where reeds of this kind were probably common, especially by the banks of the Nile. A flower or plant is often used as the emblem of a nation.

In ancient times the vine was the emblem of the king of Judah, and on the same principle the reed was the emblem of Upper Egypt. The semicircle below is called tu, and here stands for king. The two hieroglyphs together are called SUTEN, and may be rendered “king of Upper Egypt.”

Bee (kheb) is the emblem of Lower Egypt.

The four hieroglyphs are called SUTEN-KHEB, and mean “king of Upper and Lower Egypt.”

The bee was an insect that received great attention among the ancient Egyptians. They were kept in hives which resembled our own, and when flowers were not numerous, the owners of bees often carried their hives in boats to various spots on the banks of the Nile where many flowers were blooming. The wild bees frequented the sunny banks and made their habitations in the clefts of the rocks. Moses says that God made His people to “suck honey out of the rock,” and the Psalmist repeats the same idea, when he says, “with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.”

Below this group of hieroglyphs stands what is called the cartouche of Thothmes III. The word was first used by Champollion, and signifies a scroll or label, or escutcheon on which the name of a king is inscribed. The oval form of the cartouche was probably taken from the scarabeus or sacred beetle, an emblem of the resurrection and immortality; and thus the very framework on which the king inscribed his name spoke of the eternity of a future state. The form, however, may be from a plate of armour. The cartouche is somewhat analogous to a heraldic shield bearing a coat of arms, and its object was probably to give prominence to the king’s name, just as an aureole in Christian art gives prominence to the figure it encloses.

The three hieroglyphs charged in this cartouche make up the divine name of Thothmes, and consist of a solar disk, chessboard, and beetle. Each monarch had two names, respectively called prenomen, or divine name, somewhat analogous to our Christian name, and the nomen, corresponding to our surname. The prenomen is called the divine name, because it contains the name of the god from whom the king claims his descent, and often the deities also by whom he is beloved, and with whom he claims relationship. The king not only claimed descent from the gods, but he was accounted by his subjects as a representation of the deity.

The title of Pharaoh applied to their kings is derived from Phaa or Ra, the midday sun, and the notion was taught that kingly power was derived from the supreme solar deity. The divine right of kings was thus an article of faith among the ancient Egyptians. He was the head of their religious system, defender of the faith; and in all matters, ecclesiastical as well as civil, the king was supreme. He was consequently instructed in the mysteries of the gods, the services of the temples, and the duties of the priesthood. The Theban kings claimed relationship with Amen, the supreme god of Thebes; and most kings also claimed Ra, the supreme solar deity, worshipped at Heliopolis, as their grand ancestor.

Sun’s Disk (aten) was the emblem of Ra, who was said to have in perfection all the attributes possessed by inferior deities. He was all in all; from him came, and to him return, the souls of men.

Ra or Phra was, properly speaking, the mid-day sun; and as the sun shines with greatest power and brightness at mid-day, the attributes of majesty and authority were intimately associated with this deity. Amen-Ra, the god of Thebes, was supposed to possess the attributes of Amen and Ra.

The ATEN was originally circular, and thus in shape resembled the sun’s disk, but in many inscriptions the shape is oval, or that of an oblate-spheroid, considerably flattened at top and bottom.

Chessboard (men) is by many thought to be a battlemented wall, but it is probably a chessboard; for at Thebes a picture represents Rameses III. playing a game at chess, or some kindred game. What appears to be a battlement is really the chessmen on the board.

Men, as part of the divine name of Thothmes, may be the shortened form of Amen, the supreme god of Thebes, just as Tum is the shortened form of Atum. Ptah was the supreme god of Memphis, and Ra the supreme god of Heliopolis. Amen literally means “the concealed one,” and was the name applied to the sun after it had sunk below the horizon. He was reputed to be the oldest and most venerable of deities, called the “dweller in eternity,” and the source of light and life. Before the creation he dwelt alone in the lower world, but on his saying “come,” the sun appeared, and drove away the darkness of night. Sometimes he is called Amen-Ra, and his principal temple was at Thebes. He is generally represented by the figure of a man with his face concealed under the head of a horned ram. The figure is coloured blue, the sacred colour of the source of life.

Sacred Beetle (kheper) usually called scarabeus or scarabee. It was thought that the beetle hid its eggs in the sand, where they remained until the young beetles broke forth to life. Thus the scarabeus became the symbol of the resurrection and a future life.

According to Cooper, the sacred beetle was in the habit of laying its eggs in a ball of clay, which it kept rolling until the eggs were vivified by the heat of the sun. The beetle thus became the emblem of the sun, the vivifier, and was therefore consecrated to Ra, who is on that account called Ra-Kheper.

When dedicated to Ra, the beetle holds the cosmic ball between its front legs. Sometimes it is an emblem of the world, and is then consecrated to Ptah, the creator of heaven and earth.

The divine name, or prenomen, of Thothmes is thus Ra-Men-Kheper, frequently read Men-Khepera-Ra, and is made up of three hieroglyphs, which stand for Ra, Amen, and Ptah, the supreme gods respectively worshipped at Heliopolis, Thebes, and Memphis. From these three great deities Thothmes thus claims his descent.

The cartouche with the divine name of Thothmes occurs four times on the obelisk, once on each side at the top of the central column of hieroglyphs. The sacred beetle occurs in two other places in the central columns of Thothmes, but never appears in the eight lateral columns of Rameses.

Eye (ar) made. As a verb ar signifies to make.

Zigzag (en) has. After verbs the zigzag means has, and is therefore a sign of perfect.

Horned Snake (ef) he. The usual personal pronoun.

Owl (mu) as it were.

Chessboard (men) monument.

Vase (nu). The vase represents an ampulla or bottle. The three vases in this place are used as a determinative to men, monument; and being three in number, indicate plurality, making MEN into MENU, monuments.

Horned Snake (ef) his. This figure is often called cerastes. Standing by itself it usually stands for the possessive pronoun his.

Zigzag (en) to. Used here as a preposition.

Semicircle and Cerastes (tef) father. The semicircle is here an alphabetic phonetic, equal to t, and with ef makes TEF, meaning father.

Hawk (bak) Horus. The hawk alone stood for any solar deity. With the solar disk on the head and two ovals by the side, as in the present hieroglyph, it stood for Haremakhu, the sun in the horizon. The two ovals are called KHU, and stand for the eastern and western horizons.

Thothmes III. claims Horus as his father, and it is moreover evident from the above that the obelisk itself is dedicated to the rising sun. The great Sphinx at the pyramids of Ghizeh is also dedicated to Haremakhu, and this may account for the fact that the gigantic figure faces the east, the region of the rising sun.

Throne Back (es). This may be the back of a chair. It is the old hieroglyph for the letter s.

Reel (ha) set up. This hieroglyph is by some thought to be the leg of a stool.

Zigzag (en) has.

Horned Snake (ef) he.

Obelisk (tekhen) is in this place an image or picture of the thing spoken of, namely obelisk. This hieroglyph is therefore an iconograph, or representation. Two obelisks are here depicted, to indicate that two were set up. According to Cooper the obelisk was an emblem of the sun—the clearest symbol of supreme deity. The Egyptian name was TEKHEN, a word signifying mystery, and it was regarded among the initiated as the esoteric symbol of light and life. The obelisk was consequently dedicated to Horus, the god of the rising sun, while the pyramid, the house of the dead, was dedicated to Tum, or Atum, the god of the setting sun. Hence obelisks are found only on the east bank of the Nile, while pyramids are built on the west side, by the edge of the silent desert.

Swallow (ur) great. The swallow is an emblem of greatness, and therefore may be called an ideograph, or symbolic hieroglyph.

Two swallows are here depicted, because there are two obelisks, and the dual form extends to the adjective.

Two Legs (bu) capped. There are two legs, to express duality, and thus agree with the preceding substantive, two obelisks. A human leg is the original alphabetic sign for letter b. The letter u is a plural termination.

Semicircle (ta) the. Under the right leg is a semicircle, which is here the feminine article to agree with the little triangular hieroglyph below.

Pyramidion. The summit of the obelisk, known as the pyramidion, from its resemblance to a small pyramid, is here represented by a small triangle. This hieroglyph represents the top or cap of the obelisk, and is a determinative to capped.

Owl (mu) with. Owl, as a preposition, has the same meaning as the prepositions with, from, by—the usual signs of the ablative case.

Bowl (neb) gold. Under this crater or bowl will be noticed three small dots, probably designed to represent grains of the metal intended.

Sceptre (user) is here used as a determinative of metal; and some Egyptologists think that when it accompanies the bowl called NEB, the metal referred to is not gold but copper.

Among the hieroglyphs on the London Obelisk may be found many ideographs or pictures of outward objects, each of which stands for an attribute or abstract idea. Thus arm stands for power, interior of a hall for festivity, lizard for multitude, beetle for immortality, sceptre for power, crook for authority, Anubis staff for plenty, vulture for queenly royalty, asp for kingly royalty, ostrich feather for truth, ankh or crux ansata for life, weight for equality, adze for approval, pike for power, horn for opposition, the bird called bennu for lustre, pyramous loaf for giving, hatchet called neter for god, lion’s head for victory, swallow for greatness.

In addition to the obelisk, the other iconographs or picture representations found on the London Obelisk are the sun, moon, star, heaven, pole, throne, abode, altar, tree.

From this hieroglyphic sentence we learn that the pyramidion of each obelisk was covered or capped with some metal, probably copper. This was done to protect the monument from lightning and rain. Cooper draws attention to the fact that obelisks were capped with metals, and pyramids were covered with polished stones. The pyramidia of Hatasu’s obelisks at Karnak were covered with gold. The venerable obelisk still standing at Heliopolis had a cap of bronze, which remained until the Middle Ages, and was seen by an Arabian physician about A.D. 1300.

The avarice of greed and the rapacity of war have long since stripped every obelisk of its metal covering.

Disk (aten) time. The solar disk is usually a symbol of Ra, but as the sun is the measurer of times and seasons, the disk sometimes stands for time, as it does here.

The hieroglyphs following are defaced. Some think one hieroglyph is a cerastes, but Dr. Birch says the group probably consisted of a harpoon and three vertical lines—a common sign of plurality. Thus the preceding sentence would be “at time the first,” that is, “at the first time.”

Owl (mu) in. Here a preposition governing time.

Palace (seḥ) Festival of the Triakonteris. This hieroglyph with three compartments probably represents the interior of a palace. It is the usual symbol for a festival. With two small thrones inside, as seen here, the hieroglyph probably represents the interior of a palace; and is the ideograph for the festival called triakonteris, because celebrated every thirty years. This cyclical festival was celebrated with great festivity. The space of time between two successive feasts was called a triakontennial period. The thrones which distinguish the triakonteris from an ordinary festival indicates also the royal character of this great feast.

Hall (seḥ) is the usual hieroglyph for an ordinary festival, and represents the interior of a hall. It consists of two compartments. The pole in the centre supporting the roof is here a carved post. Seḥ is here used as a determinative to the preceding hieroglyph. The symbol for festival here stands on a large semicircle, with an inscribed diamond-shaped aperture. This semicircle with the diamond-shaped aperture is called HEB, and often appears alone as the hieroglyph for festival.

Thothmes III. reigned fifty-four years, and therefore witnessed the beginning of two triakontennial periods. Probably he set up the two obelisks at the first triakonteris that happened during his reign.

The hieroglyphs following seem to be zigzag, line, semicircle, zigzag, hoe, mouth, mouth, cerastes, semicircle, two arms united, line, eye, zigzag, cerastes. These are defaced somewhat on the obelisk, and therefore doubtfully copied in the transcript. Dr. Birch translates them: “according to his wish he has done it.” The student should notice that the hieroglyphs hoe and mouth together mean wish.

Eye (ar) here means done; and zigzag has, the usual sign of perfect.

The nomen is the family name or surname of the monarch. It may be made up of iconographs, ideographs, syllabic signs, and alphabetic phonetics; or the name may consist of a combination of all these. If it be composed of the first three, then the nomen corresponds to what in heraldry is called a rebus. The name of Thothmes is made up of the well-known sacred bird called ibis, and the triple twig called mes.

Goose (sa) son. The goose was a common article of food in Egypt, and as hieroglyphs for the most part are representations of common objects, we find the goose repeatedly figured on the inscriptions. Sometimes it stands for Seb, the father of the gods, the Saturn of classic mythology.

Solar Disk (aten) the sun. It stands for Ra, the sun-god. The goose and disk mean “son of the sun,” and almost invariably precede the nomen of the king, because kings were thought to be lineal descendants of the supreme solar deity.

Ibis. A common bird in Egypt, resembling the crane, phœnix, and bennu. It was sacred to, and an emblem of, Thoth, the god of letters, who is usually depicted with an ibis head. As Thoth represented both the visible and concealed moon, he was fitly represented by the sacred bird ibis, which on account of its mingled black and white feathers, was an effective emblem of both the dark and illumined side of the moon. The ibis alone on a standard, as depicted on the obelisk, stood for Thoth, the first syllable of the word Thothmes.

Triple Twig (mes) means born, and is a symbol of birth. Thus ibis and mes together form the rebus Thothmes, which name thus means, “born of Thoth.”

In this particular cartouche will be noticed a small scarabeus or beetle, which is an emblem of existence and immortality, and probably indicates the self-existent nature and immortality of Thothmes; but this part of the obelisk is much defaced, and what follows is well nigh obliterated.

In ancient times kings and great persons were frequently named after the god they worshipped; thus among the Egyptians, Rameses from Ra, Amen-hotep from Amen, Seti from Set, etc. Similarly in Scripture we find Joshua, Jeremiah, Jesus, derived from Jehovah; Jerubbaal, Ethbaal, Jezebel, Belshazzar, and many others, from Baal or Bel, the sun-god; Elijah, Elisha, Elias, Elishama, etc., from El or Eloah, the true God. The same mode of deriving names from deities prevailed more or less among all ancient nations. On this principle Thothmes, the mighty Egyptian monarch, was named after the god Thoth.

What follows on this side of the obelisk is well nigh obliterated, but the hieroglyphs were probably the same as those following the cartouche of Thothmes at the bottom of the central column on the second and fourth sides of the obelisk, and therefore would mean, “Beloved of Haremakhu, ever living.”

Hawk (bak), as has been already explained, is the emblem of any solar deity, but surmounted by the aten or solar disk, and accompanied by two ovals called khu, which indicate the two horizons, in the east and west parts of the sky, the hawk, as here, stands for Horus, or Haremakhu, the sun in the horizon.

The hoe, called mer or tore, is equal to the phonetic m, and was one of the commonest implements used in agriculture. It is sometimes spoken of as a hand-plough, or pick or spade, and probably it answered all these purposes. In shape it somewhat resembled our capital letter A, as it consisted of two lines tied together about the centre with a twisted rope. One limb was of uniform thickness, and generally straight, and formed the head; while the other, curved inwards, and sometimes of considerable width, formed the handle. The hoe stands here for the phonetic sound of m, the first letter of the word mai, which means beloved.

Two Reeds. One reed is equal to a, the double reed equals phonetic i, and is generally a plural sign. Here the double reed is an intensive, so that the hoe and double reeds spell mai, which means “much beloved.”

These hieroglyphs, taken in the order in which they ought to be translated into English, consist of a hoe, two reeds, a hawk, two ovals, and a solar disk.

The last group of hieroglyphs consists of a long serpent, a semicircle, and a straight line. The long serpent is equal to the phonetic t, or th, or g. The semicircle, which represents the upper grindstone for bruising corn, equals phonetic t. It is often called a muller or millstone. The straight line is a phonetic equal to ta. The three hieroglyphs therefore form the word getta or tetta, a term which means everlasting.