THE NEW YORK OBELISK

Cleopatra's Needle

WITH A PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE HISTORY
ERECTION, USES, AND SIGNIFICATION
OF OBELISKS

BY

CHARLES E. MOLDENKE, A.M., Ph.D.

NEW YORK

ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH AND CO.

38 West Twenty-Third Street

1891

Copyright, 1891,
By Charles E. Moldenke.

University Press:
PRESSWORK BY
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

EXPLANATION OF THE VIGNETTES AT THE HEAD OF THE CHAPTERS.

Chapter I. (Page [1].) The goddess of victory in the form of a vulture holding a flabellum or fan of feathers and a signet-ring in each claw.

Chapter II. (Page [12].) The goddess Nekheb, the tutelary deity of kings, represented as a vulture carrying the Atef-crown on its head and holding a flabellum or fan of feathers and a signet-ring in each claw.

Chapter III. (Page [18].) The winged Uræus-snake or cobra, the tutelary goddess of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Chapter IV. (Page [26].) The symbol of the god Horus of Edfu, represented as the winged disk of the sun encircled by two Uræus-snakes or cobras.

Chapter V. (Page [35].) Ancient Alexandria reconstructed.

PREFATORY.

The oldest nation on the globe sends her greeting to her youngest sister. The "Setting Sun" has shed its last rays on the Old World from Egypt's sunny land and now appears on this western shore as a brilliant "Rising Sun". In the metropolis of the Western Hemisphere one of Egypt's grandest treasures meets our eyes and, though silent, reminds us of her former greatness. Here stands a monument of two of her greatest Pharaohs, lords and conquerors, scourges of their people, and a terror to their foes. It tells the story of serfs and teems with cringing words and the praise of despots. Yet it was a glorious time when this monument was erected and inscribed, a time of power, pride, learning, greatness, conquest for the lords, but for the people a time of abject subjection, misery, and hardships. Pharaoh was master of all. But the sun of his grandeur has set and vanished, and our obelisk, that proud monument of Pharaonic times, now sees a spectacle which the greatest flight of fancy could not have pictured to any man of those by-gone days.

Here in the western land the obsequious adoration of one man is no more. Here the people are not under the lash and miserable; they are, with all their cares and labors, a happy and contented people. The realm is not, as in those former days, the result of a despot's triumphant march, but a grand, harmonious union of friends.

On such a picture our obelisk looks down from its lofty pedestal. Had it a tongue, it could tell us many a tale of the past, when Thothmes III. erected it with pomp and festivities, when Ramses II. engraved his name upon it, and the law-giver Moses, the Israelite, played and studied in its view, how it escaped the fury of the demoniac ravager Cambyses, was transported by the Romans to Alexandria, escaped Mohammedan fanaticism, and was at last conveyed as a precious prize from its sunny home to our fitful climate. It seems oddly out of place here, and its coat of paraffine will not protect it wholly from bleak winds and rain, and winter's ice and snow. It has lived its longest time on earth, and at the advanced age of thirty-four centuries it must decline, until it will totter and fall. Then having so long symbolized the "Rising Sun" in all its beauty, and having greeted its glorious advent with every dawn and break of day, the "Setting Sun" will shroud it for the last time in its light, but the new sun of morning will seek its old friend in vain. It will fade away, but its memory will last much longer than inscriptions on stone which must perish sooner or later. Let us, however, the children of a new era, learn from it the greatness of its authors!

CHAPTER I

Obelisks—where found, and when, and by whom erected.

§1. Obelisks have been found in various localities of the ancient Egyptian empire. Possibly almost every city of some prominence will have boasted of some, no matter how small, especially such cities as became for a time the residence of the Pharaoh. They would also be placed in cities in which grand temples had been erected for the worship of some prominent deity, and if we can rely upon the reports of travelers, they are even found in the adjacent Sinaitic Peninsula to serve as monuments to the praise of some king's achievements. Unfortunately, however, for any deductions, most of the obelisks which were certainly erected in various places are completely gone either through the violence of foes, the ravages of a Cambyses, or else the internal dissensions of the people and the subsequent ruin, and the ruthless sand of the desert. Of the obelisks, which formerly must have been counted by hundreds, we can scarcely find fifty, and of these only a few are perfect or of purely Egyptian origin.

As far as can be ascertained from the obelisks of the present day, most of them point as the original place of their erection to that city preëminently called the "City of Obelisks" in Lower Egypt, the Heliopolis of the ancients, at present مطريه Matarīyeh, near Cairo. They were here placed around and in front of the temple of the sun, which was the principal sanctuary of the city. From this fact Heliopolis received the name "house of the sun", or בֵּת שֶׁמֶשׁ [bêth shêmesh], as mentioned in the Bible. These obelisks formed the leading attraction at that remote time and undoubtedly remained such until the city's utter destruction. Their fame spread far and wide, for in Jeremiah xliii:13 we find the prophet mentioning the "upright stones" [מַצְבוֹת mazzebhôth] of Heliopolis, which were doomed to perish. Heliopolis, in the days of its power, must have presented a glorious picture to the observer, no less when Joseph wedded a daughter of the high-priest, as when, some centuries later, the law-giver Moses was a student at Egypt's foremost university in this city.

Another city, however, claims our attention as on an almost equal footing with Heliopolis as regards obelisks. Thebes in Upper Egypt, the famous city of one hundred gates, as Homer calls it, the largest city of the ancient world, had besides its many grand temples and palaces a number of the largest obelisks extant. Four of them still tower above the piles of ruins scattered on all sides, while a still larger number must lie buried deep in the ground. It was quite appropriate that here in the metropolis of Upper Egypt, where Pharaoh passed much of his time and where he was crowned with all the pomp and magnificence of a victor, a number of obelisks should proclaim his praise. They were made for the living to gaze upon, and were therefore erected on the eastern bank of the Nile where the city proper stood, while the western bank was wholly surrendered to the dead. The modern villages of Karnak (قرناق) and Luxor (اقصر) now mark the spot where Thebes was situated. However, if we are to believe a traveler, Villiers Stuart, who found two prostrate obelisks of an old dynasty in the necropolis or cemetery on the western bank of the Nile, and take into account that Lepsius found his obelisk at Gizeh, the necropolis of Memphis, also on the western bank of the Nile, we must infer that the oldest obelisks were not always set up with a view to being admired by the living, but simply served as head-stones for the dead.

Ruins of Thebes, at present Karnak, in Upper Egypt.

Obelisk of Ramses II. in Luxor (Thebes).

The majority of all extant obelisks was erected at Heliopolis and Thebes. Others, however, have been discovered in different places: some as far north as Saïs and Tanis, and as far south as the boundary of Egypt on the island of Philæ, called Elephantinê by the ancients. The limit in the opposite directions seems to have been the Fayoom on the west, and the Sinaitic Peninsula on the east. Outside of Egypt and Africa other Egyptian and some pseudo-Egyptian obelisks are to be found. They are the work of Roman emperors. These, jealous of the great achievements of the Pharaohs and desirous of adding to the many Pharaonic obelisks in Rome some of their own making and inscribed with their own name, had the stone quarried in Syene and transported to Rome. Domitian and Hadrian erected such to their honor in the "Eternal City".

§2. The obelisk is certainly a very early invention of the Egyptians. As a matter of fact, it was at first of small size and could hardly have been used as an ornament of temples, which purpose it served in later times. We find very little of the commonplace laudatory titles on the earliest specimens of obelisks, and, as mentioned above, some of them were even found in the necropolis or cemetery, apparently to serve as mementos or head-stones. A passage on the monuments, mentioning that a certain Merab (

From this time until the beginning of the XVIIIth dynasty we possess no obelisks. A new era then began for Egypt. It ushered in its golden age. Thothmes I. was the first to claim for himself equal honor with Usertesen. He erected two magnificent obelisks in Karnak, where they are still conspicuous. Here his daughter, queen Hatasu, co-regent with her brothers Thothmes II. and III., also erected two obelisks. It is true her name does not appear on them, but it is a well established fact, that her great brother Thothmes III., mighty as he was, showed an ignoble jealousy of his valiant sister and, on coming to power, erased her name from the monuments and substituted his own instead. As he had, however, left the feminine pronouns and endings in the inscriptions, his knavery was readily discovered. Notwithstanding this serious defect in his character, he celebrated his many victories by the erection of obelisks of his own. To him belongs the palm in this line of monumental structures. Besides him, one other Pharaoh of this dynasty, Amenophis II., seems to have erected one small obelisk.

Queen Hatasu or Makara.

After the death of Thothmes III. there was a comparative quiet in the erection of obelisks, although one of his obelisks was finished, inscribed, and then erected by Thothmes IV. The great Pharaoh was praised for his imposing monuments, but none dared emulate him until with a new dynasty a new line of rulers came to Egypt. Of Seti I. two excellent obelisks have come down to us, both being at present in Rome. The name, however, most frequently mentioned on the obelisks is that of Ramses II. (1200 B. C.). Although he erected comparatively few obelisks, he inscribed his name and deeds on those of his predecessors, thereby engaging in no legitimate business. He considered himself the equal of Thothmes III., and therefore chose the obelisks of the latter, which had but one—the central—column inscribed, and put two more columns on each side with vainglorious praise of himself. With him the erection of large obelisks seems to have ceased for a time.

Ramses II. in his youth.

It was not until the reign of king Psametik II. that we come across another large obelisk of superior workmanship. This is at present in Rome. Ptolemy Euergetes II. and Cleopatra II. have left us a fine obelisk on the island of Philæ, and this represents the last of a long line of truly Egyptian monoliths. The Roman emperors who erected obelisks of their own were Hadrian and Domitian. Since their time obelisks with hieroglyphic inscriptions have neither been quarried nor erected.

§3. It fell to the lot of the greater number of Egyptian obelisks to be transported from their native land and to serve as objects of curiosity to the multitudes, which had and still have no conception of what they represent. This was due to foreigners; for there is no case on record where the obelisk of one Pharaoh has been transported to a different place by another. Not until the Romans invaded Egypt and carried off its grain and gold, did it occur to man's mind to despoil it of some of its wonders. The first to adorn Rome and Alexandria with them was the emperor Augustus, who carried off two to Rome and left two in Alexandria,—the London and New York Obelisks. Caligula (40 A. D.) and Claudius (41-54 A. D.) followed his example, and about 90 A. D. Domitian removed two to Rome and two to Benevento in Italy. Constantine the Great (306—337 A. D.), after establishing himself in Byzantium [Constantinople], transported a large obelisk to this city, but left a second one, which he had begun to remove in 330, in Alexandria, until Constantius brought it over to Constantinople in 357. During the Middle Ages and up to the present century the other obelisks still remaining in Egypt were left undisturbed. In 1832-1833 the French removed the Luxor Obelisk to Paris, the English the prostrate Alexandrian Obelisk in 1877-1878 to London, and the Americans the erect Obelisk of Alexandria, commonly called "Cleopatra's Needle" in 1880-1881 to New York.

Head of the mummy of Ramses II. discovered in 1881.

§4. It would be quite impossible to give an absolutely correct list of all obelisks existing at the present time, since with regard to some of them we must take the word of travelers, who were not acquainted with Egyptian studies and would therefore easily have been imposed upon, or else the books of reference describing them are in some cases very much at variance. The following list is as near correct as it can at present be made.

Besides the above, we are told that there were in Rome in 1676 four fragments of obelisks, which have since disappeared. Another obelisk is said to have been near the Porta del Popolo in Rome, in the burial place of Nero, which was only a Roman imitation, called the Esmeade Obelisk. Zoëga states that a fragment of an obelisk was brought to Wanstead, England. It was 2½ ft. high, and comprised only a part of the pyramidion. Another fragment of an obelisk is mentioned as having been at Cairo, Egypt. Bonomi calls attention to one at Soughton Hall, England. None of these, however, can now be traced.

Pharaoh with the double crown of Egypt bringing offerings to the gods.

CHAPTER II

The quarrying, transporting, and raising of obelisks.

§1. Egypt is undoubtedly in every respect a land of wonders. At the most remote period of its history we observe that it was already in such an advanced state of civilization, as would appear to us to be wholly incompatible with its venerable age. When Greece first began to issue from its times of heroes and demi-gods and advance on a path of civilization, Egypt had already for at least twenty centuries possessed everything that enlightened Greece could boast of. The first objects among the many wonders that still remain in Egypt to catch the eye of a traveler, are the grand monuments set up in honor of various divinities or as proud guide-posts for future generations. Among these obelisks and pyramids rank first. We marvel at the enormous stones which our modern steam-engines would lift with difficulty, yet which the ancient Egyptians quarried, transported, and erected in their proper places, not only setting them on the ground, but even lifting them some hundred feet, as in the case of the Pyramids. We look upon the greater number of obelisks, each made of one unbroken piece of stone, and are forced to admire the workmanship and engineering skill which they exhibit. We may endeavor to grasp this wonderful achievement, but must continually ask: how was it done, and how was it possible to do so at that time, when even now with all our many inventions and contrivances we should perhaps fail. Unfortunately we receive no definite answer. It is so long ago since the Egyptian stone-cutters plied their chisels and the engineers built their machines, and no papyrus or inscription tells us directly how the work was accomplished. A relic of indomitable labor and uncompleted work still lies in the quarry at Assuan. It is an obelisk of 95 feet still cleaving on its fourth side to the native rock. This may throw some light on the mystery.

We notice the nicety and precision with which the stone-cutter went to work in hewing out and polishing the monument. His art was one that had been brought to the highest state of perfection in Egypt; and no wonder, for in a country where timber was scarce and hardly one tree was suitable for wood-work, men had to fall back on their natural supply which the mountains rising on both sides of the valley yielded. Stone was there in abundance. Hence from the earliest times of Egyptian history the stone-cutter receives a prominent place. The implements he employed must have had a wonderful degree of hardness to chip and polish the tenacious rock of Syene.

With regard to the quarrying of the rock, that is, how, after having selected a properly-sized piece of rock without a flaw and having carefully marked it, the stone-cutters were able to detach 50-100 feet of it without a break—that has given rise to many conjectures. Belzoni held, that after a groove of about two inches had been cut along the line, the blow of some machine must have separated the pieces of rock, as glass when cut by a diamond. Others believe that a saw was employed to sever the rock. Sir J. F. Herschel prefers to accept the theory that the separation of the rocks was caused by fire, a method still employed in India. He calls attention to the fact, that after the workmen there have cut a groove into the rock they kindle a small fire on top of this line, and that after the rock is thoroughly heated they suddenly pour cold water on it, causing the rock to split with a clean fracture. It is, however, more probable that the Egyptians made use of wooden wedges to accomplish their purpose. We frequently find not only grooves in the rock but also wedge-holes inside these grooves. Wedges with their slow and steady pressure would insure a good fracture. Possibly, as Wilkinson surmises, the grooves themselves may have carried water to the wooden wedges which, being kept continually moist and thereby expanding, would have caused the rock to split. The saw was undoubtedly used for the last cutting to separate the piece from the native rock.

Stone-cutters smoothing a block of granite.

Stone-cutter at work.

The blocks having been quarried, the stone-cutters cut them exactly to the required shape and polished them almost as smooth as glass with the chisel and incessant rubbing. The accompanying pictures fully illustrate and explain this. In the accurate chiseling and planing of the angles the Egyptians have never been surpassed. As for the material used in the manufacture of the tools that were to cut the hard Egyptian rock which bends even our iron and steel tools of to-day and makes them useless, we must profess a deep ignorance. Either the Egyptians employed chemical compounds and emery, or else they possessed a wonderful knowledge of tempering bronze and iron tools which has been completely lost. It still remains for our advanced civilization to rediscover what the ancient Egyptians already knew.

Chiseling, planing, polishing, and inscribing statues.

Transportation of a colossus.

§2. We know almost less about the transportation than the quarrying of obelisks. We have only one picture on the monuments, at Bersheh, to guide us. In this the dragging of a colossus by workmen is represented in vivid outlines. The accompanying picture shows the man in charge of the work, the servant greasing the runners of the sledge, and the multitude of toiling people, but it tells us very little about the manner of transportation for a distance of more than one thousand miles between Syene and Lower Egypt. That the removal of such monoliths from the quarry to the place of erection was a matter of some importance is fully brought out by many inscriptions, where this task is intrusted by Pharaoh to a loyal subject, and where the latter expresses his gratification that his mission was completed to the satisfaction of his master, who rewarded him quite handsomely. From some inscriptions it would appear that the blocks, when ready for transportation, were rolled to the river's edge, or perhaps placed on rollers and then pushed or else dragged down on an inclined plane. The Nile, ever ready to extend his welcome help to the children of his soil, aided them again in their efforts. Large barges or rather floats were built where the water of the inundation would reach the blocks, and where they, when once on the floats, would be carried on that great Egyptian highway to any part of the vast empire. Many monuments, however, were transported overland, in which case the aid of the Nile must have been dispensed with. The Colossi at Thebes, the two statues of Amenophis III., and the statue of Ramses II. in the Memnonium at Thebes, which weighed as much as 1,800,000 pounds, are instances of this. Such masses of rock were moved along on sledges by human hands, as shown in the above picture. The inscription of Hammamât makes mention of the men who died while handling such sledges with their enormous loads. Possibly the Egyptians already used besides rollers and levers also pulleys to facilitate their work. At all events the transportation by human hands of obelisks and other monoliths of enormous size and weight without the most powerful appliances of modern times is such a wonderful feat, that we cannot at present fully comprehend it. All we know for certain is the fact that those men of old have succeeded, and therefore accomplished what we would regard as almost impossible.

§3. The method employed by the Egyptians in the erection of obelisks has to this day remained a profound mystery. Of course, just as with regard to the quarrying and transporting them, many conjectures have been advanced which, however plausible they may seem, give us no definite solution of this problem. That the Egyptians must have possessed some mechanical means, with which to lift these colossi into their exact place, cannot be disputed: otherwise the time consumed in setting them up would have been equal to that of quarrying them. They had undoubtedly some unknown facilities for doing work of this kind, and being great mathematicians, they may have constructed agents more powerful than those of the present day.

CHAPTER III

The form, name, dimensions, invention, material, and use of obelisks.

§1. Obelisks are monoliths, that is, they are made of one piece of rock only. Pieces set up in the form of an obelisk are never considered one. The lofty shaft at Washington, D. C., cannot, therefore, be styled an obelisk. In addition to being composed of one piece only, all obelisks are quadrangular, the sides sloping gradually and perceptibly but right-angled all the way to the top, where they are surmounted by a miniature pyramid or trapezium. They were, as far as we know, commonly erected in pairs at the entrance of the temples, evidently serving there in the capacity of guardians. The stone was polished to a high state of perfection, and the inscriptions added in intaglio-relievo by skilled stone-cutters under the direction of scribes. Whether the figures of these inscriptions were filled out with copper or gold, as some maintain, is extremely doubtful.

With the pyramidion it was different. While its usual dedicatory inscriptions remained undoubtedly as they were chiseled, the point or apex seems to have been surmounted by gold or gilded bronze. The sun would naturally in the early morning first touch with its rays this point and bathe it in splendor. It would appear from extant obelisks that, in order to have the gold added, the stone apex was not brought out to a fine point, but left rugged and incomplete. Yet this unevenness may also have been the result of time and the abrasion caused by the sand of the desert. We know of the Obelisk of Karnak, erected by queen Hatasu, that the apex of its pyramidion was covered with "pure gold", as the inscription on the obelisk itself states. Others, again, were covered with copper; for instance, the two obelisks of Heliopolis, of which but one remains now, which were seen in this condition by St. Ephraim Syrus (308 A. D.), Denys of Telmahre (840 A. D.), and a number of Arabic writers.

It is a very interesting fact, that in the inscriptions of the vth and vith dynasties in Memphis the obelisk has a curious shape, being represented by a short and singularly unproportional shaft on a high and wide pedestal, and crowned at the point of the pyramidion by a large disk of the sun. This figure, in the first place, closely resembles a pyramid or a combination of the pyramid and the obelisk, almost forcing on us the assumption that the obelisk grew out of the pyramid, and, in the second place, the disk of the sun plainly refers to the mystic sun-worship for which the obelisk primarily served as an index finger.

The sides of the obelisk were always intended to be inscribed, for they were to record the deeds and praise of a Pharaoh. That some obelisks have come down to our days without inscriptions is due to the fact, that the monarch who ordered them died, and his successor either would not spend the money on the monument of a predecessor to have it inscribed, or deemed it sacrilegious to put his own name on what did not belong to him. We find filial piety displayed only by Thothmes IV., who would not allow the monument of his great predecessor, Thothmes III., to lie half-finished in the quarry, but erected it, not, however, without succumbing to the sore temptation of adding his own name and using two thirds of the space of the whole obelisk. This is at present the Lateran Obelisk in Rome. Whether the obelisks were inscribed before being erected, or vice versa, cannot now be determined. From some uninscribed specimens we should infer that they were inscribed when in their proper position, while from the Lateran Obelisk we could draw the conclusion that they were first completed in all details before they were erected.

A pair of obelisks, on pedestals, in front of the pylon, or entrance-gateway, of a temple.

The obelisks, as soon as they had been finished to the satisfaction of Pharaoh, were placed in pairs on pedestals in front of the pylons or lofty entrances of the temples. The pedestals were either, as in the case of the New York Obelisk, composed of one solid block of stone, or else of a foundation of closely fitting blocks or a layer of stones.

One effect of the removal of the obelisks by the Romans was to break off the edges at the bottom, so that there was reason to fear that re-erection would not make them safe. To obviate this danger, they placed bronze crabs at each corner to fill out the gaps. Why they should have hit upon the form of the crab or scorpion is not very evident. Perhaps they chose the crab from a religious point of view, in order to conform to the curious religious doctrines and superstitious notions entertained by the Egyptians under the Ptolemies, and elucidated by the inscriptions and papyri of that time.

§2. The word "obelisk" comes from the Greek signifying a "pointed instrument", and is, in turn, derived from another Greek word obelos "a spit". Afterwards this name was applied to a "pointed pillar", on account of the latter's resemblance to a spit. By the Egyptians the obelisk was called

The pyramidion of the obelisk, on the other hand, was called benben by the Egyptians. The prominent part played by it in the mysteries of sun-worship is attested by the inscription of king Piankhi (about 700 B. C.), for in it is mentioned the

§3. The dimensions of the obelisks which have come down to us vary very much. By consulting the list on pages [9]-[11] it will be seen that at present the height ranges between 2 to 105 feet. As has already been mentioned, the largest obelisks date back to the time when Egypt entered upon, or was already in, its golden age, that having been the time when the Pharaohs could erect monuments worthy of their reign. Before that time, when they served as grave-stones, the obelisks were of a comparatively small size. Still we find some very large specimens under later dynasties, as for instance that of Psametik II. on the Monte Citorio in Rome, which is 71 feet high, while that of the Ptolemies in Philæ, which is only a fragment, measures 33 feet. The Romans also erected large monoliths, Domitian's obelisk on the Piazza Navona in Rome being 54 feet, and that of Hadrian on the Monte Pincio 30 feet high. Constantine the Great erected the large obelisk at Arles in France, measuring 56 feet, which may have possibly been taken out of a French quarry.

There must have been some fixed rule for determining the thickness of an obelisk when the length was given. According to a measurement of all the obelisks we may state, that the base was generally 1⁄9 to 1⁄11 of the entire length. Thus the New York Obelisk is 7 ft. 9¼ in. by 7 ft. 8¼ in. at the base, which is about 1⁄9 of the entire length (69½ ft.). The obelisk of Hatasu is of a somewhat different proportion, the thickness at the base being only 1⁄13 of the total length. The obelisk with the thickest base is that which is still in the quarry at Assuan, the base measuring 11 ft. 1½ in. by 11 ft. 1½ in.

That monuments of such height and thickness weigh a great deal is self-evident. Our New York Obelisk would tip an adequate scale at the figure: 448,000 pounds. Eight of the extant obelisks, however, weigh still more, the heaviest being that of Assuan which, if it had ever been erected, would weigh 1,540,000 pounds, having for a second the Lateran Obelisk in Rome with 1,020,000 pounds.

§4. The material of which the obelisks are made is the granite of Syene. It was preferred by the Egyptians on account of its wonderful hardness, durability, lack of flaws (the so-called maladie de granite), and its reddish color. It is really the amphibole-granite, but is commonly called Syenite from the name of the place where it is found. Although flaws in it are of rare occurrence, they nevertheless sometimes appear in the obelisks. Whenever they were discovered after the block was detached from the native rock, they did not render the stone by any means worthless, as the Luxor Obelisk in Paris has proved. This had a crack in it at the base from the day of its erection in Thebes, which, when pinned by the Egyptians with a wooden plug at that early time, has not since then interfered in the least with the strength or stability of the obelisk.

The supply of this hard granite was and is still inexhaustible, being massed up in immense mountains in various parts of Egypt. It is found in the eastern desert near Thebes. Egyptian monuments also record the quarrying of stone at Hammamât, on the road to Kossêr. It is, however, found best in the vicinity of the First Cataract and, as the name "Syenite" indicates, especially at Syene (Assuan). This city, of some importance under the Pharaohs, was called Syêné by the Romans, and

§5. The question as to the invention of that wonderful, simple, yet strange figure we call obelisk, can be answered without hesitation. The invention belongs wholly to the Egyptians. As has been pointed out before, the people of the IVth and Vth dynasties already made use of this form of monument. Perhaps its first appearance dates back even further, although no such old obelisks exist to warrant this assumption.

The next question to be answered is: to what use were the obelisks put? The ancient dynasties did not use them for ornament's sake, as the tomb would hardly be a suitable place for works of art that were to be admired. They originally served as memorial tablets and tomb-stones. Afterwards their surpassing beauty as monuments of art was perceived, and they were placed in pairs in front of the gates and pylons of the temples for ornament. They broke the monotony of the straight and peculiar Egyptian style of building, and by their apparently thin and column-like appearance set off to advantage the massive and ponderous structures round about. A position in front of the temples was certainly the very best which could be assigned to them, and it can therefore be no matter of surprise, that the Pharaoh sought to commemorate his victories and virtues on such splendid tablets. We find the king in most cases use all the available space on the obelisk, and whenever he did not use all of it, another would be sure to add his own glorious name and deeds to those of some predecessor. We consequently find some obelisks that bear the inscriptions of as many as three different rulers; for instance, the Lateran, London, and New York Obelisks. These inscriptions would effectually serve the purpose of history, if they recorded events of vast political importance, but, unfortunately, of obelisk-inscriptions still extant, none are dated after the manner of other historical monuments.

The Romans immediately recognized the artistic merits of the obelisks, though they were perhaps more struck by their grandeur and elegance than anything else, and carried off many of them as trophies to sunny Italy. They adorned Rome with them, where, with all their rents and fractures, and after all the injury by the hand of man and havoc of the elements, the obelisks still baffle the ravages of time in the "City of the Seven Hills". As a "smart" people, however, the Romans tried to utilize them in some way: so they hit upon the idea to make them serve as sun-dials. Augustus experimented to this end with the obelisk now on the Monte Citorio in Rome, but, as he was not successful, this project was entirely abandoned.

CHAPTER IV

The signification of the obelisk and the worship of the sun.

The most interesting point to be touched upon in our further investigation concerning obelisks is undoubtedly that with regard to their meaning and signification, or, in other words, what the mind of the Egyptian priest saw expressed under the figure of an obelisk. This leads us into the religion and mythology of a nation that had some very lofty conceptions of life, death, and eternity. The objects which called forth such thoughts were pre-eminently the obelisk and the pyramid, the former representing life in the sunshine of glory, the latter death in the darkness of passing night.

In the cosmogony of the Egyptians the Sun plays the most important part. Its birth is thus aptly described from the monuments by Prof. Dr. H. Brugsch: "In the beginning there was no heaven or earth. A boundless water, shrouded in dense darkness, made up the universe. This held in its bosom the male and female germs or beginnings of the future world. The divine primeval spirit, inseparable from the matter of the primitive water, felt a longing after creative power, and his word called into being the world, whose figure and variegated form had already manifested themselves to him. Its corporeal outlines and colors corresponded, in consequence of their derivation, to Truth, that is, to the exact intention of the divine spirit with reference to his future work. The first act of creation consisted in the formation out of the primitive water of an egg, from which the light of day (Rā 'the sun') proceeded, which animated everything in the world. In this rising sun is embodied the almighty divinity in its grandest manifestation".

This new-born deity was destined to become greater than its parent, and to receive adoration in all its many phases. The path of the sun was frequently compared to the life of a man from infancy to old age. Hence the sun was called a boy in the morning, a youth in the midday, and an old man in the evening (

The sun-god Ra.

The obelisk was erected in honor of the sun in all its phases, both when rising and when about to set. The pyramids, on the other hand, symbolizing the sun after it had set, were always built in the region of darkness and death on the western bank of the Nile, and had only to do with Tum, the setting sun. Here, in the domain of Tum, the bodies of the departed were to rest securely until the light of an eternal morning should wake them again and endow them with the splendor of the rising sun, which also set in the west, entered the lower regions and bowels of the earth or Hades (the Egyptian

The sun-god Tum.

The various phases of the sun in its passage over the heavens are even represented by pictures on the monuments. The sun of morning is pictured as a hawk-faced deity (Horus) crowned with the snake-encircled disk of the sun, called Rā-Hor-Khuti; the sun of noon as the same deity wearing the double crown of Egypt, called Hor or Hor-Khuti; the sun of evening as a human-faced deity with the double crown of Egypt, called Tum or Atum; and the invisible sun of night as a human-faced deity with the sacred scarab above it, called Kheper or Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. These four deities also represented the beginning of the four seasons of the year: the vernal equinox, the summer solstice, the autumnal equinox, and the winter solstice. Some other names and forms under which the sun was worshiped are, besides the above, Amen-Rā (in Thebes), Sebek-Rā (in Ombos), and Khnum-Rā (in Elephantine).

All this proves the vast and supreme importance attached to the sun by the ancient Egyptians. But why should they have selected the sun as their principal deity? All the pictures, in which the sun or the sun-god is represented, give us the answer. On them it will be noticed that each deity holds in one of its hands the sign

Ra bestowing "life" on Amenophis IV. and his wife.

Having called attention to the belief of the ancient Egyptians in the sun as their guiding and illuminating deity, it will now be necessary to consider the place the obelisk occupies with regard to it. The first thing that greets our eyes on most obelisks is the figure of a bird on the top of each column of hieroglyphs. This represents the god Horus in the form of a sparrow-hawk (

Why did the Egyptians choose the hawk as the embodiment of their highest god? Perhaps on account of the lofty flight of the bird, or else because of its keen vision. In the "victory-stelé" of Thothmes III. the deity says to the king:

Horus of Edfu.

In common with the belief of all the ancient nations, the king was considered by the Egyptians not only as a mortal but also, by reason of his exalted rank, as a god on earth. He was the essence of the divinity and styled himself "the offspring of the gods" (

The king offering up libation to himself in the form of a sphinx.

The obelisk which was erected in honor of the sun could therefore also be used by the sun's offspring, the king, to promulgate his own worship. Inscriptions commemorating both the deity in heaven and his deputy on earth continually blend the two, the god and the king, together into one person, that we can easily find in the obelisk traces of a decided king-worship. If the enlightened age of an Alexander the Great or a Divus ("divine") Cæsar Augustus could tolerate such a thing, why should we feign surprise when we find the same thing to have happened some thousand years before their time in Egypt? It is just this one fact, the barefaced king-worship represented by the obelisk, that gives its translation such a repulsive sound to modern ears. No wonder that otherwise well-read and intelligent men turn about in amazement and ask: Can this really be the correct translation of the obelisk, why, this would turn those ancient kings of glorious renown into mere "vainglorious fools"? This conclusion is perfectly true, and consequently it is to be regretted that just such monuments as obelisks, which are a great source of attraction for the multitude, should display the poorest inscriptions that we meet with in the entire Egyptian literature. Under no circumstances must we base our estimate of the Egyptian literature on the inscriptions of the obelisks; for, on looking over the writings of this wonderful people, we would not only find ourselves most agreeably surprised, but would be constrained to admit that there is no ancient people which can boast of an equally grand and sublime literature as the Egyptian.

A portion of the "Book of the Dead" (Chap. I.). Two obelisks represented on a mummy-cloth. From the author's collection.

Summing up, we find the obelisks erected in honor of the sun-god by his son, the king, and used by him to further his own ambitious designs, glorify his own name, and turn the worship of his subjects both to himself and his sire above.

Note. Besides the frequent mention of the obelisk in the countless Egyptian inscriptions on stone, wood, leather, and papyrus, dating back to the earliest dynasties, we find the picture of two obelisks in many copies of the sacred writings of the Egyptians, the so-called "Book of the Dead" or the Egyptian Ritual. It forms part of the vignette of the first division of this book (1-15 chap.), which has mostly to do with hymns, prayers, and incantations addressed to the sun-god. No mention is made of the obelisk in the text of the Ritual. On the preceding page will be found the picture of the two obelisks on a piece of mummy-cloth in the possession of the author. The Hieratic words below the vignette form a portion of the first chapter of the Ritual.

CHAPTER V

The history of the new york obelisk, and its removal from alexandria.

King Thothmes III.

§1. The obelisk in Central Park antedates our Christian era by more than fifteen centuries. The central columns of the four sides, being the first that were inscribed, record as the author of this monument, Thothmes III., called the Great, the greatest sovereign of that period (about 1600 B. C.). A warrior of wonderful prowess and a ruler of the highest intelligence, he put aside at an early date the leading-strings of his famous sister and co-regent, Hatasu, surnamed Makarâ, and constituted himself sole regent and law-giver. He heads the list of the kings of the xviiith dynasty. From the beginning to the end of his reign the inscriptions record his victories over foreign nations. He claims it as his order from the god Amen to extend the boundaries of Egypt. He subdues the prince of Kadesh in Upper Palestine at Megiddo, and overpowers the Kharu [Syrian] and Kheta [Hittite] tribes. The Rotennu [Syrians of Mesopotamia] are conquered, Damascus falls, and Carkhemish is taken. He reaches Nineveh, the Tigris, and the Orontes, and is everywhere victorious. He claims as his own and in vassalage all of the then known world. It is he whom Pliny calls Mesphres, and of whom he says that he erected a pair of obelisks, commemorating his valiant deeds. These obelisks are at present in London and New York.

Cartouche of Thothmes III. "The king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Men-Kheper-Ra, the son of Ra, Thoth-Meses".

The exact time of the erection of these two obelisks cannot be determined, as they bear no date, but it must have been in the earlier part of the reign of Thothmes III., which extended from 1591 to 1565 B. C. (according to Lepsius). He ordered them at the quarry in Syene and erected them in front of the temple of the sun in Heliopolis or the Egyptian

Cartouche of Ramses II. "The king of Upper and Lower Egypt, User-Ma-Ra-Sotep-en-Ra, the son of Ra, Amen-Mer-Ra-Meses-Su."

King Ramses II.

They were not allowed to remain intact for a very long time, for a century is an insignificant matter when we deal with Egyptian history. Almost three centuries had passed, when a new conqueror arose, who was emulous of his great predecessor's deeds, and who envied him his renown. This was Ramses II., surnamed "the Great", the "Pharaoh of the Oppression", who reigned from 1388 to 1322 B. C. (according to Lepsius). Not only in his monuments but also in his deeds he carries off equal honors with Thothmes the Great. We find the wars of former days fought over again, and always successfully, and we see his exploits recorded not only on impassive monuments of stone but also in the writings on fragile papyrus. A second Iliad by the poet Pentaûr recalls some wonderful hymns addressed amid the din of battle to his guardian deities, in particular to Amen-Râ, and gives us such a vivid picture of war as to surpass in many respects even old Homer. Ramses' most stubborn opponents were the Kheta (Hittites) with whom he negotiated a most favorable treaty after many years of war. But with all his good qualities he had one great fault, vainglory. Not satisfied with erecting obelisks, stelé, and temples with his name inscribed on them in large letters, and seeing his works recorded over all the known world, he even appropriated the monuments of his predecessors and, though not guilty of erasing their names and substituting his own instead, as Thothmes III. had done on his sister's obelisk and monuments, yet he crowded his name and the story of his deeds within all the available space left uninscribed on these monuments. He had the two outside columns on each side of our obelisk inscribed, leaving to Thothmes III. besides the pyramidion only about one third of the obelisk's surface. This, of course, gave him an advantage over his predecessors, and he thereby saved the large expense and the time that would have been required for quarrying and erecting monuments of his own. He died at an advanced age after having ruled over Egypt for 67 years. His mummy, discovered in 1881, now rests in the Museum of Bulak at Cairo.

Cartouche of Osarkon I. "The king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Kherp-Kheper-Ra-Sotep-en-Ra, the son of Ra, Amen-Mer-Usarken."

Cartouche of the emperor Augustus Cæsar. "The divine lord of the world, Autokrator, the son of Ra, lord of the diadems, Cæsar-Ankh-Zeta-Ptah-Ast-Mer."

The four sides of the obelisk were now filled, and it would appear impossible for another king to have used any other part of it for his own purpose. Such is, however, not the case. Osarkon I. had chiseled into the stone at the very edges of each side in diminutive characters his own name. He was a Pharaoh of the xxiid dynasty, who lived about 960 B. C., and represents the decline of the ancient Egyptian empire.

Cleopatra VI. (From an ancient coin.)

Cartouche of queen Cleopatra VI. "The queen and mistress of the world, Cleopatra."

Of the history of our obelisk since that time very little would be known except for the inscriptions found on the brass crabs at the base. From them we learn that the obelisk was taken away from its position in front of the temple of Heliopolis in the XVIIIth year of the reign of Augustus Cæsar (12 B. C.) by Pontius during the prefecture of Barbarus. It was then transported to Alexandria and placed in front of the Cæsareum, the temple of the Cæsars, with the obelisk at present in London. During the transportation a large portion of the edges at the base was very badly damaged. Four large bronze crabs were then placed under the obelisk to keep it from falling over. Since this time of their erection in Alexandria tradition has associated one of them, the New York Obelisk, with the name of the monster-queen Cleopatra VI. She had, however, nothing whatever to do with the removal of the obelisks as she and all her predecessors of the same name had been dead long before these were erected in Alexandria. Here both remained for many centuries until one—the present London Obelisk—fell prostrate and was left to lie half-hidden in the ground. It was subsequently taken in 1877 to England, while the other obelisk remained standing in Alexandria until 1880, when it was lowered into the steamer Dessoug, brought over to our country, and presented to New York City through the munificence of the late Mr. William H. Vanderbilt.

Cleopatra VI. (From Egyptian monuments.)

§2.[^[1]] At the time of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 the Khedive Ishmaël first suggested the removal of the standing obelisk at Alexandria to the United States. This suggestion was soon spread abroad and it was estimated that for $60,000 the obelisk could be removed. As the late Mr. William H. Vanderbilt had agreed to furnish this sum, negotiations were opened with the Egyptian government in 1877 for the definite gift of the obelisk. These proved successful. Bids were then requested for its removal and the bid of the late Commander Henry H. Gorringe, U. S. N., was accepted. Mr. Gorringe went to work immediately but clearly saw that he would not be able to proceed in the same manner as others had done before him in the removal of the Luxor Obelisk to Paris or the Alexandrian to London. These were taken in tow and in this manner reached their destination. This plan could not be adopted for bringing the obelisk across the ocean. When the work of transporting the obelisk to the harbor of Alexandria was accomplished, the steamer Dessoug was purchased from the Egyptian government and in it the obelisk was carried to New York.

"Cleopatra's Needle" as it stood in Alexandria before its removal to New York in 1880.

As soon as the news of the presentation by the Egyptian government of Cleopatra's Needle to the United States reached the ears of the foreign residents of Alexandria, a most disgraceful agitation was begun against Commander Gorringe. Everything was tried and done to embarrass him in his work, and all sorts of obstacles were put in his way. But the man at the head of the undertaking could not be intimidated. On October 27, 1879 work was begun by the removal of the earth that had accumulated around the base of the obelisk. The latter was next incased to protect its many inscriptions, and on December 6th of the same year everything was ready for turning the great monolith. This was successfully effected. Another difficulty now presented itself, how to get the obelisk to the harbor, this being on the other side of the city. The foreign residents had forbidden the use of the paved streets, by which route the obelisk would have been easily transported, and Commander Gorringe was now obliged to undertake the difficult task of bringing the obelisk around the whole city over the shallow water and the sandbanks. This he accomplished by means of a caisson. However, an unobstructed channel through the water to the dry-dock was first necessary. Divers were hired until March 1880 and employed in removing about 170 tons of granite, being the débris of former Alexandrian monumental structures. While the obelisk was being lowered the spite of the European residents was again painfully felt. Nevertheless, although with vastly increased expenses, Commander Gorringe here succeeded in his work. By this enforced method of transportation he incurred an extra expense of $21,000. When the Egyptian steamer Dessoug had been purchased and, after many delays, brought into the dry-dock, an aperture was made in its side, large enough to admit of the incased obelisk being pushed into the hold of the vessel. The side was then closed, the steamer was ready for its voyage, and the tedious work of the brave and indefatigable Commander was at an end as far as Egypt was concerned. On June 1, 1880 the vessel steamed out of the harbor with the Stars and Stripes floating in the breeze, carrying the obelisk, the pedestal, and the stones for the foundation.

On July 19, 1880 the Dessoug arrived in New York. The site where the obelisk was to stand, namely Graywacke Knoll opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park, had already been selected. The foundation was completed on October 10. The large square pedestal was carted from the North River and 51st St. to the Park, and then pushed on greased planks to the place of erection. The disembarking of the obelisk, however, presented many difficulties, the most humiliating being the greed of certain rich men, who refused to place their dry-docks at the disposal of the Commander for a high price which he offered, and compelled him to try Lawler's Marine Railway on Staten Island. His experiment with this was quite successfully carried out on August 21, 1880. On September 14th the obelisk was once more afloat on pontoons. On September 16th the steamer Manhattan towed the pontoons with the obelisk to the North River and 96th St. Then the land-journey began. The obelisk passed as far as the West Boulevard, down to 86th St., then through the Transverse Road No. 3 in Central Park, issued from the Park at Fifth Avenue and 85th St., and was then taken down to 82d St. Here a trestle-work was built up to Graywacke Knoll, the final resting-place of the obelisk. On December 22, 1880 the point of the obelisk was turned up this trestle-work, and on January 22, 1881 everything was ready for placing it in position on the pedestal. The crabs had been recast in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and perfectly fitted to the uneven base of the obelisk. The latter easily swung and revolved on the turning-structure, and at noon of the same day it stood in the identical position as at Alexandria. On February 22, 1881 the obelisk was formally presented in behalf of the Khedive of Egypt, through the liberality of Mr. William H. Vanderbilt, to the city of New York.

The total cost of the removal of the obelisk was: for material and labor $86,603 and for incidental expenses $15,973, a sum total of $102,576. Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt paid the whole amount out of his own purse. The Congress of the United States took due notice of the wonderful feat of procuring for our country such a grand specimen of Egyptian monuments, and fitting resolutions were passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives. And certainly a sincere vote of thanks will be given for his munificent gift to our late illustrious fellow citizen, William H. Vanderbilt, by everyone having at heart the honor and advancement of our city and country.

Ruins of Tanis.

CHAPTER VI

The inscriptions of the new york obelisk.

I. Inscriptions of Thothmes III.

The inscriptions of Thothmes III. comprise the four sides of the pyramidion and the central columns of the four faces of the obelisk.

The Pyramidion.

The pictures of the four sides of the pyramidion here given are reproduced from the squeezes taken under the direction of Mr. Gorringe as published in his "Egyptian Obelisks". They are, however, given in their correct form, as the squeezes seem to have been taken by an inexperienced hand and a person unacquainted with Egyptological subjects. The figures seated in the squares are the gods Râ-Hor-Khuti and Tum, representing the rising and the setting sun. The former is the hawk-faced god seated on a throne, holding in his right hand the staff of power

East Face of the Pyramidion.

The three vertical columns to the left above and the two below the sphinx refer to the sphinx-king, the remainder to the god Râ-Ḥor-khuti (i. e. "the sun, Horus in the horizon") and the libation in the hands of the sphinx.

The three columns above the sphinx are:

i. e. This is Thothmes III., the gracious god, the lord of the two countries [Egypt], who gives eternal life.

Below the sphinx we read:

i. e. This is the powerful and glorious bull [king] in Thebes, the Sun's offspring, Thothmes III.

The term

The four columns to the right above the god bear the following legend:

i. e. This is Rā-Hor-Khuti, the great god, the lord of the two countries [Egypt], who gives him [the king] all life.

Between the god and the sphinx-king we read these words referring to the libation brought by the king:

i. e. As a gift (the king brings an offering of) wine.

The most singular cartouche of Thothmes III., however, is found on our New York Obelisk on the East Face and central column (see page [56]).

South Pace of the Pyramidion.

The three columns above to the left refer to the sphinx-king and are identical with those of the East pyramidion (page [47]):

The hieroglyphs below the sphinx-king are totally destroyed, but must have been the same as those on the East pyramidion (page [48]):

The four columns above to the right refer to the god Tum, the setting sun, seated on a throne beneath. The inscription is:

i. e. This is Tum, the lord of the two countries [Egypt], the prince of Heliopolis, the great god, the lord of his temple, who gives him [the king] all life.

The inscription between the god and the sphinx-king is destroyed with the exception of the letter

West Face of the Pyramidion.

The four columns above to the right (the last one being destroyed) refer to the sphinx-king and read as follows:

i. e. This is the gracious god, the prince of Heliopolis, the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, the lord of the two countries [Egypt], Thothmes III., who gives eternal life.

Below the sphinx is the same inscription as on the East pyramidion:

The three columns above to the left refer to the god Tum, who is seated below, and read: