Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1880-09-11
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THE UBELiSK.
The Historic Wonder in New York-fts
True story What These MonOiithsAre
--ContempOrnry ~ ith Noses


New York, has an interesting article on
the great historic obelisk, known rs
Cleopatra's Needle presented to the
United States by Ismael Pasha, and
brought to New York by Captain Cor
ringe on board the steamer Dessoug.
Obelisks belong to the Oldest and most
simple monuments of Egyptian archi-
lecture, and are high four-sided pillars,
diminishing as they ascend, and
terminating in a small pyramid. He
rodotus speaks of them, and Pliny gives
particular account of them. The lat
ter mentions King Mesphres, or Mestres,
of Thebes, as the first builder Of them.
It Is probable that these monuments
were first built before the time of Moses,
at least two centuries before the Trojan
war. There are still several obelisks in
Egypt. These. exclusive of the pedes-
tails, are mostly from fifty to 100 feet
high, and of a red polished granite;
few later ones are of white marble and
other kinds of stone. Some are adorned
on all sides, and some on fewer, with
hieroglyphics cut in them, sometimes TO
the depth of two inches, divided into
little squares and sections, and filled
with paint. Some are entirely plain
and without hieroglyphics. The foot of
the obelisk stands upon quadrangular
base, commonly two or three feet
broader than the obelisk, with socket,
in which it rests. They were conf
monty hewn out of single stone, in the
quarries of Upper Egypt, and brought
on canals fed by the Nile, to the place of
their erection. According to the ac-
counts of travellers, there are still to be
found in Upper Egypt, old quarries with
obelisks already hewn out, or with
places whence monuments of this form
must evidently have been taken.
OF their origin nothing is known
with certainty. Perhaps the first images
of the gods, which at an early period
were nothing but stones OF pyramidal
form, gave occasion to them. Accord
ing to Herodotus they were first raised
in honor of the sun, and meant to repre-
sent its rays. They might also have
been raised to perpetuate the memory
of certain events, since the hero
glyphics contained the praises Of their
gods and their kings, or inscriptions
relating to their religious notions. After
the conquest of Egypt by the Persians
no more were erected. and the success
sors of Lagus adorned AleXandria with
the obelisks of the ancient kings, from
whence the Roman emperors carried
several of them to Rome, Aries and
Constantinople, most of which were
afterward overturned, but have been
put together and replaced in modern
times.
Captain Gorringe has rectifed little
mistake of 1900 years that the American
press made in estimating the age of their
obelisk. He produced authorities who
distinctly remember that the obeiSk
was constructed in the rein of Thothmes
IL, about l $50 years before the Christian
era, and not twenty-throe years before,
rs the American public was led to be.
lieve. Something did happen to the
obelisk at the latter date, however,
viz, its removal from the Temple of
ANEW, at ueliopolis, to the Temple oil
Cesariem, at Alexandria. by order of
the conqueror, Augustus Caesar, and in
the eighth year of his reign.
What long and wonderful story this
obelisk could tell More than iiiGcon
centuries before Christ was born there
reigned in Egypt one Of its greatest
kings, Thothmes, the second of that
title. He was such brave and success
full warrior that no nation OF either
Africa or Asia could stand against him.
He brought even the far off King of
Nineveh into subsection and compelled
him to pay heavy tribute. He was also
noted hunter, and painting shows
him in the act of slaughtering 100 cle-
plants. So proud became Thothmes
through his unbroken career of sue
cesses, that he had his name engraven
in one of the temples as ''The living
good god, lord of the upper and lower
world, the lord OF diademsw At his
order, hundreds ofmen were SET to work
to hew two obelisks out of the hard
granite rocks at Syene, in Southern
Egypt, near where the Nile dashes
through the cataracts. He was deter
mined that the memory of his Y ctores
and of his greatness should be preserved
forever on these pillars Of stone. After
the patient labor of many months the
huge monoliths lay finally separated
from the bed rock in the quarry. They
were then transported distance of 500
miles to Heliopolis, or On, the City ofthe
Sun, near the delta of the Nile. So the
stone was moved across inclined plat
forms to raft, which had been brought
to the edge of the quarry through a
canal, and then it was lloated down the
Nile during an inuudation. On its ar
rival the granite was carefully polished.
Next the figures and Inscriptions were
skillfully inscribed, vet very slowly, on
account of its extreme hardness. The
base of the obelisk was then set within
a agroove in the pedestal, and the entire
monument was raised to a perpendicu-
lar by building up ridge OF earth be.
meath it.
The obelisk presented to America, to.
gether with its mate, stood as guardian
deities, before the grand entrance of the
Temple of the Sun at On. They were
symbols of the rays of the rising sun, as
the pyramids to the westward were of