File:Handbook of archaeology, Egyptian - Greek - Etruscan - Roman (1867) (14778111971).jpg

Identifier: handbookofarchae00west (find matches)
Title: Handbook of archaeology, Egyptian - Greek - Etruscan - Roman
Year: 1867 (1860s)
Authors: Westropp, Hodder M. (Hodder Michael), -1884
Subjects: Art, Ancient Archaeology
Publisher: London, Bell and Daldy
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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her in Egypt or elsewhere. The largest obeliskknown is that of St. John Lateran, Rome. It was brought fromHeliopolis by the emperor Constantine, and was afterwards erectedin the Circus Maximus by his son Constantius. The height of theshaft is 105 feet 7 inches. The sides are of unequal breadth at thebase, two measure 9 feet Sh inches, the other two only 9 feet. Itbears the name of Thotmes III., in the central, and that of Thotmes IV.in the lateral lines, kings of the eighteenth dynasty, in the fifteenth 54 HANDBOOK OF ARCHAEOLOGY. century, B.C. The two obelisks at Luxor were erected by the kingBarneses II., of the nineteenth oVynasty, 1311 B.C. (Wilkinson). Oneof these has been taken to Paris. The obelisk of Heliopolis bears thename of Osirtasen I., 2020 B.C. (Wilkinson), and is consequently themost ancient. It is about 62 feet high. The obelisks at Alexandria,called Cleopatras Needles, are supposed to have been brought fromHeliopolis. They bear the name of Thotmes III. In the lateral
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OBELTSK AT HELIOPOLIS. lines are the ovals of Barneses the Great. They are of red granite ofSyene. One is still standing, the other has been thrown down. Thestanding obelisk is about 70 feet high, with a diameter at its base of7 feet 7 inches. The obelisk of the Piazza del Popolo claims greaterinterest, as it once stood before the temple of the Sun at Heliopolis.Lepsius attributes it to Meneptha. It was removed to Borne byAugustus. There are several other Egyptian obelisks in Borne.Nothing can afford a greater idea of the skill of the Egyptians, andof their wonderful knowledge of mechanism, than the erection ofthese monoliths. OBELISKS. 55 Greek.—The Greeks never made obelisks out of Egypt. TheMacedonian kings, or Ptolemies, who reigned in that country, fromAlexander to Augustus, erected, terminated, or enlarged many monu-ments, but always according to Egyptian rules. Egyptian artistsexecuted obelisks for their Greek princes, but they did not depart,no more than in the other monumen

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