DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.33567#0144
6o
Nile and pyramids only on the west bank, the one has been regarded as allegorical of the rising, as the
other is of the setting sun, aptly representing the living and the departed monarchs.
The sacred character of the obelisk is proven by its invariable association with the Egyptian temples.
In this respect the obelisk and sphinx are alike. The temples were not complete without them, yet
they formed no part of the temple ; they were exterior accessories—a part of the system of Egyptian
architecture as it embodies the profound thought of the Egyptian religion. This association of the
obelisk and sphinx leads naturally to another conclusion as to their significance. The sphinx is believed
to have been designed to represent the highest development of physical and intellectual force, the body
of a lion, combining activity, grace, and strength, with the head of a man, the most intellectual of
created beings. The obelisk is believed to represent the most essential and mysterious power of
nature,—that of re-production.
In the museum of the Louvre, in Paris, there is a series of engraved scarabee that tend to confirm
this view. The gradual development from the original to the existing form of an obelisk, through the
earlier periods of Egyptian progress from barbarism to civilization, is clearly shown.
The obelisk seems to have been the special representative of the king and sovereign pontiff in
Egyptian sacred architecture. On the shaft are engraved his titles, a record of his victories, and an
assertion of his supreme power over the lives and property of his subjects. On the surmounting
pyramidion are representatives of the gods conferring these titles and powers on the king, who is
frequently represented as a sphinx. Every thing tends to associate the obelisk with king-worship as
its material purpose, and with the power of generation and re-creation as its symbolic meaning.
The obelisk is not exclusively Egyptian. Essentially the same form is found in Assyria, Persia,
and India, and even in America, although not well enough defined in the latter to be beyond question.
Bononi and others have identified the idol which Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego declined to
worship as an obelisk. " It was not only a representative of the divinity of the sovereign himself,
but bore idolatrous emblems. To bow to it was an acknowledgment of the false gods and a
recognition of Nebuchadnezzar as a god. * * * Captain Selby found near Babylon, on the ' Waste,
of Dura/ the remains of a pyramidal column, which some identify as the image once covered with
gold." i The proportions are those of an obelisk.
Obelisks represent in Egyptian sacred architecture exactly the same idea as church towers with
surmounting steeples represent in that of to-day. The tower corresponds to the shaft of the obelisk, the
steeple to the pyramidion. The form and proportions are different because modified by the fancy of
man through centuries ; but it is a striking fact that if these relics of the distant past are traced through
their modifications we return to the obelisk. The position with reference to the temple or church is
identical ; and while it is customary at the present time to place but one steeple on churches, the two
towers are preserved, and stand, as did obelisks in Egyptian architecture, one on each side of the
entrance to the sanctuary of the temple or church, of which they form an essential part.
The material of which obelisks were made, red syenite, may have had a symbolic reference to the
color of the sun s rays as seen by the Egyptians through the hazy atmosphere that pervades the valley
of the Nile. Red syenite was also the hardest substance available for making them ; and this was
chosen from the quarries of Syene, where there is a stratum unequalled for its uniformity and freedom
from cracks and veins of foreign matter, thereby enabling the architect to set no limit to the dimensions
save that necessary for safety of removal and transport.
FORM.
An obelisk is a monolithic quadrilateral shaft terminating in a pyramidion. The proportions are
not fixed ; they vary even in those erected in one reign. The size and proportions were probably
* Bonwick, p. 300.
Nile and pyramids only on the west bank, the one has been regarded as allegorical of the rising, as the
other is of the setting sun, aptly representing the living and the departed monarchs.
The sacred character of the obelisk is proven by its invariable association with the Egyptian temples.
In this respect the obelisk and sphinx are alike. The temples were not complete without them, yet
they formed no part of the temple ; they were exterior accessories—a part of the system of Egyptian
architecture as it embodies the profound thought of the Egyptian religion. This association of the
obelisk and sphinx leads naturally to another conclusion as to their significance. The sphinx is believed
to have been designed to represent the highest development of physical and intellectual force, the body
of a lion, combining activity, grace, and strength, with the head of a man, the most intellectual of
created beings. The obelisk is believed to represent the most essential and mysterious power of
nature,—that of re-production.
In the museum of the Louvre, in Paris, there is a series of engraved scarabee that tend to confirm
this view. The gradual development from the original to the existing form of an obelisk, through the
earlier periods of Egyptian progress from barbarism to civilization, is clearly shown.
The obelisk seems to have been the special representative of the king and sovereign pontiff in
Egyptian sacred architecture. On the shaft are engraved his titles, a record of his victories, and an
assertion of his supreme power over the lives and property of his subjects. On the surmounting
pyramidion are representatives of the gods conferring these titles and powers on the king, who is
frequently represented as a sphinx. Every thing tends to associate the obelisk with king-worship as
its material purpose, and with the power of generation and re-creation as its symbolic meaning.
The obelisk is not exclusively Egyptian. Essentially the same form is found in Assyria, Persia,
and India, and even in America, although not well enough defined in the latter to be beyond question.
Bononi and others have identified the idol which Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego declined to
worship as an obelisk. " It was not only a representative of the divinity of the sovereign himself,
but bore idolatrous emblems. To bow to it was an acknowledgment of the false gods and a
recognition of Nebuchadnezzar as a god. * * * Captain Selby found near Babylon, on the ' Waste,
of Dura/ the remains of a pyramidal column, which some identify as the image once covered with
gold." i The proportions are those of an obelisk.
Obelisks represent in Egyptian sacred architecture exactly the same idea as church towers with
surmounting steeples represent in that of to-day. The tower corresponds to the shaft of the obelisk, the
steeple to the pyramidion. The form and proportions are different because modified by the fancy of
man through centuries ; but it is a striking fact that if these relics of the distant past are traced through
their modifications we return to the obelisk. The position with reference to the temple or church is
identical ; and while it is customary at the present time to place but one steeple on churches, the two
towers are preserved, and stand, as did obelisks in Egyptian architecture, one on each side of the
entrance to the sanctuary of the temple or church, of which they form an essential part.
The material of which obelisks were made, red syenite, may have had a symbolic reference to the
color of the sun s rays as seen by the Egyptians through the hazy atmosphere that pervades the valley
of the Nile. Red syenite was also the hardest substance available for making them ; and this was
chosen from the quarries of Syene, where there is a stratum unequalled for its uniformity and freedom
from cracks and veins of foreign matter, thereby enabling the architect to set no limit to the dimensions
save that necessary for safety of removal and transport.
FORM.
An obelisk is a monolithic quadrilateral shaft terminating in a pyramidion. The proportions are
not fixed ; they vary even in those erected in one reign. The size and proportions were probably
* Bonwick, p. 300.