DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.33567#0258
144
copy of the hieroglyphs was preserved, and it is impossible to decide to which reign the shaft belonged.
Cooper conjectures that it is to be referred to the Saitic period,—the xxvi dynasty.
OBELISKS OF DRAH ABOU'L NEGGAH, THEBES.
In the necropolis of Drah Abou'l Neggah, on the western bank of the Nile at Thebes, were found
the mummy-cases of two kings named Antef or Entef, of the xi dynasty (B. C. 2423-2380, Lepsius),
which have been removed to Paris.
A small obelisk bearing the name of one of the Antefs of this dynasty was discovered here by
Mariette. Its height was not more than 3.5 metres, that is, less than eleven feet (Rawlinson).*
Villiers Stuart reports that in 1878 he discovered in this necropolis, close to the spot where the
mummy of Queen Ah-hotep had been found, two prostrate obelisks, each broken into several pieces."
On removing the sand in which they were buried he found them to be inscribed with well-
preserved hieroglyphs, which prove, as he says, that the two shafts were erected by a king Antef
of the xi dynasty. The plate which he gives shows one face of each. The inscriptions shown in this
plate are translated by him as follows : on one obelisk, " The crowned Horus, sovereign of the moun-
tain-lands, perfected of god, son of the Sun, granted life forevermore " ; on the other obelisk, " Noub-
Kafer-Ra, perfect of god, made for himself good and splendid temples." No dimensions are given for
these shafts.
These obelisks of Drah Abou'l Neggah, if accepted as belonging to the xi dynasty, are the most
ancient of all known obelisks, with the single exception of the small example found by Lepsius.
* Rawlinson, " Egypt," vol. ii, p. 148. Mariette, " Monuments Divers," pi. 50, a.
" Villiers Stuart, " Nile Gleanings," p. 273.
copy of the hieroglyphs was preserved, and it is impossible to decide to which reign the shaft belonged.
Cooper conjectures that it is to be referred to the Saitic period,—the xxvi dynasty.
OBELISKS OF DRAH ABOU'L NEGGAH, THEBES.
In the necropolis of Drah Abou'l Neggah, on the western bank of the Nile at Thebes, were found
the mummy-cases of two kings named Antef or Entef, of the xi dynasty (B. C. 2423-2380, Lepsius),
which have been removed to Paris.
A small obelisk bearing the name of one of the Antefs of this dynasty was discovered here by
Mariette. Its height was not more than 3.5 metres, that is, less than eleven feet (Rawlinson).*
Villiers Stuart reports that in 1878 he discovered in this necropolis, close to the spot where the
mummy of Queen Ah-hotep had been found, two prostrate obelisks, each broken into several pieces."
On removing the sand in which they were buried he found them to be inscribed with well-
preserved hieroglyphs, which prove, as he says, that the two shafts were erected by a king Antef
of the xi dynasty. The plate which he gives shows one face of each. The inscriptions shown in this
plate are translated by him as follows : on one obelisk, " The crowned Horus, sovereign of the moun-
tain-lands, perfected of god, son of the Sun, granted life forevermore " ; on the other obelisk, " Noub-
Kafer-Ra, perfect of god, made for himself good and splendid temples." No dimensions are given for
these shafts.
These obelisks of Drah Abou'l Neggah, if accepted as belonging to the xi dynasty, are the most
ancient of all known obelisks, with the single exception of the small example found by Lepsius.
* Rawlinson, " Egypt," vol. ii, p. 148. Mariette, " Monuments Divers," pi. 50, a.
" Villiers Stuart, " Nile Gleanings," p. 273.