DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9059#0097
Pharaoh's needles.
91
little more that sixty-six English feet high. For-
merly a casing of copper, of pyramidal form,
covered its point, which still existed in the time
of Abd-el-Latyf.*
A second obelisk completed with this one the
decoration of the principal frontage of the temple,
for which these two monoliths had been erected;
but it was already fallen down and broken in
two in the days of the Arabian historian we
have just named,f and now it has entirely dis-
appeared. J
* An Arab doctor of Bagdad who visited Egypt about
A.D. 1190.
t This is the passage from Abd-el-Latyf : " It is in this
city that are found the two famous obelisks called
Pharaoh's two needles. These obelisks consist of a square
base, six cubits long and six cubits wide, and of about the
same height, resting firmly on its foundation. Above this
base rises a square column of pyramidal form. ... Its
summit is covered with a sort of funnel-shaped casing
of copper, which descends about three cubits from the
top. This copper, from the effects of rain and the lapse'
of years, has rusted and turned green, and this green
rust has discolored the shaft of the obelisk. Its entire
surface is covered with the sort of writing of which we
have been speaking. I noticed that one of these obelisks
had fallen down, and by the enormity of its own weight
was broken in two ; the copper which covered its sum-
mit had been removed."
i Two other obelisks were set up in Heliopolis about
1650 B.C. by Thothmes ELL, and were removed to Alex-
91
little more that sixty-six English feet high. For-
merly a casing of copper, of pyramidal form,
covered its point, which still existed in the time
of Abd-el-Latyf.*
A second obelisk completed with this one the
decoration of the principal frontage of the temple,
for which these two monoliths had been erected;
but it was already fallen down and broken in
two in the days of the Arabian historian we
have just named,f and now it has entirely dis-
appeared. J
* An Arab doctor of Bagdad who visited Egypt about
A.D. 1190.
t This is the passage from Abd-el-Latyf : " It is in this
city that are found the two famous obelisks called
Pharaoh's two needles. These obelisks consist of a square
base, six cubits long and six cubits wide, and of about the
same height, resting firmly on its foundation. Above this
base rises a square column of pyramidal form. ... Its
summit is covered with a sort of funnel-shaped casing
of copper, which descends about three cubits from the
top. This copper, from the effects of rain and the lapse'
of years, has rusted and turned green, and this green
rust has discolored the shaft of the obelisk. Its entire
surface is covered with the sort of writing of which we
have been speaking. I noticed that one of these obelisks
had fallen down, and by the enormity of its own weight
was broken in two ; the copper which covered its sum-
mit had been removed."
i Two other obelisks were set up in Heliopolis about
1650 B.C. by Thothmes ELL, and were removed to Alex-