DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4669#0104
8o THE LAND OF THE MONUMENTS
and obelisk thus united arc emblematical of life and
death, or of life issuing forth from death."
An obelisk consists of a long shaft of a single stone
with square sides, often slightly rising towards the
centre, and varying in height from seven feet to
upwards of one hundred feet. The width of the sides
varies in like manner from nine feet, more or less, in
the lofty ones, to nine inches in the small example.
By cutting each of the four sides at the top at the same
angle, a point or small pyramid called "the pyra-
midion " was produced. This was occasionally sculp-
tured, but more frequently capped with metal, gold,
bronze, or copper; and in the latter frequently gilded.
The obelisk at Hcliopolis retained its metal cap at the
time of the visit of Abd-el-Latif, the Arab traveller,
A.D. 1200. The inscriptions cut upon these votive
offerings to Ra recorded the name of the king by
whom they were erected, and the special festival or
occasion they commemorated. These inscriptions
were sometimes gilded, and thus from the various
metallic glittering surfaces, and the highly polished
granite shaft, a brilliance was always observable in
that land of sunshine, reminding the beholders of the
sunbeam, of which the obelisk was the representation.
" Who fills 1 [eliopolis with obelisks to illuminate with
rays the Temple of the Sun." ' The obelisk is said to
have served as a kind of heraldic sentinel, guarding
the entrance to the temple, and at the same time pro-
claiming its history, and possibly that also of the
Pharaoh who caused it to be erected.
A very extraordinary difference exists in the records
of the amount of time occupied in the cutting and
erecting of two loft}' obelisks. That in front of the
* Inscription of Seti I.
and obelisk thus united arc emblematical of life and
death, or of life issuing forth from death."
An obelisk consists of a long shaft of a single stone
with square sides, often slightly rising towards the
centre, and varying in height from seven feet to
upwards of one hundred feet. The width of the sides
varies in like manner from nine feet, more or less, in
the lofty ones, to nine inches in the small example.
By cutting each of the four sides at the top at the same
angle, a point or small pyramid called "the pyra-
midion " was produced. This was occasionally sculp-
tured, but more frequently capped with metal, gold,
bronze, or copper; and in the latter frequently gilded.
The obelisk at Hcliopolis retained its metal cap at the
time of the visit of Abd-el-Latif, the Arab traveller,
A.D. 1200. The inscriptions cut upon these votive
offerings to Ra recorded the name of the king by
whom they were erected, and the special festival or
occasion they commemorated. These inscriptions
were sometimes gilded, and thus from the various
metallic glittering surfaces, and the highly polished
granite shaft, a brilliance was always observable in
that land of sunshine, reminding the beholders of the
sunbeam, of which the obelisk was the representation.
" Who fills 1 [eliopolis with obelisks to illuminate with
rays the Temple of the Sun." ' The obelisk is said to
have served as a kind of heraldic sentinel, guarding
the entrance to the temple, and at the same time pro-
claiming its history, and possibly that also of the
Pharaoh who caused it to be erected.
A very extraordinary difference exists in the records
of the amount of time occupied in the cutting and
erecting of two loft}' obelisks. That in front of the
* Inscription of Seti I.