Obeliscus
（
ὀβελίσκος). Literally, a small spit, diminutive of
ὀβελός; whence applied to other things which possess a
sharp or pointed extremity, like a spit; and especially to the tall, slender, rectangular
columns, upon a narrow base, and terminating in a point at the top, which were originally
invented by the Egyptians, and retain their ancient name with us (Pliny ,
Pliny H. N. xxxvi. 13;
Ammian. xvii. 4, 6). The obelisk served in Egyptian art the same purpose as the
στήλη of the Greeks and the
columna of
the Romans, marking the triumphs or the honours of some prince. They are monoliths, cut in
four faces, and are broader at the base than at the top, near which the sides form the base of
a pyramid in which the obelisk terminates. The sides are very slightly concave, in order to
increase the impression of height, which varies from 25 1/2 inches to a hundred feet. Upon
them are usually cut inscriptions in hieroglyphics and pictures recording the names and titles
of kings. They were transported in rafts from their quarries at the time
of the inundation of the Nile, and raised by means of inclined planes aided by machinery. Some
of the obelisks give evidences of having originally had their tips covered with gilded bronze
or gold. The use of obelisks antedates history, and has continued to modern times. Most of the
Egyptian obelisks date from the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties
(B.C.
1800-1300). The most famous two once stood at Heliopolis, whence they were brought by
Rameses II. to Alexandria. These are the ones
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Ancient Obelisk.
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popularly known as “Cleopatra 's Needles,” of which one was
taken to London in 1878 and set up on the Thames Embankment, and the other to New York in
1881, where it is now one of the ornaments of Central Park. There are several at
Rome—in the Piazza della Trinità, the Piazza di Monte Citorio, the Piazza
del Quirinale, the Piazza dell' Esquilino, the Piazza della Minerva, the Circo Agonale (Piazza
Navona), the Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano, the Piazza del Popolo, and the Piazza di San
Pietro, and others of no historical importance. The last named was brought from
Heliopolis by Caligula, and is the only one at Rome that has never been broken. Its height is
132 feet. There are also ancient obelisks at Florence, Constantinople, Arles, Catana, and
Paris, and one (Lepsius's) at Berlin, this being at once the oldest and the smallest of all,
having a height of only 2 feet 1 1/2 inches. Of these small obelisks other specimens are to be
seen in various European museums. No ancient obelisk ever attained the height of the modern
American obelisk at Washington, though this, of course, is not a monolith. See Birch,
Notes upon Obelisks (London, 1853); and Gorringe,
Egyptian Obelisks (New York, 1885).
