Study of the New York Obelisk as a Decayed Boulder. Ill 



pictures of the S.S.W. and W.X.W. faces' of the pyramidion, the 

 object of the king's worship is Atum-Ra, the God of the Setting 

 Sun, to whom the Sun Temple at An was specially dedicated, at 

 least during and after the Xllth dynasty, by the re-builder of the 

 sanctuary, Amenemhat I. In harmony, therefore, with the pur- 

 pose and custom of the sun-worship, the former two faces must 

 have been originally so placed, on the erection of this shaft at An, 

 as to have been lit by the rays of the rising sun, and the latter two, by 

 those of the setting sun. The similar pictures on the pyramidion 

 of the London Obelisk intimate that its faces were arranged in a 

 corresponding position. Indeed the same key to the position of 

 their faces is afforded by the similar pairs of pictures on the faces 

 of the pyramidia of several other obelisks. 



A more definite indication is probably shown in the position of 

 the faces of the present Obelisk of An, which probably stood in 

 front of the pylon of the Sun Temple, at a site more westerly than 

 that of the New York and London obelisks. As to this, Niebuhr 

 has noted that its angles are now directed to the S.S.E., N.N.W., 

 E.N.E., and W.S.W.^ Archaeologists, however, have pointed out 

 the evidences of a historical catastrophe, in earh'^ Egyptian history, 

 unrecorded in the inscriptions, during which, perhaps by a great 

 revolution or invasion, all the monuments, temples, and obelisks of 

 Lower Egypt were overturned ; some writers attribute it to inva- 

 ders, such as the Hykshos, 2398 B. C.^ Some of the monuments 

 have ever since lain prostrate, e.g., the stela of Begig of Userte- 

 sen I, in the Fayoura. Others, like this Obelisk of An and its 

 former companion, were afterwards re-erected by the Egyptians. 

 Their ancient low pedestals, consisting of a layer of sandstone 

 blocks, had been probably undisturbed, and probably guided their 

 re-adjustment in their former and proper position. The evidence 

 of this surviving obelisk on the site of An is therefore that the 

 front of the pylon, the fa(,'ade of the Sun Temple beyond, and the 

 corresponding western faces of all its six obelisks (if Niebuhr's 

 observation is exact), faced to about W.N.W., i. e., W. 22° N. 



We have evidence, in the ancient documents, of a ceremonial 

 attending the foundation of an Egyptian temple, which signified a 

 deliberate design as to the direction in which it was to be laid out; 



1 Moldenke, idem, 50 and 52. * Loug, idem, 316. 



' Cooper, idem, 17. 



