Study of the New York Obelisk as a Decayed Boulder. 127 



X. and W., or the N.W. and S.W.) were the ones in good preserva- 

 tion, and those of the E.N.E. and S.S.E. (usually called the E. and 

 S.) M^ere the ones badly decayed. 



As to the fallen (London) obelisk, whose base or pedestal prob- 

 ably still lies a few yards S.W. of the former site of the New York 

 Obelisk, two of its sides, ordinarily designated as fronting N. and 

 W.' at Alexandria, exhibit very good hieroglyphs, but its heel and 

 edges are battered. 



Cooper also states: "The apex is roughly cut and damaged, 

 having been covered, like most of the obelisks of Thothmes III, 

 with a bronze cap. . , . The base of the monument and its two 

 steps or gradu^s remain entire ; they are of limestone and are nearly 

 seven feet high. . . . Owing to the position in which it fell, the 

 monolith has been much exposed to injury, alike from the friction 

 of the sand and the corrosive action of the salts in the sea-breezes ; 

 indeed, the S. side has suffered most of all, the hieroglyphics being 

 in many places wholly illegible ; the E. face has also suffered 

 severely; the W. face and that which rests upon the ground have 

 been better preserved.''^ The following statement in regard to the 

 surface of the under side of this obelisk, in 1801, after five centuries' 

 partial burial in the sand, implies that the influence of this material, 

 even so near the seashore, has been for protection rather than cor- 

 rosion : "The Needle was likewise turned over, and the hiero- 

 glyphics, on the side it had so long lain on, found fresh and entire."* 



It will be readily seen, on reviewing these opinions, that there is 

 no agreement as to which were the faces of our Obelisk on which 

 the hieroglyphs were damaged. So unquestionable were the two 

 facts, the mysterious but serious efifacement of hieroglyphs on two 

 sides and the great difference of climate in the new home of the 

 Obelisk, that the passing traveller was often unable to accept the 

 evidence of his own eyes. However, it is equally be3^ond question 

 that it was the present E.S.E. and N.N.E. sides of our Obelisk and 

 the corresponding sides of its London fellow which bore the brunt 

 of attack by the sea-winds at Alexandria for nineteen centuries, 

 and that these are in excellent condition. The injury to the other 

 two sides must then have preceded the Roman transfer of the 

 monoliths from An. 



^ Gorringe, idem, 97, 108. 2 Cooper, idem, 125. 



3 Bombay Courier, .June 9, 1802. 



