Chap. 16.] MAEVELLOUS WOEKS IN EGIPT. 335 



deiised and agglomerated, aud so prevent the shadow of the 

 apex itself from running to a fine point of enormous extent ; 

 the plan being first suggested to him, it is said, by the shadow 

 that is projected by the human head. For nearly the last 

 thirty years, however, the observations derived from this dial 

 have been found not to agree : whether it is that the sun 

 itself has changed its course in consequence of some derange- 

 ment of the heavenly system; or whether that the whole 

 earth has been in some degree displaced from its centre, a 

 thing that, I have heard say, has been remarked in other places 

 as well ; or whether that some earthquake, confined to this . 

 city only, has wrenched the dial from its original position ; or 

 whether it is that in consequence of the inundations of the 

 Tiber, the foundations of the mass have subsided, in spite of 

 the general assertion that they are sunk as deep into the earth 

 as the obelisk erected upon them is high. 



(11.) The third *^ obelisk ^^ at Eome is in the Vaticanian^* 

 Circus, which was constructed by the Emperors Caius^^ and I^ero ; 

 this being the only one of them all that has been broken in 

 the carriage. Nuncoreus,^^ the son of Sesoses, made it : and 

 there remains^^ another by him, one hundred cubits in height, 

 which, by order of an oracle, he consecrated to the Sun, after 

 having lost his sight and recovered it. 



CHAP. 16. (12.) — MAKVELLOUS WOKKS IN EGYPT. THE PYRAMIDS. 



"We must make some mention, too, however cursorily, of the 

 Pyramids of Egypt, so many idle^^ and frivolous pieces of 

 ostentation of their resources, on the part of the monarchs of 

 that country. Indeed, it is asserted by most persons, that the 

 only motive for constructing them, was either a determination 

 not to leave their treasures to their successors or to rivals that 



^2 The one that is mentioned above as having been removed from Alex- 

 I andriaby Caligula. 



I ^3 Tliis obelisk was transferred by Pope Sextus V. from the Circus Vati- 

 ; canus to the place of the Cathedral of St. Peter. 



^^ So called because it was laid out on some gardens which had be- 

 longed to one Vaticanus. i^ Caligula. 



1^ There are nine or ten readings of this name. Bunsen suggests "Me- 

 nophtheus," the Egyptian king Meneph-Pthah. ^"^ In Egypt, probably. 

 ^^ Ajasson thinks that they were intended as places of sepulture for the 

 kings, but for the concealment, also, of their treasures. 



