Chap. 16.] MARVELLOUS W01IKS 15 EGT1T. 335 



doused and agglomerated, and so prevent tho shadow of the 

 upcx itself from running to u fine point of enormous extent ; 

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

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

 thirty years, however, the observation* 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, 1 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 1 - obelisk 13 at Home is in the Vaticnnian 1 * 

 Circus, which was constructed by the Emperors Caius 16 and Xero ; 

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

 the carriage. Nuncoreus, 1 * the sou of Sesoscs, made it: and 

 there remains 17 another by him, one hundred cubits in height, 

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

 having lost his sight and recovered it. 



CHAP. 1G. (12.) MAUVKLLOUS WORKS IN EGYPT. THE PY11AMIDS. 



AVe must make some mention, too, however cursorily, of the 

 Pyramids of Egypt, so imuy idle 1 * and frivolous pieces of 

 ostentation of their resources, on the part of the mouarchs 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 



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

 andria by Caligula. 



13 This obi-link was transferred by Pope Sextus V. from the Circus Yati- 

 canus to the place of the Cathedral of St. IVter. 



11 So calk-J because it was laid out on some gardens which had be- 

 longed to one Vaticumis. 16 Caligula. 



10 There are nine 01 ten readings of this intine. Tlunsen suggests '*Me- 

 nophtheus," the Egyptian king Meneph-Pthah. 17 In Egypt, probably. 



18 Ajasion thinks that they were iut ndcd us plaees of sepulture lor the 

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



