THE OLDEST MONOLITH 



401 



we came in view of thie first monolith, a rouorhlv hewn 

 shaft of granite measuring some 24 to 30 feet in height, 

 with flat sides of 36 by 22 inches, and a rounded top.^ 

 This is the only one left standing of a whole group which 

 once fringed the foot of the 

 eastern hill ; the rest are 

 lying prostrate on the ground. 

 It is entirely plain and without 

 a vestige of sculpture. 



About a hundred yards to 

 the south-west stands the 

 upright stone with the cele- 

 brated bilingual inscription of 

 King Aeizanas, first correctly 

 described by Salt. It prob- 

 ably dates from about the be- 

 ginning of the fourth century 

 of our era, and bears on one 

 side a Greek and on the other 

 a Semitic inscription. It is 



about seven feet high, from three to three and a half broad, 

 and on an averaq-e about eiQ:ht inches in thickness. For 

 some reason, probably connected with the nature of the 

 soil, the stone has fallen out of the perpendicular and 

 inclines considerably to the northward, owing to which 

 the Semitic inscription on the south side has suffered so 

 much from exposure to the weather that the greater 

 part is now obliterated. The same cause, however, has 



The Oldest Monolith, Axum. 



^ I am aware that Mr. Theodore Bent, in his interesting book, The Sacred City 

 ■of the Ethiopians, to which I refer again in the course of this chapter, describes this 

 obelisk as pointed, but I must differ from him, as will appear from the photograph. 



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