CHAP. XXXV THE LARGEST OBELISK 413 



Standing. This I judged to be 55 feet high ; at the 

 base it measured 105 by 45 inches. The whole of the 

 front and sides are carved, the lower portion to re- 

 present a door, and above it storey upon storey, as of a 

 high tower. The back is plain, except at the extreme 

 top. Formerly, and even so late as the days of Rtippell 

 (1832), there stood immediately behind it, forming 

 a splendid background for the monument, a giant 

 sycamore, which has unfortunately disappeared. At 

 the base of the obelisk is an altar, with the surface worn 

 nearly flat, except for four deeply sunk holes, in one of 

 which a woman was pounding some condiment. Near 

 by is another altar, lying no longer horizontally but 

 tilted at an ang^le, on which are cut four shallow basins 

 in the same position as the deep holes on the first altar. 

 The latter, I have little doubt, were originally as shallow, 

 and have been deepened by centuries of pounding. On 

 these altars were slaughtered the sacrificial victims, 

 when Axum was in the height of its power and one of 

 the richest cities in the world. ?^Iany more fallen 

 obelisks lie around, some of which, to judge by their 

 fragments, must have been considerably taller than the 

 largest now standing; over one has been built a house and 

 wall. All the highly decorated columns apparently had 

 a plate of metal attached to the face of the extreme top ; 

 and it is just possible that among those which have fallen 

 one of these might yet be found. Rtippell imagined, 

 from the form of the bolt-marks, which are still plainly 

 visible, that the object attached to the top had been a 

 crucifix ; and on this purely fanciful conjecture he bases 

 a theory as to the age of these monuments, which is not 



