Il8 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



greatest of the Romans ; of the woman, finally, 

 whom we can reproach only with the sallies of a 

 passion, not easily restrained in an ardent soul, and 

 under a burning sky, at which the graces disdain 

 not to smile, and which nature does not disavow. 



One of Cleopatra's needles is still upright on its 

 base; the other is thrown down, and almost entirely 

 buried in the sand. The former shews what the 

 hand of man can do against time ; the latter, what 

 time can do against the efforts of man. I had it 

 not in my power to take their dimensions ; but an 

 ancient French traveller, who seems to have mea- 

 sured them with extreme accuracy, assures us that 

 their height is fifty-eight feet six inches, and the 

 breadth of each face of their base seven feet *. 

 They are each cut out of a single block of granite, 

 and charged on each side with hieroglyphical cha- 

 racters. The first figure of plate I. represents that 

 one of the two needles which is standing, viewed 

 from the north. The impression of the hierogly- 

 phics was still very distinct on the faces of this nee- 

 dle, and might be easily decyphered, except those 

 which look eastward, for these are entirely effaced. 



Adjoining to those obelisks stood the palace of 

 the Egyptian kings. Superb vestiges are still dis- 

 cernible of its grandeur and magnificence. They 



* Travels of M. de Monconys, 1695, vol. i. p, 307. 



4 are 



