NO. 6 



GREAT STONE MONUMENTS FEWKES 



21 



the same law as similar structures found in Asia, Europe, America, 

 and Polynesia. They are religious in nature or connected with wor- 

 ship and the cult of the dead. 



OBELISKS 



The most finished type of monolith is the obelisk, 1 a stone struc- 

 ture best represented in the valley of the Nile and adjacent terri- 

 tory. In architectural proportions the Egyptian obelisk is a perfect 

 monolith. Although from the early times transported by conquerors 







Fig. 12. — Monolith, Zimbabwe, Africa, from Bent. 



of Egypt to different localities in Europe and adopted throughout the 

 world as a commemorative or mortuary monument, the obelisk in its 

 present form originated in a narrow geographical area skirting the 

 Nile, in northeastern Africa. 



Hardly a civilized country can be mentioned where imitations of 

 Egyptian obelisks are not found. Essentially Egyptian in origin the 

 obelisk was copied by both Greeks and Romans, especially the latter, 



Egyptian Obelisks by Henry H. Gorringe, New York, 1882. This mono- 

 graph contains an exhaustive account of all known obelisks and a special 

 description, profusely illustrated, of the removal of Cleopatra's Needle from 

 Alexandria to New York ; also Erasmus Wilson, Cleopatra's Needle and 

 Egyptian Obelisks, London. 



