REMOVAL OF CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE TO NEW VORK. 13 
most critical operation is obvious, and its difficulty is illustrated by an anecdote 
related by Pliny: Rameses erected one obelisk 140 cubits high and of prodigious 
thickness. It is said 12,000 men were employed on the work. To insure the 
safety of the operation by the extremest skill of the architect, he had his own son 
fastened to the summit while it was raised. 
As to the tools used in carving the granite we know nothing. Hardly any 
iron tools have been preserved among the relics of the tombs. With what mate- 
rial did the Egyptians sculpture with such refined delicacy and exquisite sharpness 
the mouth, eyes, ears, and other features of their statues, and the sharp contours 
of their hieroglyphs? We are possessed of no process by which brass may be 
sufficiently hardened for the purpose. Could they have softened the surface by — 
some chemical operation on the harder elements of the stones? No one has as 
yet been able to inform us, and the secret mystery of the execution of the Egypt- 
ian sculpture still excites our wonder and admiration. 
The positions of obelisks were before the gigantic pylons which formed the 
entrance gateways to the fore courts of their temples, and they were without 
exception always in pairs. At Karnac the situation of the two lofty ones erected 
by Queen Hatsou (one of which still stands, and is 108 feet 6 inches high, the 
tallest known) was between two lofty pylons only forty to fifty feet apart. Those 
in front of the outer pylon are not so distant in advance of it. Consequently the 
Egyptians disregarded the immediate proximity of a high wall backing them up, 
and none are known situated in wide open spaces. ‘The sacred way led up from 
the river, flanked on eath side with variously headed sphinxes. At Karnac the 
dromos is one mile and one-third long, with a line of sphinxes on each side... Ap- 
proaching nearer, the worshipper finds two obelisks on the right and left, not 
necessarily of the.same height. At Luxor one is seven or eight feet higher than 
the other, and to diminish the disparity in size, the shorter one is raised on a lofty 
pedestal and brought some feet in advance of its companion. Attached to the 
face of the pylon are six gigantic sitting statues of kings, majestic in size, and 
seated in the hieratic posture. The pylon itself, perhaps 200 feet wide and too 
feet high, forms the background of the whole, crowned by its cavetto cornice, and 
its surface covered with the colored sculptures of the victorious Rameses in his 
chariot, with upraised arm, slaying his enemies, trampling them under his horses’ 
hoofs, and alone dispersing them in flight. In the center of the structure is the 
: portal, 56 feet high, through which.the sacred or triumphal procession passe 
all its gorgeousness to within the sacred precincts, there to observe the ritual 
ceremonies of the mysterious Egyptian cult of one or more of their eight great 
divinities or animal gods. Erasmus Wilson, in his book entitled ‘‘Cleopatra’s 
Needle” (p. 178), enumerates the existing obelisks as follows: Rome, 12; Italy, 
in addition, 4; Egypt, 6; Constantinople, 2; France, 2; England, 6; Germany, 1 
For nearly 2,000 years there have stood on the shores of the Levant, 
near Alexandria, two obelisks of rose-colored granite known as ‘‘Cleopatra’s Nee 
dies.” We are told by Egyptologists that they were taken from the quarries at 
