AXUM. 
405 
publications. To these I have no corrections to make, and shall 
only remark, that, by a slight mistake of the engraver, the patera 
on the top of the obelisk in Lord Valentia's work is delineated as 
rather pointed, whereas it ought to have been round, as it is 
rightly represented in my larger views.* 
This highly wrought and very magnificent work of art, formed 
of a single block of granite and measuring full sixty feet in 
height, produced nearly as forcible an impression on my mind 
as on the first moment I beheld it, and I felt even more inclined 
to admire the consummate skill and ingenuity displayed in erect- 
ing so stupendous a work, owing to my having compared the 
design (during the interval which had elapsed since my former 
visit) with many of Egyptian, Grecian and Roman structure, a 
comparison which seemed to justify me in considering it as the 
most admirable and perfect monument of its kind. All its orna- 
ments are very boldly relieved, which, together with the hollow 
space running up the centre and the patera at top, give a light- 
ness and elegance to the whole form that is probably unrivalled. 
Several other obelisks lie broken on the ground, at no great dis- 
tance, one of which is of still larger dimensions. With respect to the 
antiquity of these monuments, I cannot speak with any degree 
of certainty, but I should conjecture that they could not have 
been erected prior to the time of the Ptolemies, as the order of the 
architecture is strictly Grecian and was, therefore, not likely to 
have been introduced at an earlier period. The tradition of the 
country ascribes them to the reign of the Emperor Acizana, 
* Vide also the vignette to this work, which represents a view of Axum from the north- 
-east. 
