The London Obelisk, as the monument standing on the Thames Embankment is now called, is by far the largest quarried stone in England; and the mysterious-looking characters covering its four faces were carved by workmen who were contemporaries of Moses and the Israelites during the time of the Egyptian Bondage. It was set up before the great temple of the sun at Heliopolis about 1450 B.C. , by Thothmes III., who also caused to be carved the central columns of hieroglyphs on its four sides. The ei

The Religious Character of the Ancient Egyptians. Standing some time ago on the top of the great pyramid, the present writer gazed with wonder at the wide prospect around. Above Cairo the Nile Valley is hemmed in on both sides by limestone ridges, which form barriers between the fertile fields and the barren wastes on either side; and on the limestone ridge by the edge of the great western desert stand the pyramids of Egypt. Looking forth from the summit of the pyramid of Cheops eastwards, the N

Obelisks, and the Obelisk Family. An obelisk is a single upright stone with four sides slightly inclined towards each other. It generally stands upon a square base or pedestal, also a single stone. The pedestal itself is often supported upon two broad, deep steps. The top of the obelisk resembles a small pyramid, called a pyramidion, the sides of which are generally inclined at an angle of sixty degrees. The obelisks of the Pharaohs are made of red granite called Syenite. In the quarries at Syen

The Largest Stones of the World. It is interesting to compare the obelisk on the Embankment with the other large stones of the world; stones, of course, that have been quarried and utilized by man. Of this kind, the largest in England are the blocks at Stonehenge. The biggest weighs about eighteen tons, and is raised up twenty-five feet, resting, as it does, on two upright stones. These were probably used for religious purposes, and their bulk has excited in all ages the wonder of this nation. T

The London Obelisk. Seven hundred miles up the Nile beyond Cairo, on the frontiers of Nubia, is the town of Syene or Assouan. In the neighbourhood are the renowned quarries of red granite called Syenite or Syenitic stone. The place is under the tropic of Cancer, and was the spot fixed upon through which the ancients drew the chief parallel of latitude, and therefore Syene was an important place in the early days of astronomy. The sun was of course vertical to Syene at the summer solstice, and a

How the Hieroglyphic Language was Recovered. On the triumph of Christianity, the idolatrous religion of the ancient Egyptians was regarded with pious abhorrence, and so in course of time the hieroglyphics became neglected and forgotten. Thus for fifteen centuries the hieroglyphic inscriptions that cover tombs, temples, and obelisks were regarded as unmeaning characters. Thousands of travellers traversed the land of Egypt, and yet they never took the trouble to copy with accuracy a single line of

The Interpretation of Hieroglyphics. Hieroglyphs or hieroglyphics, literally “sacred sculptures,” is the term applied to those written characters by means of which the ancient Egyptians expressed their thoughts. Hieroglyphs are usually pictures of external objects, such as the sun, moon, stars, plants, animals, man, the members of man’s body, and various other objects. They may be arranged in four classes. First. Representational , iconographic , or mimic hieroglyphs, in which case each hierogly

Thothmes III. Thothmes III. is generally regarded as the greatest of the kings of Egypt—the Alexander the Great of Egyptian history. The name Thothmes means “child of Thoth,” and was a common name among the ancient Egyptians. On the pyramidion of the obelisk he is represented by a sphinx presenting gifts of water and wine to Tum, the setting sun, a solar deity worshipped at Heliopolis. On the hieroglyphic paintings at Karnak, the fact of the heliacal rising of Sothis, the dog-star, is stated to

The Hieroglyphics of Thothmes III. Translation of the First Side. “The Horus, powerful Bull, crowned in Uas, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, ‘Ra-men-Kheper.’ He has made as it were monuments to his father Haremakhu; he has set up two great obelisks capped with gold at the first festival of Triakonteris. According to his wish he has done it, Son of the Sun, Thothmes, beloved of Haremakhu, ever-living.” Hawk ( bak ) Horus . Horus is a solar deity, and represented the rising sun, or the sun in the h

The Hieroglyphics of Thothmes III. Translation of the Second Side. “Horus, the powerful Bull, crowned by Truth, Lord of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper. The Lord of the Gods has multiplied Festivals to him upon the great Persea Tree within the Temple of the Phœnix; he is known as his son—a divine person, his limbs issuing in all places according to his wish. Son of the Sun, Thothmes, of Holy An, beloved of Haremakhu.” Seated Figure ( Ma ) goddess of Truth . She was called Thmei or Ma, and w

The Hieroglyphics of Thothmes III. Translation of the Third Side. “Horus, powerful Bull, beloved of Ra, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper. His father Tum has set up for him a great name, with increase of royalty, in the precincts of Heliopolis, giving him the throne of Seb, the dignity of Kheper, Son of the Sun, Thothmes, the Holy, the Just, beloved of the Bennu of An, ever-living.” The first part of the inscription, namely, “Horus, powerful bull, beloved of Ra, king of Upper and Lowe

The Hieroglyphics of Thothmes III. Translation of the Fourth Side. “Horus, beloved of Osiris, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper, making offerings, beloved of the gods, supplying the altar of the three Spirits of Heliopolis, with a sound life hundreds of thousands of festivals of thirty years, very many; Son of the Sun, Thothmes, divine Ruler, beloved of Haremakhu, ever-living.” The first part of the inscription, “Horus, beloved of Osiris, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-men-Kheper,”

Rameses II. The lateral columns of hieroglyphics on the London Obelisk are the work of Rameses II., who lived about two centuries after Thothmes III., and ascended the throne about 1300 B.C. Rameses II. was the third king of the XIXth dynasty; and for personal exploits, the magnificence of his works, and the length of his reign, he was not surpassed by any of the kings of ancient Egypt, except by Thothmes III. His grandfather, Rameses I., was the founder of the dynasty. His father, Seti I., is c

The Hieroglyphics of Rameses II. First side.—Right hand. “Horus, powerful bull, son of Tum, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Ra-user-ma-sotep-en-Ra, lord of kingly and queenly royalty, guardian of Kham (Egypt), chastiser of foreign lands, son of the sun, Ra-meri-Amen, dragging the foreigners of southern nations to the Great Sea, the foreigners of northern nations to the four poles of heaven, lord of the two countries, Ra-user-ma-sotep-en-Ra, son of the sun, Ra-mes-su-men-Amen, giver of life like t

The Recent Discovery of the Mummies of Thothmes III. and Rameses II. at Deir-el-Bahari. In Cairo, at the Boolak Museum, there is a vast collection of Egyptian antiquities, even more valuable than the collections to be seen at the British Museum, and at the Louvre, Paris. The precious treasures of the Boolak Museum were for the most part collected through the indefatigable labours of the late Mariette Bey. Since his death the charge of the Museum has been entrusted to the two well-known Egyptolog