THE OLDEST OBELISk.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3139, 11 March 1879, Page 2

THE OLDEST OBELISk.

Next after the greatest, it may be in order to notice the oldest of the existing obelisks. This is the one dose to the modern village of Matareeah, or the site of Heliopolis, in the land of Goshen, near Cairo. A single perpendicular line of hieroglyphic ornaments each side and records its erection by Osirtesen 1., or probably about B.C. 3000. The inscription, with one slight exception,, is the ■ same on all sides. A myriad of wasps' neafa now completely obscire the carvings on wwo of the surfaces. Authorities differ regarding its height, bat sixty»eight feet two inches is given v the latest measurement by Marietta Bey. Nearly six feet of the length is buried in the accumulation of sefl ~ deposited by the Nile; and the stone, exen at the surface of the ground* presents cad evidences of the destrMWMi cansed by repeated visits of the water. The opposite sides only are equal, the niefuarements at the base being six feet owTn©h and six feet three inohes. Pocoeke gives six feet and six feet four inches as his finding in the same connection. The southern side of the shaft is the best preserved, while the western is in the. worst condition on account of hiving been scaled to a height of at ant fifteen feet. This obelisk is supposed to have stood at the entrance to the great Temple of the Sun, where Moses stndied theology^ Remnants of the tamenos or enebrtre of this sanctuary still remain.^-Philaielphisj Bulletin. * ■'.•-: