temple of Amenhotep III., at Thebes, measured about fifty feet in height.
The colossal Rameses II. of the Ramesseum measured fifty-seven feet, and
that of Tanis at least seventy feet. The greater number, however, did not
exceed twenty feet. They mounted guard before the temple, facing outwards,
as if confronting an approaching enemy. The obelisks of Karnak are mostly
hidden amid the central courts; and those of Queen Hatshepsut were imbedded
for seventeen feet of their height in masses of masonry which concealed
their bases. These are accidental circumstances, and easy of explanation.
Each of the pylons before which they are stationed had in its turn been the
entrance to the temple, and was thrown into the rear by the works of
succeeding Pharaohs. The true place of all obelisks was in front of the
colossi, on each side of the main entrance.[22] They are always in pairs,
but often of unequal height. Some have professed to see in them the emblem
of Amen, the Generator; or a finger of the god; or a ray of the sun. In
sober truth, they are a more shapely form of the standing stone, or menhir,
which is raised by semi-civilised peoples in commemoration of their gods or
their dead. Small obelisks, about three feet in height, are found in tombs
as early as the Fourth Dynasty. They are placed to right and left of the
stela; that is to say, on either side of the door which leads to the
dwelling of the dead. Erected before the pylon-gates of temples, they are
made of granite, and their dimensions are considerable. The obelisk of
Heliopolis (fig. 108) measures sixty-eight feet in the shaft, and the
obelisks of Luxor stand seventy-seven and seventy-five and a half feet
high, respectively. The loftiest known is the obelisk of Queen Hatshepsût
at Karnak, which rises to a height of 109 feet. To convey such masses, and
to place them in equilibrium, was a sufficiently difficult task, and one is
at a loss to understand how the Egyptians succeeded in erecting them with
no other appliances than ropes and sacks of sand. Queen Hatshepsût boasts
that her obelisks were quarried, shaped, transported, and erected in seven
months; and we have no reason to doubt the truth of her statement.[23]