[74] We agree with Wilkinson in taking for the height that which Herodotus calls the length. In all monuments of the kind the height is the largest measurement. Herodotus's phrase is easily explained. The monolith appears to have been lying in front of the temple into which they had failed to introduce it. (κείται παρὰ τὴν ἔσοδον, he says). Its height had thus become its length.
[75] Herodotus, ii. 155.
[76] The text in question is quoted in the notes contributed by Dr. Birch to the last edition of Wilkinson (vol. ii. p. 308, note 2). Pliny's remarks upon the obelisks are intersprinkled with fabulous stories and contain no useful information (H. N., xxxvi. 14).
[77] Pierret, Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Égyptienne. (The dates upon which this assertion depends have been disputed. M. Chabas reads the inscription "from the first of Muchir in the year 16, to the last of Mesore in 17," making nineteen months in all, a period which is not quite so impossible as that ordinarily quoted.—Ed.)
[78] Maxime du Camp, Le Nil, pp. 261 and 262.
[79] Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, etc., vol. i. pp. 357-358: vol. ii. pp. 262, 298-299.
[80] P. 148.
[81] "An arch never sleeps" says the Arab proverb.
[82] Denkmæler, part i. pl. 94.
[83] Ramée, Histoire générale de l'Architecture, vol. i. p. 262.