[144] The Italians call them guglie, needles, and the Arabs micellet Faraoun, Pharaoh's needles. The obelisks now in London and New York respectively, which were taken by the Romans from the ruins of Heliopolis, in order to be erected in front of the Cæsareum at Alexandria, were known as Cleopatra's Needles. Herodotus only used the expression, ὀβελός. Ἐν τῷ τεμένει ὀβελοὶ ἑστάσι μεγάλοι λίθινοι (ii. 172; also ii. 111).
[145] Diodorus (i. 57, 59), always uses the word ὀβελίσκος. The termination is certainly that of a diminutive. See Ad. Regnier, Traité de la Formation des Mots dans la Langue Grecque, p. 207.
[146] De Rougé, Étude sur les Monuments de Karnak.
[147] Pierret, Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Égyptienne.
[148] A small funerary obelisk, about two feet high, is now in the museum of Berlin. It is figured in the Denkmæler, part ii. pl. 88. It was found in a Gizeh tomb dating from the fifth dynasty.
[149] Mariette, Monuments Divers, pl. 50. The obelisks illustrated in this chapter are all drawn to the same scale in order to facilitate comparison.
[150] Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, etc., p. 396.
[151] Diodorus, i. 57.
[152] Recent measurement has shown that the height given on page 105, Vol. I., is incorrect.—Ed.
[153] In the Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Égyptienne of M. Pierret, a translation of the hieroglyphics upon one side of the Paris obelisk will be found under the word Obélisque. The Athenæum for October 27, 1877, contains a complete translation of the inscription upon the London obelisk, by Dr. Birch.—Ed.