buckets are fastened. The water thus drawn from the first and
lower-most well, is conveyed by a little canal into a reservoir, which
forms the second well; from whence it is drawn to the top in the same
manner, and then conveyed by pipes to all parts of the castle. As this
well is supposed by the inhabitants of the country to be of great
antiquity, and has, indeed, much of the antique manner of the Egyptians, I
thought it might deserve a place among the curiosities of ancient Egypt.

Strabo speaks of a similar engine, which, by wheels and pulleys, threw up
the water of the Nile to the top of a very high hill; with this
difference, that, instead of oxen, a hundred and fifty slaves were
employed to turn these wheels.(266)

The part of Egypt of which we now speak, is famous for several rarities,
each of which deserves a particular examination. I shall mention only the
principal, such as the obelisks, the pyramids, the labyrinth, the lake of
Moeris, and the Nile.

SECT. I. THE OBELISKS.--Egypt seemed to place its chief glory in raising
monuments for posterity. Its obelisks form at this day, on account of
their beauty as well as height, the principal ornament of Rome; and the
Roman power, despairing to equal the Egyptians, thought it honour enough
to borrow the monuments of their kings.

An obelisk is a quadrangular, taper, high spire or pyramid, raised
perpendicularly, and terminating in a point, to serve as an ornament to
some open square; and is very often covered with inscriptions or
hieroglyphics, that is, with mystical characters or symbols used by the
Egyptians to conceal and disguise their sacred things, and the mysteries
of their theology.

Sesostris erected in the city of Heliopolis two obelisks of extreme hard
stone, brought from the quarries of Syene, at the extremity of Egypt.(267)
They were each one hundred-and-twenty cubits high, that is, thirty
fathoms, or one hundred and eighty feet.(268) The emperor Augustus, having
made Egypt a province of the empire, caused these two obelisks to be
transported to Rome, one whereof was afterwards broken to pieces. He dared
not venture to make the same attempt upon a third, which was of a
monstrous size.(269) It was made in the reign of Rameses: it is said that
twenty thousand men were employed in the cutting of it. Constantius, more
daring than Augustus, caused it to be removed to Rome. Two of these
obelisks are still to be seen there, as well as another a hundred cub