umsily, however, was it erected in this place, that
several deep holes had to be drilled in the upper part of it, in order
that ropes for hauling it up might be put through them; a defect in
engineering skill which has disfigured the obelisk, and contrasts
strikingly with the resources of the ancient Egyptians, who were able
to raise the stone to its position without such a device. The obelisk
is thus an enduring monument of three great rulers--Thothmes, who
first constructed it in Heliopolis; Constantine, who removed it to
Rome; and Pope Sixtus V., who conveyed it from the Circus Maximus, and
re-erected it where it now stands.

Next in point of height to the Lateran obelisk is the one that stands
in the great square of St. Peter's, between two beautiful fountains
that are continually showering high in the air their radiant sunlit
spray. It is meant to serve as the gnomon of a gigantic dial, traced
in lines of white marble in the pavement of the square. Its rosy
surface glistening in the rays of the sun, and its long shadow cast
before it on the ground, make it a very impressive object. Its origin
is involved in mystery, for there is no inscription on it to tell who
erected it, or where it came from. This absence of hieroglyphics
points to its having been an unfinished work--something having
prevented its constructor from recording on it the purpose of its
erection, as was usually the case. But as the vacant shadow of the
dial and the blank empty lines of the spectrum are more suggestive
than any sunlit spaces, so the blank unwritten sides of this obelisk
give rise to more speculations than if they had been carved from head
to foot with hieroglyphics. On account of this peculiarity, some
authors have not hesitated to consider it a mere imitation obelisk,
constructed by the Romans at a comparatively late period. This idea,
however, is refuted by the evidence of Pliny, who regarded it as a
genuine Egyptian relic, and tells us that it was cut from the quarry
of Syene, and dedicated to the sun by the son of Sesores, in
obedience to an oracle, after his recovery from blindness. It is
generally believed that it first stood before one of the temples of
Heliopolis, was then removed to Alexandria, and finally transported to
Rome by Caligula. This emperor constructed a special vessel for the
purpose, of greater dimensions than had ever been seen before; and
after it had brought the obelisk to the banks of the Tiber, he
commanded