the ground to the depth of a foot or
two, staining and eating away the bases of the columns, and
overthrowing their enormous drums and architraves. The destruction
cannot be prevented, for the water infiltrates through the soil; and
some day, ere long, the remaining columns will be hurled down, and the
pride of Karnac will lie prone in the dust.

Passing westward to Rome, the largest obelisk not only in the Eternal
City but in the whole world is that which now adorns the square of St.
John Lateran. It is, as usual, of red granite much darkened and
corroded by time, and stands with its pedestal and cross one hundred
and forty-one feet high; the shaft alone being one hundred and eight
feet seven inches in height, with faces about nine feet and a half
wide at the base; the whole mass weighing upwards of four hundred and
sixty tons. It was found among the ruins of the Circus Maximus broken
into three pieces, and was dug up by order of Pope Sixtus V., conveyed
to its present site, and re-erected by the celebrated architect
Fontana in 1588. The lower end had been so much injured by its fall,
that in order to enable it to stand, it was found necessary to cut off
about two feet and a half to obtain a level base. On the top of it
Fontana added by way of ornament four bronze lions, surmounted by
three mountain peaks, out of which sprung the cross, as the armorial
bearings of the Popes. Thus crowned with the cross, and consecrated to
the honour of Christianity, this noble relic of antiquity acquires an
additional interest from its nearness to the great Basilica of the
Lateran, which is the representative cathedral of the Papacy and the
mother church of Christendom, and to the Lateran Palace, for a
thousand years the residence of the Popes of Rome.

The history of the Lateran obelisk is unusually varied. It was
originally constructed by Thothmes III., and set up by him before the
great temple of Amen at Heliopolis. But being an old man at the time,
he left his successor to complete it by adding most of the
hieroglyphics. It took thirty-six years to carve these sculptures; the
four sides from top to bottom being covered with inscriptions in the
purest style of Egyptian art. From one of these inscriptions we learn
that the obelisk was thrown down in Egypt probably during the invasion
of the Shepherd Kings, and was re-erected by the great Rameses, who
did not, contrary to the usual custom, arrogate to himself the honours
of his pred