Again, after the lapse of ages, has the question as to the intention of the Egyptian obelisks arisen. the Ptolemaean kings, moving them from their original sites for the adornment of their own capital, set example to Roman emperors, who in turn decorated Constantinople, Arles, Rome, and many other cities, with these spoils of Egypt. At still later date popes disinterred them from half-buried positions, exorcised, dedicated to the cross, and re-erected them as decorations of Christianized Rome. But not until the middle of the present century have their secret inscriptions been interpreted, and their dates somewhat definitely assigned.

            Egyptian architecture has been divided into the Pyramid period, the Temple period, and the Obelisk period. the Egyptians have been called an unchanging people, but development can not only be traced in their government, but through their architecture. Fergusson speaks of them as essentially a building people, who, better than any other nation, understood how to use sculpture in combination with architecture. The character of sovereigns and people is revealed through the public works of their age. Jarvis says, to get the prevailing life-motive of any epoch we must read its architecture, and to Egyptian he ascribes a deep and grand symbolism of lofty and soul-elevating tendency. The fame of certain dynasties is inseparably connected with certain architectural forms: through the sovereigns of Egypt the building-taste of the people found expression. The eighteenth dynasty, though essentially the obelisk period, did not originate this form of decoration. It lasted fifteen hundred years, reaching its culmination under Queen Ha-t-asu [Hatshepsut], though continuing a thousand years after her time. From the eleventh to the seventeenth dynasty little is known, but the eighteenth burst from the darkness of the preceding six dynasties in a perfect blaze of architectural splendor. This dynasty is known as the golden art age of Egypt, in which sculpture reached its culmination, not only in the fullness, freeness, and exquisite fineness of its details, but in the profuseness with which the whole country was decorated.

            The most powerful sovereign of this dynasty was a woman, the Ha-t-asu of the Vatican tablet. Her reign was the period when obelisks arrived at perfection, the finest ever erected being directly traceable to her, her name and the year of her reign being still extant upon them. Wilkinson speaks of her as Amun-nou-het; while, under the chronology of [begin page 87] Manetho, she is known as Amensis. She was a famous, powerful, and warlike queen, whom the sifting of authorities shows to have sat upon the throne twenty-two years. A certain confusion has arisen in regard to the events of her reign from her having, at different periods, associated different persons with her in the government. though a portion of this time entirely alone, she successively connected with herself Thothmes II., the Princess Ra-neferu, her daughter, and finally Thothmes III. Her vast military expeditions and architectural works rendered necessary the appointment of those viceroys. Neither of these persons held supreme power during her lifetime. Whenever depicted, they are shown in an inferior and subordinate position. Thothmes III., who succeeded her upon the throne, and whom Egyptologists recognize as one of the greatest Pharaohs, possessed no real power until after her death, and the reputation he now possesses does not justly belong to him, for he built much of it upon an attempted destruction of Ha-t-asu's name and fame.

            The white cap, or crown of Upper Egypt, worn by him when in act of adorning Amun, did not even represent a division of power between them, as many of Ha-t-asu's most magnificent works, and hieroglyphic description of her conquests, are found in Upper Egypt. She was a very warlike character, conquering many nations, carrying her wars far into Asia and Africa. During her reign it was that "Egypt set her frontiers where she would."

            Thothmes III. is supposed "to have reigned for a short time after her death," and to have incorporated her reign in his own, taking credit to himself for everything she accomplished. No sooner was she dead than he set artisans at work over the whole kingdom, chiseling her name from the monuments erected by her, and substituting his own in its stead. So hastily was this nefarious scheme executed, that many inscriptions, says Wilkinson, were left to read, "King Thothmes, she executed this work to her father Amun."

            In attempting to obliterate the memory of Ha-t-asu Thothmes but exhibited the envious spirit which had found its play many times in the past. Egypt stood at the apex of her civilization during Ha-t-asu's reign. Such, indeed, was her importance, says Wilkinson, that she has been supposed to be a princess who conquered the country -- perhaps Semiramis -- her grand title, "Uben-t" ("In the Foreign Land"), also giving credence to this idea. But Wilkinson declares this supposition a mistake; and that she was a native Egyptian, possessing more direct right to the throne than Thothmes. Diodorus says queens in Egypt were more honored, and possessed more power, than kings. Ha-t-asu's title, "In the Foreign Land," had reference to her great and numerous foreign conquests. We find corroborative testimony in more modern times, warriors having adopted the name of countries subdued by them -- as Scipio Africanus.

            The two obelisks known as "Cleopatra's Needles" date back to her reign, but are far from being her most magnificent works of this kind. They weigh but two hundred tons each, and each is only about sixty-eight feet in height. Obelisks have usually been found in pairs. The "needle-ship" of iron, expressly built for the transportation of one of these obelisks to England, was not as large in size as the vessel built by Caligula for the transportation of "The Vatican Obelisk" to Rome, which Pliny describes as "nearly as long as the left side of the post of Ostia -- the largest ship ever built." this obelisk stands one hundred and thirty-two feet in height, and is one which has been exorcised and dedicated to the cross; its shaft is but eighty-three feet.

            Although it is not quite certain that Cleopatra ever saw the obelisks known by her name, it is a fact of much probability that the Ptolemies removed them to Alexandria. In Cleopatra's time they were already fifteen hundred years old; the tern "needle" comes from the Greek signification of obelisk -- a spit. the obelisk of largest shaft now known to be in existence is St. John Lateran in Rome, moved there from Heliopolis about the commencement of the Christian era. It belongs to Ha-t-asu's reign. though it has been broken, and portions removed, its height is now over one hundred and five feet, its weight four hundred and fifty tons. it shows marks of the desecrating hand of Thothmes III., his name being found on its face, that of Thothmes II. in the lateral lines -- a most transparent forgery, as these two kings were in now way associated together.

            The most beautiful of all obelisks ever set up in Egypt were the two erected by Ha-t-asu before "The Divine Gate" of Karnak. They are of rose-colored Syene granite, are ninety-two feet in height, each weighting three hundred tons, and are broad enough for one hundred men to stand upon. They were brought from the quarry a distance of one hundred and thirty-eight miles, more than three thousand found hundred years ago, and are the largest ever cut from a single stone; their summits were formerly surmounted with caps of gold -- spoil from H-t-asu's conquered enemies. One of these obelisks has fallen, the other remains, a magnificent monument of Egypt's greatest queen in that country's palmiest days of art.

            Napoleon's engineers took the measurement of these obelisks with great exactness. Eighteen human figures of life-size are sculpted upon the standing one, with others in bass-relief; also a lion lying down, several varieties of birds, the cross -- which in Egypt was the sign of eternal life -- and many other hieroglyphics. Even in sculpture these obelisks are unique, as no others are found in Egypt decorated in the same style, and no monument gives us equal knowledge of the artistic taste and skill of that country. The sculptures are in the highest style of art. No graver's tool of the present day can cut such work in granite, it more closely resembling the finest intaglio of the Greeks than monuments for out-door decoration. Rossellini says, "Every figure appears rather to have been impressed with a seal than raven with a chisel."

            Although Cambyses, in his insane raid over Egypt, devastated the country with fire, destroying, [begin page 88] many obelisks as well as other monuments, the exquisite beauty of these two proved their salvation -- he contented himself with merely carrying off their golden summits. Their beauty not only preserved them from Persian destruction, but had, a thousand years previously, been the means of their escape from the more unhallowed touch of Thothmes III. Upon them he allowed Ha-t-asu's name to remain untouched; they are almost the only sculptures which thus escaped; they record the sixteenth year of her reign.

            Near these obelisks stands a Sphinx, with face of a woman and body of a lioness. As each Sphinx bore a likeness of the monarch in whose reign it was cut, we have here a stone-portrait of this famous, warlike, artistic, and powerful queen. It has a frank and free expression, in accord with her character as it is opening to us. Bunsen speaks of her broad and massive features and commanding expression. The Sphinx, originally fabled to have been a woman, stands for all that is unknown in Egyptian history, representing not only the wisdom of the state, the hidden principles of religion, but all those impenetrable mysteries buried in breast of monarch and priest.

            As a warrior Ha-t-asu's fame is not behind her artistic; Egypt reached its climax of power under her. During her reign came the final submission of Ethiopia, a country with which Egypt was at war in the time of Moses, who was sent against it in command of the Egyptian army, finding there his wife. During her reign the hated shepherds were expelled; during her reign the conquest of Arabia Felix (Pount) took place. Upon the walls of the Temple Deir-el-Bahira, at Thebes, the scenes of this war are sculptured in splendid relief. during her reign the Lydians were also subdued, and the famous nation of Nine Bows brought into final subjection. These expeditions were organized in her name alone, and full account is given of the tribute brought to her from many lands.

            Grand temples exist in Egypt, the date of whose origin is unknown, but whose restoration was engaged in by many successive monarchs. Among these is Medinet Habou, "a castellaed palace, with embattled walls, unlike any other Egyptian work. Its origin is lost in antiquity, but to Queen Ha-t-asu it was indebted for its most profuse decoration. She erected before it a great gateway or propylon, one hundred and fifty feet in length, and sixty in height which conducted to a court one hundred and twenty feet square. A colonnade extended from this gateway to the next, that upon the right consisting of eight pilasters, to each of which was affixed a mitred statue or Thoth or Hermes, the god of wisdom, memory, hearing -- the great masculine patron of letters, of which Saf was the great feminine.

            The opposite side of this colonnade she adorned with an equal number of sculptured columns, the form and color of which are still well preserved. This magnificent gateway formed the principal decoration of the edifice; the wars and battles in which Ha-t-asu had been engaged were the chief subjects of its hieroglyphic tablets and inscriptions. The nation of Nine bows are represented in subjection at her feet, and numerous other countries as paying homage to this great woman warrior and conqueror. These sculptures are executed with remarkable accuracy and exquisite freeness of detail. The bass-reliefs are in the very best stage of art.

            The great rock-temple, or Tuthmosium, dedicated to the first Thothmes, another unique and beautiful work of art, was erected by her. the dedication of this temple was in her name alone, to the great god Amun, and is thus given in the Vatican tablet:

            "Ha-t-asu, whom Amun directs, she has made it as a memorial to her father Amun, lord of the foundations of the earth, that she, like the sun, may live forever."

            Sculptures still exist on its inner walls depicting Ha-t-asu and Thothmes kneeling in adoration to the ark of the god Amun-Ra. She appears first, wearing upon her head the read cap (tshr), or crown of the lower parts of Egypt. Thothmes III., follows her in the act of adoration, and, though wearing the white cap (hut), or crown of Upper Egypt, the sculptures and the tablet both indicate his inferior and powerless position. He has been described at this period as in a state of complete vassalage.

            Ha-t-asu made vast restoration and embellishments to the Temple of Karnak (its remains now over twelve hundred feet in length). This stupendous temple, the grandest ruin in existence, by ages older than the Coliseum, and by whose side St. Peter's would dwindle into insignificance, was not only indebted to her for vast additions and some of its most striking features, but has depicted upon its inner walls records of her conquests, the tribute brought her, and account of her offerings to the god. Many hieroglyphic letters are fourteen inches in length. the obelisks before "The divine Gate" were thank-offerings for victories. She also gave oxen of gold, gold in lumps and in rings, stands of gold and silver, lilies of gold, lotos [sic]-cups, and lotos-shaped urns (the sacred flower), dishes, baskets, gems, tables or bread, pyramids of white bread, obelisks of food, vases of beautiful form, scepters, collars, crowns, and other offerings of matchless value.

            The dedication in her name has been cut out and replaced by that of Thothmes III. In a small chamber of this temple the dedication of the gate in the joint names of herself and Thothmes has also been mutilated, her name having been replaced by that of Thothmes II. This dedication speaks of the great pylon of Amun, and of her monuments of granite (obelisks) to her father Amun-Ra. Acknowledged dependence upon the gods was a striking characteristic of most Egyptian sovereigns, and at no time shone with more luster than during Ha-t-asu's reign.

            Ha-t-asu concentrated in her own individual person power sufficient to make many reigns brilliant. Belonging to a dynasty noted for its military prowess and its administrative ability, the success of her arms, the wisdom of her government, and the artistic splendors of her reign, place her at its head.

Bibliography

Fergusson, unidentified work
Jarvis, unidentified work
Wilkinson, unidentified work
Diodorus, unidentified work
Rossellini, unidentified work
Bunsen, unidentified work