THE LARGEST STONES OF THE WORLD.
It is interesting to compare the obelisk on the Embankment with the other
large stones of the world; stones, of course, that have been quarried and
utilized by man. Of this kind, the largest in England are the blocks at
Stonehenge. The biggest weighs about eighteen tons, and is raised up
twenty-five feet, resting, as it does, on two upright stones. These were
probably used for religious purposes, and their bulk has excited in all
ages the wonder of this nation.
The London Obelisk weighs one hundred and eighty-six tons, and therefore
is about ten times the weight of Stonehenge's largest block. It is
therefore by far the largest stone in England. The obelisk was moreover
hoary with the age of fifteen centuries when the trilithons of Stonehenge
were set up, and therefore its colossal mass and antiquity may well fill
our minds with amazement and veneration.
The individual stones of the pyramids, large though they are, and
wonderful as specimens of masonry, are nevertheless small compared with
the giant race of the obelisks.
The writer, when inspecting the outer wall of the Temple Hill at
Jerusalem, measured a magnificent polished stone, and found it to be
twenty-six feet long, six feet high, and seven feet wide. It is composed
of solid limestone, and weighs about ninety tons. This stone occupies a
position in the wall one hundred and ten feet above the rock on which rest
the foundation stones, and arouses wonder at the masonic and engineering
skill of the workmen of King Solomon and Herod the Great. This block,
however, is only half the weight of Cleopatra's Needle, and even this
obelisk falls far short in bulk of many of Egypt's gigantic granite
stones.
At Alexandria, Pompey's Pillar is still to be seen. It is a beautifully
finished column of red granite, standing outside the walls of the old
town. Its total length is about one hundred feet, and its girth round the
base twenty-eight feet. The shaft is made of one stone, and probably
weighs about three hundred tons.
Even more gigantic than Pompey's Pillar is a colossal block found on the
plain of Memphis. Next to Thebes, in Upper Egypt, Memphis was the most
important city of ancient Egypt. Here lived the Pharaohs while the
Israelites sojourned in the land, and within sight of this sacred city
were reared the mammoth pyramids. "As the hills stand round about
Jerusalem, so stand the pyramids round about Memphis."
A few grassy mounds are the only vestiges of the once mighty city; and in
the midst of a forest of palm trees is an excavation dug in the ground, in
which lies a huge granite block, exposed to view by the encompassing
_débris_ being cleared away. This huge block is a gigantic statue lying
face downwards. It is well carved, the face wears a placid countenance,
and its size is immense. The nose is longer than an umbrella, the head is
about ten feet long, and the whole body is in due proportion; so that the
colossal monolith (for it is one stone) probably weighs about four hundred
tons.
[Illustration: COLOSSAL STATUE OF RAMESES II., AT MEMPHIS.]
In the day of Memphis' glory a great temple, dedicated to Ptah, was one of
the marvels of the proud city. "Noph" (Memphis) "shall be waste and
desolate," saith Jeremiah; a prediction literally fulfilled. Of the great
temple not a vestige remains; but Herodotus says that in front of the
great gateway of the temple, Rameses II., called by the Greeks Sesostris,
erected a colossal statue of himself. The colossal statue has fallen from
its lofty position, and now lies prostrate, buried amid the ruins of the
city, as already described. On the belt of the colossus is the cartouche
of Rameses II. The fist and big toe of this monster figure are in the
British Museum. In the Piazza of St. John Lateran, at Rome, the tall
obelisk towers heavenwards like a lofty spire, adorning that square.
Originally it was one hundred and ten feet long, and therefore the longest
monolith ever quarried. It was also the heaviest, weighing, as it does,
about four hundred and fifty tons, and therefore considerably more than
twice the weight of the London obelisk.
As the sphinx is closely associated with the obelisk, and as Thothmes is
four times represented by a sphinx on the London Obelisk, and as,
moreover, two huge sphinxes have lately been placed on the Thames
Embankment, one on each side of the Needle, it may not be out of place to
say a few words respecting this sculptured figure. An Egyptian sphinx has
the body of a lion couchant with the head of a man. The sphinxes seem for
the most part to have been set up in the avenues leading to the temples.
It is thought by Egyptologists that the lion's body is a symbol of power,
the human head is a symbol of intellect. The whole figure was typical of
kingly royalty, and set forth the power and wisdom of the Egyptian
monarch.
In ancient Egypt, sphinxes might be numbered by thousands, but the
gigantic figure known by pre-eminence as "_The Sphinx_," stands on the
edge of the rocky platform on which are built the pyramids of Ghizeh. When
in Egypt, the writer examined this colossal figure, and found that it is
carved out of the summit of the native rock, from which indeed it has
never been separated. On mounting its back he found by measurement that
the body is over one hundred feet long. The head is thirty feet in length,
and fourteen feet in width, and rears itself above the sandy waste. The
face is much mutilated, and the body almost hidden by the drifting sand of
the desert. It is known that the tremendous paws project fifty feet,
enclosing a considerable space, in the centre of which formerly stood a
sacrificial altar for religious purposes. On a cartouche in front of the
figure is the name of Thothmes IV.; but as Khufu, commonly called Cheops,
the builder of the great pyramid, is stated to have repaired the Sphinx,
it appears that the colossus had an existence before the pyramids were
built. This being so, "The Sphinx" is not only the most colossal, but at
the same time the oldest known idol of the human race.
One of the most appreciative of travellers thus describes the impression
made upon him by this hoary sculpture:--
"After all that we have seen of colossal statues, there was something
stupendous in the sight of that enormous head--its vast projecting wig,
its great ears, its open eyes, the red colour still visible on its cheek;
the immense proportion of the whole lower part of its face. Yet what must
it have been when on its head there was the royal helmet of Egypt; on its
chin the royal beard; when the stone pavement by which men approached the
pyramids ran up between its paws; when immediately under its breast an
altar stood, from which the smoke went up into the gigantic nostrils of
that nose, now vanished from the face, never to be conceived again! All
this is known with certainty from the remains that actually exist deep
under the sand on which you stand, as you look up from a distance into the
broken but still expressive features. And for what purpose was this sphinx
of sphinxes called into being, as much greater than all other sphinxes as
the pyramids are greater than all other temples or tombs? If, as is
likely, he lay couched at the entrance, now deep in sand, of the vast
approach to the second, that is, the central pyramid, so as to form an
essential part of this immense group; still more, if, as seems possible,
there was once intended to be a brother sphinx on the northern side as on
the southern side of the approach, its situation and significance were
worthy of its grandeur. And if further the sphinx was the giant
representative of royalty, then it fitly guards the greatest of royal
sepulchres, and with its half human, half animal form, is the best welcome
and the best farewell to the history and religion of Egypt."--Stanley's
_Sinai and Palestine_, p. lviii.
Standing amid the sand of the silent desert, gazing upon the placid
features so sadly mutilated by the devastations of ages, the colossal
figure seemed to awake from sleep, and speak thus to the writer:--
"Traveller, you have wandered far from your peaceful home in sea-girt
England, and you long to gaze upon the crumbling glories of the ages that
are passed. You have come to see the marvels of Egypt--the land which in
the march of civilization took the lead of all the nations of antiquity.
Here as strangers and pilgrims sojourned the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob.
This was the adopted land of the princely Joseph, the home of Moses, and
the abode of Israel's oppressed race. I remember them well, for from the
land of Goshen they all came to see me, and as they gazed at my
countenance they were filled with amazement at my greatness and my beauty.
You have heard of the colossal grandeur of Babylon and Nineveh, and the
might of Babylonia and Assyria. You know by fame of the glories of Greece,
and perhaps you have seen on the Athenian Acropolis those chaste temples
of Pericles, beautiful even in their decay. You have visited the ruins of
ancient Rome, and contemplated with wonder the ruined palace of the
Cæsars, Trajan's column, Constantine's arches, Caracalla's baths, and the
fallen grandeur of the Forum.
"Traveller, long before the foundation of Rome and Athens; yea, long
before the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia rose from the dim
twilight, I stood here on this rocky platform, and was even old when
Romulus and Cecrops, when Ninus and Asshur, were in their infancy. You
have just visited the pyramids of Cheops and Cephren; you marvel at their
greatness, and revere their antiquity. Over these mighty sepulchres I have
kept guard for forty centuries, and here I stood amid the solitude of the
desert ages before the stones were quarried for these vast tombs. Thus
have I seen the rise, growth, and decay of all the great kingdoms of the
earth. From me then learn this lesson: 'grander than any temple is the
temple of the human body, and more sacred than any shrine is the hidden
sanctuary of the human soul. Happiness abideth not in noisy fame and vast
dominion, but, like a perennial stream, happiness gladdens the soul of him
who fears the Most High, and loves his fellow-men. Be content, therefore,
with thy lot, and strive earnestly to discharge the daily duties of thine
office.'
"This world, with all its glittering splendours, the kings of the earth,
and the nobles of the people, are all mortal, even as thou art. The tombs
which now surround me, where reposes the dust of departed greatness,
proclaim that you are fast hastening to the destiny they have reached.
Change and decay, which you now see on every side, is written on the brow
of the monarch as much as on the fading flower of the field. Only the
'Most High' changeth not. He remaineth the same from generation to
generation. Trust in Him with all thine heart, serve Him with all thy
soul, and all will be well with thee, even for evermore."
[Illustration]