These remains of ancient art are destined to be removed to Europe.[7]
The palace of Cleopatra was built upon the walls facing the port of
Alexandria, Egypt, having a gallery on the outside, supported by several
fine columns. Towards the eastern part of the palace are two obelisks,
vulgarly called _Cleopatra's Needles_. They are of Thebaic stone, and
covered with hieroglyphics; one is overturned, broken, and lying under
the sand; the other is on its pedestal. These two obelisks, each of them
of a single stone, are about sixty feet high, by seven feet square at
the base. The Egyptian priests called these obelisks the sun's fingers,
because they served as stiles or gnomons to mark the hours on the
ground. In the first ages of the world they were made use of to transmit
to posterity the principal precepts of philosophy, which were engraven
on them in hieroglyphics.

"Between the statues, _Obelisks_ were placed:
And the learned walls with _hieroglyphics_ grac'd.
_Pope._

In after ages they were used to immortalize the actions of heroes, and
the memory of persons beloved.

[7] One is stated to be on its way to England; our parliament
has voted 10,000_l_ to defray the expense. The other needle is
destined for France.

The first obelisk we know of was that raised by Rameses, King of Egypt,
in the time of the Trojan war. Augustus erected an obelisk at Rome, in
the Campus Martius, which served to mark the hours on an horizontal
dial, drawn on the pavement. This obelisk was brought from Egypt, and
was said to have been formed by Sesostris, near a thousand years before