Note 123 — Chapter XII

Tunnels are not the only monuments of great antiquity that have come down to us. In the course of a very interesting article upon the Suez Canal, in the Cornhill Magazine for May 1865, the writer, speaking of the obelisk in front of the Temple of the Sun, at Heliopolis, says, “It is thirty-eight centuries old. It is the father of all obelisks that have arisen since. It was raised a century before the coming of Joseph; it has looked down upon his marriage with Asenath; it has seen the growth of Moses; it is mentioned by Herodotus; Plato sat under its shadow. Of all the obelisks which sprang up around it, it alone has kept its first position. One by one it has seen its sons and brethren depart to great destinies elsewhere. From these gardens came the obelisks of the Vatican and the Porta del Popolo, and their venerable pillar (for so it looks from the distance) is now almost the only landmark of the seat of the wisdom of Egypt.”