[142] _Notices Descriptives_, p. 332, fig. 2. [Illustration: FIG. 164.--Window of a house in the form of _claustra_.] [Illustration: FIG. 165.--Window closed by a mat.] § 10. _The Obelisks._ We cannot bring our analysis of the forms and motives of Egyptian architecture to an end without mentioning a monumental type which is peculiar to Egypt, that of the _obelisks_. These are granite monoliths[143] of great height, square on plan, dressed on all four faces, and slightly tapering from base to summit. They usually terminate in a small pyramid, whose rapidly sloping sides contrast strongly with the gentle inclination of the main block beneath. This small pyramid is called the pyramidion. [143] In front of the sphinxes which stand before the great pylon at Karnak there are two small obelisks of sandstone. The tall and slender shapes of these monoliths and their pointed summits have led to their being compared, in popular language, with needles and spindles.[144] The first Greeks who visited the country and found a monumental type so unlike anything they had at home, wished to convey a good idea of it to their compatriots; they accordingly made use of the word ὀβελός, a spindle. It is difficult to understand how their descendants came to prefer ὀβελίσκος, a little spindle.[145] A diminutive hardly seems the right kind of word under the circumstances; an augmentative would, perhaps, have been better. But it was this diminutive that the Romans borrowed from the Greeks of Alexandria and transmitted to the modern world. [144] The Italians call them _guglie_, needles, and the Arabs _micellet Faraoun_, Pharaoh's needles. The obelisks now in London and New York respectively, which were taken by the Romans from the ruins of Heliopolis, in order to be erected in front of the Cæsareum at Alexandria, were known as Cleopatra's Needles. Herodotus only used the expression, ὀβελός. Ἐν τῷ τεμένει ὀβελοὶ ἑστάσι μεγάλοι λίθινοι (ii. 172; also ii. 111). [145] DIODORUS (i. 57, 59), always uses the word ὀβελίσκος. The termination is certainly that of a diminutive. See AD. REGNIER, _Traité de la Formation des Mots dans la Langue Grecque_, p. 207. This is not the place for an inquiry into the meaning of the obelisk. It may symbolize, as we have often been told, the ray of the sun, or it may be an emblem of Amen-Generator.[146] It seems to be well established, that in the time of the New Empire at least, it was used to write the syllable _men_, which signified _firmness_ or _stability_.[147] [146] DE ROUGÉ, _Étude sur les Monuments de Karnak_. [147] PIERRET, _Dictionnaire d'Archéologie Égyptienne_.