From this time until the beginning of the XVIIIth dynasty we possess no obelisks. A new era then began for Egypt. It ushered in its golden age. Thothmes I. was the first to claim for himself equal honor with Usertesen. {6}He erected two magnificent obelisks in Karnak, where they are still conspicuous. Here his daughter, queen Hatasu, co-regent with her brothers Thothmes II. and III., also erected two obelisks. It is true her name does not appear on them, but it is a well established fact, that her great brother Thothmes III., mighty as he was, showed an ignoble jealousy of his valiant sister and, on coming to power, erased her name from the monuments and substituted his own instead. As he had, however, left the feminine pronouns and endings in the inscriptions, his knavery was readily discovered. Notwithstanding this serious defect in his character, he celebrated his many victories by the erection of obelisks of his own. To him belongs the palm in this line of monumental structures. Besides him, one other Pharaoh of this dynasty, Amenophis II., seems to have erected one small obelisk. [Illustration: Queen HATASU or MAKARA.] After the death of Thothmes III. there was a comparative quiet in the erection of obelisks, although one of his obelisks was finished, inscribed, and then erected by Thothmes IV. The great Pharaoh was praised for his imposing monuments, but none dared emulate him until with a new dynasty a new line of rulers came to Egypt. Of Seti I. two excellent obelisks have come down to us, {7}both being at present in Rome. The name, however, most frequently mentioned on the obelisks is that of Ramses II. (1200 B. C.). Although he erected comparatively few obelisks, he inscribed his name and deeds on those of his predecessors, thereby engaging in no legitimate business. He considered himself the equal of Thothmes III., and therefore chose the obelisks of the latter, which had but one--the central--column inscribed, and put two more columns on each side with vainglorious praise of himself. With him the erection of large obelisks seems to have ceased for a time. [Illustration: Ramses II. in his youth.] It was not until the reign of king Psametik II. that we come across another large obelisk of superior workmanship. This is at present in Rome. Ptolemy Euergetes II. and Cleopatra II. have left us a fine obelisk on the island of Philæ, and this represents the last of a long line of truly Egyptian monoliths. The Roman emperors who erected obelisks of their own were Hadrian and Domitian. Since their time obelisks with hieroglyphic inscriptions have neither been quarried nor erected.