disc. In fact, we have before us a perfect representation of the Beth-el, or House of God, terminating in the firmament, in which the Sabæan sun-god is supposed to reside.

The religious purport of these monoliths is obvious; at the foot of most of them stand the altars -very interesting examples of religious architecture. One of these, 7 ft. 10 in. by 9 ft. in width, has

a raised platform, in which is cut a vessel, strangely resembling a Greek kylix, to receive the blood of the slaughtered victim. Two channels cut at two corners enabled the blood to flow on to the lower platform, where again we have three more recipient vessels cut, and a complete series of holes all round, and two more channels at the corners to enable the blood to flow on to the ground.

Such altars as these were common in Mithraic worship, when victims were sacrificed to the great sun-god. We have them, too, in Greece, and their purport is clear. The altar before the great standing monolith is flat, 11 ft. 5 in. by 13 ft. 10 in. in width. It has around it a pattern formed of vine tendrils, with alternate leaves and bunches of grapes, a pattern also seen on a Himyaritic stone in the

ALTAR AT BASE OF TALL DECORATED MONOLITH, AKSUM

British Museum. In the centre of this altar are three deep holes, 1 ft. 2 in., for the reception of the blood. Undoubtedly excavation would reveal other altars, but for all practical purposes the two before us are sufficient to explain the object of them all. The obelisk next to the large standing one has a perfectly flat undecorated altar. This obelisk is rounded at the top, like the obelisks at Medun in Egypt, and the obelisk on the other side is pointed.

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like Cleopatra's needle; but these are entirely without decoration to guide us. The great standing obelisk is 60 ft. in height, but it was by no means the largest. In an adjoining garden we saw the remains of a much larger one broken into huge fragments, the extreme front width of which is 12 ft. 8 in., as against 8 ft. 7 in., which is the greatest width of the standing one. Consequently, this and another,

which has fallen and now lies in Ras Alula's garden, must have considerably towered above the one which, as it stands now, imposes one with its height and delicate proportions. These two were similarly divided into stories, and, in falling, they must have crushed their altars to fragments beneath their weight. I may mention here that the curious

connection between these and tombs in Cilicia