Philae Obelisk, Kingston Lacy, Dorset

Site, Museums outside Egypt · also called Philae obelisk, Kingston Lacy obelisk, Bankes obelisk, Cleopatra obelisk Dorset, second Rosetta Stone

The obelisk on the lawn at Kingston Lacy came from the temple of Isis at Philae and names Ptolemy VIII and the queens Cleopatra II and III in cartouches. Its Cleopatra cartouche helped Champollion confirm his reading of hieroglyphs in 1822.

Point your camera at a wall

Signs to look for

Stool Q3p The stool (p) opens Ptolemy and stands fifth in Cleopatra. It was the first sign Champollion matched.
Recumbent lion E23rw The recumbent lion stands for l in both names. Its place in each confirmed the reading.
Lasso V4wꜣ The lasso (wꜣ) writes the o of Cleopatra on this obelisk, a spelling scribes also used for later Cleopatras.
Egg H8 The egg closes the cartouche and marks the name as a woman's.
Cartouche V10 Cartouches told Bankes and Champollion where the royal names were.

The story of Philae Obelisk, Kingston Lacy, Dorset

It was one of a pair at the temple of Isis on Philae, cut in the late second century BC. William John Bankes saw it in 1815 and wanted it for the bilingual text he hoped it held. Giovanni Belzoni moved it down the Nile, and it reached London in 1821. The Duke of Wellington, who had served with Bankes in the Peninsular War, lent a gun carriage to take it to Dorset and laid its foundation stone in 1827.

The Greek on the base is a petition from the priests of Philae, asking the king to stop officials from living off the temple, with the royal answer. It does not translate the hieroglyphs on the shaft. Bankes still matched the Greek name Cleopatra to one of the cartouches above and wrote it in the margin of his lithograph.

A copy of that lithograph reached Champollion in Paris. Thomas Young had already read Ptolemy on the Rosetta Stone. Ptolemy and Cleopatra share the sounds p, o and l, and the same signs turned up in the right places in both cartouches. That proved the signs spelled sounds. The obelisk now belongs to the National Trust.

What to see and read

Cleopatra cartouche

The queen's name spelled sign by sign: hill slope for k, lion for l, reed leaf, lasso for o, stool for p, vulture, hand, mouth, bread loaf, and the egg that marks a woman.

Ptolemy's cartouches

Ptolemy VIII's names, with the same stool and lion as Cleopatra's, in the columns on the shaft.

Greek petition on the base

The priests' request and the royal reply, much faded. Imaging in 2014 and 2015 recovered parts of it.

Foundation inscription

A carved inscription on the base records the setting up of the obelisk at Kingston Lacy.

Reading the hieroglyphs here

The obelisk stands in the gardens south-west of the house. Visit on a bright day: the low sun on the shaft shows the cut signs best.
Photograph the Cleopatra cartouche and trace over it sign by sign to follow Champollion's reasoning.
The Greek on the base is very faint. Read it in a published translation and look for letter shapes rather than whole words.

Hiero Lens boxes the signs and names them, on your phone; nothing is uploaded. On worn stone, trace a sign over the photo.

Questions

What part did the Philae obelisk play in deciphering hieroglyphs?

It gave Champollion a second royal name to set beside Ptolemy from the Rosetta Stone. The shared signs for p, o and l fell where the sounds did, which showed the cartouches were spelled out letter by letter.

Is the Cleopatra on the Philae obelisk the famous Cleopatra?

No. The queens named are Cleopatra II and Cleopatra III, wives of Ptolemy VIII. Cleopatra VII lived about a century later, and her name was written with much the same signs.

Where is the Philae obelisk?

In the grounds of Kingston Lacy, a National Trust house near Wimborne Minster in Dorset. It has stood there since the late 1820s.

Where it is

Open in OpenStreetMap · Written from published sources and not yet checked on site by our team: displays and open tombs change.