The Obelisk of Theodosius, Constantinople

Illustrations of the hieroglyphics on all four faces of the Obelisk of Theodosius, which has been taken from Karnak to Alexandria by Emperor Constantius II in 357AD and erected in the Hippodrome of Constantinople by Theodosius in 390. Obscured by the illustrations is a prospect of Constantinople with the obelisk and its pedestal. This plate was published in Kircher's 'Oedipus Aegyptiacus', a three-volume work on Egyptology, in which he falsely claimed to have deciphered hieroglyphics.