Obelisks were almost always square, with the faces slightly convex, and a slight slope from top to bottom.  The pedestal was formed of a single square block adorned with inscriptions, or with cynocephali in high relief, adoring the sun.  The point was cut as a pyramidion, and sometimes covered with bronze or gilt copper.  Scenes of offerings to Ra Harmakhis, Hor, Tum, or Amen are engraved on the sides of the pyramidion and on the upper part of the prism.  The four upright faces are generally decorated with only vertical lines of inscription in praise of the king (Note 11).  Such is the usual type of obelisk; but we here and there meet with exceptions.  That of Begig in the Fayum (fig. 109) is in shape a rectangular oblong, with a blunt top.  A groove upon it shows that it was surmounted by some emblem in metal, perhaps a hawk, like the obelisk represented on a funerary stela in the Gizeh Museum.  This form, which like the first is a survival of the menhir, was in vogue till the last days of Egyptian art.  It is even found at Axum, in the middle of Ethiopia, dating from about the fourth century of our era, at a time when in Egypt the ancient obelisks were being carried out of the country, and none dreamed of erecting new ones.  Such was the accessory decoration of the pylon.  The inner courts and hypostyle halls of the temple contained more colossi.  Some, placed with their backs against the outer sides of pillars or walls, were half engaged in the masonry, and built up in courses.  At Luxor under the peristyle, and at Karnak between each column of the great nave, were also placed statues of Pharaoh; but these were statues of Pharaoh the victor, clad in his robe of state.  The right of consecrating a statue in the temple was above all a royal prerogative; yet the king sometimes permitted private persons to dedicate their statues by the side of his own.  This was, however, a special favour, and such monuments always bear an inscription stating that it is “by the king’s grace” that they occupy that position.  Rarely as this privilege was granted, it resulted in a vast accumulation of votive statues, so that in the course of centuries the courts of some temples became crowded with them.  At Karnak, the sanctuary enclosure was furnished outside with a kind of broad bench, breast high, like a long base.  Upon this the statues were placed, with their backs to the wall.  Attached to each was an oblong block of stone, with a projecting spout on one side; these are known as “tables of offerings” (fig. 110).  The upper face is more or less hollowed, and is often sculptured with bas-relief representations of loaves, joints of beef, libation vases, and other objects usually presented to the dead or to the gods.  Those of King Ameni Entef Amenemhat, at Gizeh, are blocks of red granite more than three feet in length, the top of which is hollowed out in regular rows of cup-holes, each cup-hole being reserved for one particular offering.  There was, in fact, an established form of worship provided for statues, and these tables were really altars upon which were deposited sacrificial offerings of meat, cakes, fruits, vegetables, and the like.