The Unfinished Obelisk is the largest of all the obelisks in Egypt in the ancient world and one of the riches of the region. It is a granite mass that is almost 41 meters high and weighs approximately 1168 tons.
What is the Obelisk?
Obelisk, a conical monolithic pillar, was originally erected in pairs at the entrances of ancient Egyptian temples. The Egyptian obelisk was carved from a single piece of stone, usually pink granite from the quarries of Aswan. It was designed to be wider at its square or rectangular base than at its pyramidal top, which was often covered with a gold and silver alloy.
The four sides of the obelisk shaft are adorned with hieroglyphs that characteristically include religious dedications, usually to the pharaonic gods, and commemorations of the rulers.
While obelisks are known to have been erected as early as the 4th dynasty (c. 2575-2465 B.C.), no examples from that time have survived. The oldest surviving obelisk dates from the reign of Sesostris I (1918-1875 BC) and is located in Heliopolis, a suburb of Cairo.
What characterizes the Egyptian obelisk?
The Egyptian obelisk was carved from a single piece of stone, usually pink granite. Other peoples, such as the Phoenicians and Canaanites, made obelisks after Egyptian models, although they are generally not carved from a single block of stone.
In the Temple of Hatshepsut at Thebes, there are scenes of the transport of the obelisk down the Nile by barge. At its destination, workers set the shaft in place on its separate base, raising it to an earthen ramp and tilting it.
What is the Unfinished Obelisk?
The Unfinished Obelisk is the largest known obelisk found in ancient Egypt.
The Greatness of the Unfinished Obelisk
What is the height of the Obelisk and why is it Unfinished?
If its construction was completed, the height of the obelisk would reach approximately 41m, and the length of its square base is 4 meters, and its weight upon completion would be approximately 1168 tons.
After the ancient Egyptian workers carved the obelisk on three sides, in preparation for removing it from the ground, they discovered a crack that made it unsuitable, so the workers stopped completing it, and the lower surface of the obelisk is still attached to the rock and is 42 meters long connected to the ground that would have been cut off.
Then, this obelisk would be the longest Egyptian obelisk, with a length of more than 41 meters and weighing more than 1,000 tons. But unfortunately, this obelisk was not completed due to a sudden crack appearing on its surface, so it had to be left unfinished. Had this not been the case, it would have been the largest piece of worked stone in the world.
What is the importance of the Unfinished Obelisk?
The importance of the unfinished obelisk is that it has shown us how the obelisks were made and how the huge hard stones were cut at that time; for example, some diorite stones were found, weighing up to 6 kg, which was used as hammers to separate and cut the sides of the obelisk and the effects of the hammers are visible in the body of the obelisk until now.
This phase was to separate the obelisk before starting another process that consists of creating a trench around the obelisk that allows this gigantic mass of pink granite to be released completely.
The unfinished obelisk offers unusual theories about ancient Egyptian stone working techniques, with marks of the workers’ tools still clearly visible, as well as ocher-colored lines marking where they were working.
When was the obelisk created and why?
It is believed that the beginning of the work was during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut (1508-1458 BC), possibly to complement what would later become known as the Lateran Obelisk (which originally stood at Karnak, and was later taken to the Lateran Palace in Rome).
The unfinished obelisk is almost a third larger than any ancient Egyptian obelisk ever erected. Had it been finished, it would have measured about 42 meters and weighed nearly 1168 tons, a weight equivalent to about 200 African elephants.
In addition to the unfinished obelisk, an unfinished and partially worked obelisk base was discovered in the Aswan quarries in 2005. Some carvings and rock remains were also discovered that may correspond to the site where most of the famous obelisks were worked.
All these quarries in Aswan and the unfinished objects are an open-air museum and are officially protected by the Egyptian government as an archaeological site.
Enjoy seeing the unique Unfinished Obelisk, without barriers, with Gate 2 Egypt exploring the civilization and culture of the ancient Egyptians and discovering its magic.
