Obelisk

One of the two Luxor obelisks in the Place de la Concorde in Paris; a red granite monolithic column, 23 metres (75 ft) high, including the base, which weighs over 250 metric tons (280 short tons).

An obelisk (UK: /ˈɒbəlɪsk/; US: /ˈɑːbəlɪsk/, from Ancient Greek: ὀβελίσκος obeliskos;^[1][2] diminutive of ὀβελός obelos, "spit, nail, pointed pillar"^[3]) is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. These were originally called "tekhenu" by the builders, the Ancient Egyptians. The Greeks who saw them used the Greek 'obeliskos' to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and then English.^[4] Ancient obelisks were often monolithic (that is, built with a single stone), whereas most modern obelisks are made of several stones and can have interior spaces.

The term stele is generally used for other monumental, upright, inscribed and sculpted stones.

Ancient obelisks

Egyptian

Pylon of the Temple of Luxor with the remaining obelisk (of two) in front (the second is in the Place de la Concorde in Paris).

Obelisk of Pharaoh Senusret I, Al-Maalla area of Al-Matariyyah district in modern Heliopolis.

Obelisks were prominent in the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, who placed them in pairs at the entrance of temples. The word "obelisk" as used in English today is of Greek rather than Egyptian origin because Herodotus, the Greek traveller, was one of the first classical writers to describe the objects. A number of ancient Egyptian obelisks are known to have survived, plus the "Unfinished Obelisk" found partly hewn from its quarry at Aswan. These obelisks are now dispersed around the world, and fewer than half of them remain in Egypt.

The earliest temple obelisk still in its original position is the 68-foot (20.7 m) 120-ton^[5] red granite Obelisk of Senusret I of the XIIth Dynasty at Al-Matariyyah in modern Heliopolis.^[6]

The obelisk symbolized the sun god Ra, and during the brief religious reformation of Akhenaten was said to be a petrified ray of the Aten, the sundisk. It was also thought that the god existed within the structure.

It is hypothesized by New York University Egyptologist Patricia Blackwell Gary and Astronomy senior editor Richard Talcott that the shapes of the ancient Egyptian pyramid and obelisk were derived from natural phenomena associated with the sun (the sun-god Ra being the Egyptians' greatest deity).^[7] The pyramid and obelisk might have been inspired by previously overlooked astronomical phenomena connected with sunrise and sunset: the zodiacal light and sun pillars respectively.

The Ancient Romans were strongly influenced by the obelisk form, to the extent that there are now more than twice as many obelisks standing in Rome as remain in Egypt. All fell after the Roman period except for the Vatican obelisk and were re-erected in different locations.

The largest standing and tallest Egyptian obelisk is the Lateran Obelisk in the square in front of the Lateran Basilica in Rome at 105.6 feet (32.2 m) tall and a weight of 455 tons.^[8]

Not all the Egyptian obelisks in the Roman Empire were set up at Rome. Herod the Great imitated his Roman patrons and set up a red granite Egyptian obelisk in the hippodrome of his new city Caesarea in northern Judea. This one is about 40 feet (12 m) tall and weighs about 100 tons.^[9] It was discovered by archaeologists and has been re-erected at its former site.

In Constantinople, the Eastern Emperor Theodosius shipped an obelisk in AD 390 and had it set up in his hippodrome, where it has weathered Crusaders and Seljuks and stands in the Hippodrome square in modern Istanbul. This one stood 95 feet (29 m) tall and weighing 380 tons. Its lower half reputedly also once stood in Istanbul but is now lost. The Istanbul obelisk is 65 feet (20 m) tall.^[10]

Rome is the obelisk capital of the world. The most well-known is probably the 25 metres (82 ft), 331-ton obelisk at Saint Peter's Square in Rome.^[8] The obelisk had stood since AD 37 on its site on the wall of the Circus of Nero, flanking St Peter's Basilica:

"The elder Pliny in his Natural History refers to the obelisk's transportation from Egypt to Rome by order of the Emperor Gaius (Caligula) as an outstanding event. The barge that carried it had a huge mast of fir wood which four men's arms could not encircle. One hundred and twenty bushels of lentils were needed for ballast. Having fulfilled its purpose, the gigantic vessel was no longer wanted. Therefore, filled with stones and cement, it was sunk to form the foundations of the foremost quay of the new harbour at Ostia."^[11]

Re-erecting the obelisk had daunted even Michelangelo, but Sixtus V was determined to erect it in front of St Peter's, of which the nave was yet to be built. He had a full-sized wooden mock-up erected within months of his election. Domenico Fontana, the assistant of Giacomo Della Porta in the Basilica's construction, presented the Pope with a little model crane of wood and a heavy little obelisk of lead, which Sixtus himself was able to raise by turning a little winch with his finger. Fontana was given the project.

The obelisk, half-buried in the debris of the ages, was first excavated as it stood; then it took from 30 April to 17 May 1586 to move it on rollers to the Piazza: it required nearly 1000 men, 140 carthorses, and 47 cranes. The re-erection, scheduled for 14 September, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, was watched by a large crowd. It was a famous feat of engineering, which made the reputation of Fontana, who detailed it in a book illustrated with copperplate etchings, Della Trasportatione dell'Obelisco Vaticano et delle Fabriche di Nostro Signore Papa Sisto V (1590),^[12][13] which itself set a new standard in communicating technical information and influenced subsequent architectural publications by its meticulous precision.^[14] Before being re-erected the obelisk was exorcised. It is said that Fontana had teams of relay horses to make his getaway if the enterprise failed. When Carlo Maderno came to build the Basilica's nave, he had to put the slightest kink in its axis, to line it precisely with the obelisk.

Three more obelisks were erected in Rome under Sixtus V: the one behind Santa Maria Maggiore (1587), the giant obelisk at the Lateran Basilica (1588), and the one at Piazza del Popolo (1589).^[15]

An obelisk stands in front of the church of Trinità dei Monti, at the head of the Spanish Steps. Another obelisk in Rome is sculpted as carried on the back of an elephant. Rome lost one of its obelisks, the Boboli obelisk which had decorated the temple of Isis, where it was uncovered in the 16th century. The Medici claimed it for the Villa Medici, but in 1790 they moved it to the Boboli Gardens attached to the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, and left a replica in its stead.

Several more Egyptian obelisks have been re-erected elsewhere. The best-known examples outside Rome are the pair of 21-metre 187-ton Cleopatra's Needles in London (69 ft) and New York City (70 ft) and the 75-foot (23 m) 227-ton obelisk at the Place de la Concorde in Paris.^[16]

Tip of Hatshepsut's fallen obelisk, Karnak Temple Complex, Luxor, Egypt

The Obelisk of Tuthmosis III, Istanbul, Turkey

There are ancient Egyptian obelisks in the following locations:

• Egypt – 8
  • Pharaoh Thutmosis I, Karnak Temple, Luxor
  • Pharaoh Ramses II, Luxor Temple
  • Pharaoh Hatshepsut, Karnak Temple, Luxor
  • Pharaoh Senusret I, Al-Masalla area of Al-Matariyyah district in Heliopolis, Cairo
  • Pharaoh Ramses III, Luxor Museum
  • Pharaoh Ramses II, Gezira Island, Cairo, 20.4 m (67 ft)^[17]
  • Pharaoh Ramses II, Cairo International Airport, 16.97 m (55.7 ft)
  • Pharaoh Seti II, Karnak Temple, Luxor, 7 m (23 ft)
• France – 1
  • Pharaoh Ramses II, Luxor Obelisk, in Place de la Concorde, Paris
• Israel – 1
  • Caesarea obelisk
• Italy – 13 (includes the only one located in the Vatican City)
  • Rome — 8 ancient Egyptian obelisks (see List of obelisks in Rome)
  • Piazza del Duomo, Catania (Sicily)
  • Benevento, two obelisks
  • Boboli Obelisk (Florence)
  • Urbino
• Poland – 1
  • Ramses II, Poznań Archaeological Museum, Poznań (on loan from Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Berlin)^[18]
• Turkey – 1
  • Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, the Obelisk of Theodosius in the Hippodrome, Istanbul, along with the Byzantine Walled Obelisk and the Serpent Column
• United Kingdom – 4
  • Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, "Cleopatra's Needle", on Victoria Embankment, London
  • Pharaoh Amenhotep II, in the Oriental Museum, University of Durham
  • Pharaoh Ptolemy IX, Philae obelisk, at Kingston Lacy, near Wimborne Minster, Dorset
  • Pharaoh Nectanebo II, British Museum, London (pair of obelisks)
• United States – 1
  • Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, "Cleopatra's Needle", in Central Park, New York

Assyrian

Obelisk monuments are also known from the Assyrian civilization, where they were erected as public monuments that commemorated the achievements of the Assyrian king.

The British Museum possesses four Assyrian obelisks:

The White Obelisk of Ashurnasirpal I (named due to its colour), was discovered by Hormuzd Rassam in 1853 at Nineveh. The obelisk was erected by either Ashurnasirpal I (1050-1031 BC) or Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 BC). The obelisk bears an inscription that refers to the king’s seizure of goods, people and herds, which he carried back to the city of Ashur. The reliefs of the Obelisk depict military campaigns, hunting, victory banquets and scenes of tribute bearing.

The Rassam Obelisk, named after its discoverer Hormuzd Rassam, was found on the citadel of Nimrud (ancient Kalhu). It was erected by Ashurnasirpal II, though only survives in fragments. The surviving parts of the reliefs depict scenes of tribute bearing to the king from Syria and the west.^[19]

The Black Obelisk was discovered by Sir Austen Henry Layard in 1846 on the citadel of Kalhu. The obelisk was erected by Shalmaneser III and the reliefs depict scenes of tribute bearing as well as the depiction of two subdued rulers, Jehu the Israelite and Sua the Gilzanean, giving gestures of submission to the king. The reliefs on the obelisk have accompanying epigraphs, but besides these the obelisk also possesses a longer inscription that records one of the latest versions of Shalmaneser III’s annals, covering the period from his accessional year to his 33rd regnal year.

The Broken Obelisk, that was also discovered by Rassam at Nineveh. Only the top of this monolith has been reconstructed in the British Museum. It is the oldest recorded obelisk from Assyria, dating to the 11th century BC.^[20]

Axumite

King Ezana's Stele in Axum.

A number of obelisks were carved in the ancient Axumite Kingdom of today northern Ethiopia. Together with (21 m high) King Ezana's Stele, the last erected one and the only unbroken, the most famous example of axumite obelisk is the so-called (24 m high) Obelisk of Axum. It was carved around the 4th century AD and, in the course of time, it collapsed and broke into three parts. In these conditions it was found by Italian soldiers in 1935, after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, looted and taken to Rome in 1937, where it stood in the Piazza di Porta Capena. Italy agreed in a 1947 UN agreement to return the obelisk but did not affirm its agreement until 1997, after years of pressure and various controversial settlements. In 2003 the Italian government made the first steps toward its return, and in 2008 it was finally re-erected.

The largest known obelisk, the Great Stele at Axum, now fallen, at 33 m high and 3 by 2 metres at the base (520 tons)^[21] is one of the largest single pieces of stone ever worked in human history (the largest is either at Baalbek or the Ramesseum) and probably fell during erection or soon after, destroying a large part of the massive burial chamber underneath it. The obelisks, properly termed stelae or the native hawilt or hawilti as they do not end in a pyramid, were used to mark graves and underground burial chambers. The largest of the grave markers were for royal burial chambers and were decorated with multi-storey false windows and false doors, while nobility would have smaller less decorated ones. While there are only a few large ones standing, there are hundreds of smaller ones in "stelae fields".

Ancient Roman

The Romans commissioned obelisks in an ancient Egyptian style. Examples include:

• Arles, France —the Arles Obelisk, in Place de la République, a 4th-century obelisk of Roman origin
• Benevento, Italy — Roman obelisks^[22][23]
• Munich — obelisk of Titus Sextius Africanus, Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, Kunstareal, 1st century AD, 5.80 m
• Rome — there are five ancient Roman obelisks in Rome. See List of obelisks in Rome.

Byzantine

The Walled Obelisk in Sultanahmet Square

• Walled Obelisk, Hippodrome of Constantinople. Built by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905–959) and originally covered with gilded bronze plaques.

Pre-Columbian

The prehistoric Tello Obelisk, found in 1919 at Chavín de Huantar in Peru, is a monolith stele with obelisk-like proportions. It was carved in a design of low relief with Chavín symbols, such as bands of teeth and animal heads. Long housed in the Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú in Lima, it was relocated to the Museo Nacional de Chavín, which opened in July 2008. The obelisk was named for the archeologist Julio C. Tello, who discovered it and was considered the "father of Peruvian archeology." He was America's first indigenous archeologist.^[24]

Modern obelisks

(Listed in date order)

17th century

Fontaine des Quatre Dauphins in Aix-en-Provence.

• Aix-en-Provence – Fontaine des Quatre Dauphins, 1667

18th century

• Ripon Market Square obelisk (Nicholas Hawksmoor) 1702 - at 80 feet in height it was the first large scale obelisk to be erected in Britain.^[25]
• St Luke Old Street (church), London, spire by Nicholas Hawksmoor circa 1727–33.
• Mamhead obelisk, one hundred feet, built 1742–1745 as an aid to shipping.^[26]
• Stowe School, Buckinghamshire – General Wolfe's Obelisk, 1754
• Montreal Park Obelisk, Riverhead, Sevenoaks, Kent – Lord Jeffery Amherst's Obelisk, 1761.^[27]
• Kagul Obelisk in Tsarskoe Selo, 1772
• Chesma Obelisk in Gatchina, 1775
• Villa Medici, Rome – a 19th-century copy of the Egyptian obelisk moved to the Boboli Gardens in Florence in 1790.
• Moore-Vallotton Incident marker, Wexford - erected after the Moore-Vallotton Incident, or "the First Rebellion" in 1793^[28]
• Rumyantsev Obelisk in St Petersburg, 1799
• Obelisk at Slottsbacken, Stockholm, erected 1800

19th century

The Wellington Monument in Phoenix Park, Dublin

The Coronation Memorial in Delhi, India

The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., USA

• Nelson memorial, Springfield Park, Liverpool, circa 1805.
• Constitution Obelisk, erected in St. Augustine, Florida in 1814 incommemoration of Spanish Constitution of 1812
• "Brightling Needle", Brightling, East Sussex (65 ft), circa 1815.^[29]
• Patriots' Grave, Old Burying Ground, Arlington, Massachusetts (1818).
• Blantyre Monument, Erskine, Renfrewshire (c.1825) 80 ft (24 m)
• Captain Cook's Monument, Easby Moor, Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, 1827 (15.5m, 51 ft).^[30]
• Groton Monument at (Fort Griswold), Groton, Connecticut, 1830, (41.15m, 135 ft)
• Bunker Hill Monument, Charlestown, Massachusetts – built between 1827 and 1843 (221' 5", 67.5 m)
• Spencer Monument in Blata l-Bajda, Malta, 1831 (relocated 1893).^[31]
• Thomas Jefferson Obelisk at Monticello was erected in 1833 by his family. Jefferson had willed that only three achievements be sketched onto it: Author of the Declaration of Independence, author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia^[32]
• Obelisk of Lions, in Iași, Romania, 1834.
• Villa Torlonia, Rome – two obelisks erected 1842.
• Reggio Emilia obelisk, commemorates marriage of Francis V, Duke of Modena to princess Adelgunde of Bavaria, built 1842.
• Rutherford's Monument near Anwoth, Scotland erected in 1842 as a memorial to Samuel Rutherford.
• The Political Martyrs monument, Edinburgh, erected 1844 as a memorial to the "Scottish Martyrs to Liberty".
• Lansdowne Monument, near the Cherhill White Horse, Wiltshire, 1845, 38 metres, erected by the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne to commemorate Sir William Petty.^[33]
• Newcastle, New South Wales – "The Obelisk", built 1850.
• Wellington Monument, Wellington, Somerset, completed 1854, (53.34m, 175 ft).
• Stoodley Pike, Todmorden, West Yorkshire, built 1856.
• Obelisk of Fontenoy, 1860.
• Wellington Monument, 1861, (62m, 205 ft), Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland, is the tallest in Europe.
• The Obelisk, (Prince of Wales'), Port Elizabeth, South Africa, intended for one George Kemp but erected to commemorate the marriage of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra of Denmark in 1861. Originally on Market Square, now in front of the Bayworld Museum Complex.
• Lincoln's Tomb in Springfield, Illinois, 1865, (35.66m, 117 ft).
• Nicholson's obelisk, Margalla Hills, Pakistan 1868.
• Captain Cook Obelisk, Kurnell, New South Wales, 1870.
• The Dauphin County Veteran's Memorial Obelisk in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, completed 1876, (33.52m, 110 ft).
• The Washington Monument in Washington DC, USA, measuring 555 feet 5.5 inches (169.29 m) in height, was completed in 1884.^[34]
• The Oriskany Battlefield monument in Rome, New York, dedicated in 1884 as a memorial to the Revolutionary War battle in 1777.
• The Monument to the Restorers in Restauradores Square, Lisbon, Portugal, was erected in 1886 to celebrate the victory in the Portuguese Restoration War (1640-1668).
• The Bennington Battle Monument in Bennington, Vermont, 1889.
• Monolith "The Obelisk", in Villalar de los Comuneros, 1889.
• Dalhousie Obelisk, in Raffles Place, Singapore, 1891.
• The Obelisk, University Park campus of Penn State University, 1896.
• Confederate War Memorial (Dallas) 1896

20th century

Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Memorial to fallen soldiers from Međimurje County in World War I (Zrinski Park in Čakovec, Croatia)

Obelisk at the Plaza Francia, Caracas, Venezuela

Obelisk of São Paulo, Brazil

Monumen Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia

Obelisk in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Independence Monument obelisk in the Maha Bandula Park in Yangon, Myanmar

• The William Dudley Chipley Memorial, in the Plaza Ferdinand VII, Pensacola, Florida, 1901.
• The Sergeant Floyd Monument, on US Highway 75, Sioux City, Iowa, 1901.
• Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial, South Royalton, Vermont, 1905.
• McKinley Monument, Niagara Square, Buffalo, New York, 1907, (96 ft / 29 m).
• The Veterans' Monument, Elizabethton, Tennessee, dedicated in 1904 to American Civil War veterans from Carter County, Tennessee.
• The Chalmette Monument, in Chalmette, Louisiana, commemorating the Battle of New Orleans, 1908.
• The Coronation Memorial, in Coronation Park, Delhi, commemorating the founding of New Delhi in 1911 followed by other obelisks around the Rashtrapati Bhavan
• The Victory Memorial, Fort Recovery, Ohio, completed in 1913.
• The Rizal Monument in Luneta Park, Manila, Philippines, unveiled on 30 December 1913.
• The National Women's Monument in Bloemfontein, South Africa, It was built in 1913.
• The Ozark Trail road system erected a series of 21 obelisks beginning in 1913
• The PAX Obelisk, Walmer, Port Elizabeth, as a World War I memorial to local fallen soldiers, 1919.
• The Henry M. Flagler obelisk located on Flagler Monument Island in Miami Beach, Florida was built in 1920.
• The War Memorial in London Square, Southport, Lancashire, England, designed by Grayson and Barnish, 1923. It is flanked by two colonnades each supported by Doric columns, all constructed of Portland stone.
• Veterans Memorial Plaza at Indiana World War Memorial Plaza in Indianapolis, Indiana was built in 1923.
• Jefferson Davis Monument at Jefferson Davis State Historic Site in Fairview, Kentucky, (351 ft / 107 m) tall, mostly concrete, 1924.
• Boer War Monument, King's Domain, Melbourne, Australia, 1924.^[35]
• 1925 Hobart Cenotaph, a World War I memorial.
• A large obelisk with the world's largest apple on top stands at Cornelia, Georgia. It was erected in 1925.
• Prague castle obelisk (or Monolith from Mrákotín) 1930 (15,42 m, 96 t monolith granite)
• The Foshay Tower, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, modeled after the Washington Monument, 1929.
• Obelisk of Montevideo, Uruguay, 1930.
• High Point Monument, Montague, New Jersey. A (220 ft /67 m) obelisk on top of New Jersey's highest point, 1,803 ft (550 m) above sea level, 1930.
• Foro Italico, Rome (on Lungotevere Maresciallo Diaz), erected to honour Benito Mussolini, 1932.
• Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1936.
• Trujillo Obelisk, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1937, (137 ft / 42 m).
• The War Memorial in Floriana, Malta, 1938.^[36]
• San Jacinto Monument in La Porte, Texas commemorating the Texan army's victory at the Battle of San Jacinto and thus gained independence over Mexico, 1939.
• Trylon and Perisphere, 1939 New York World's Fair, Flushing, New York; not a true obelisk, but an art deco variant, (700 ft / 213 m), 1939.
• The Obelisk on One Tree Hill in Auckland, New Zealand, 1940.
• Victory Monument, a large military monument in Bangkok, Thailand. Constructed in 1941 to commemorate the Thai victory in the Franco-Thai War, a brief conflict waged against the French colonial authorities in Indo-China, which resulted in Thailand annexing some territories in western Cambodia and northern and southern Laos. These were among the territories which the Kingdom of Siam had been forced to cede to France in 1893 and 1904, and patriotic Thais considered them rightfully to belong to Thailand.
• Manzanar Obelisk, Independence, California Monument to honor Japanese interned during WWII, 1943.
• Plaza Francia obelisk in Caracas, Venezuela, 1944.
• The Banská Bystrica Obelisk, commemorating the soldiers of the Red Army and those of the Romanian Army who fell while liberating the town of Banská Bystrica, Slovakia in 1945.
• Lucas Gusher Obelisk [National Historic Landmark] recognizing the 50th anniversary of the birth of the liquid fuel age as the Lucas Gusher came in at Spindletop on January 10, 1901 in Beaumont, TX, 1951
• Memorial in Safed, Israel to soldiers who died in the Israel War of Independence.
• Obelisk of São Paulo, Brazil, 1954.
• Abolition Park in Ponce, Puerto Rico, 1956.
• Obelisk of La Paz, Bolivia
• Demidov Column in Barnaul, Siberia, Russia.
• Victory Obelisk in Moscow
• Obelisk of the War Memorial of Brest Fortress in Brest, Belarus, 100 m, 1971
• A small obelisk stands at Trinity site, the location of the first atomic bomb explosion.
• Rugby, North Dakota, the geographical center of North America (Mexico, USA and Canada).
• Pirulito da Praça Sete in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
• 21 obelisks mark Boise, Idaho's portion of the Oregon Trail.^[37]
• The Islamic Summit Minar is an obelisk-shape structure built near the Charing Cross, Mall Road in Lahore, Pakistan. It was built to commemorate the Organisation of Islamic Conference held in Lahore in 1974. Its foundation stone was laid on 22 February 1974 on the first anniversary of the conference. It is 155 feet high.
• In Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., an obelisk stands in front of the Luxor Hotel, a pyramid-shaped hotel along The Strip.
• An obelisk stands in front of radio talk show host Clint Ferro's boyhood home, Endicott, New York, 1975.
• Monumen Nasional, symbolizing the fight for the independence of Indonesia, at Merdeka Square, Jakarta, 1975.
• A large obelisk stands in North Korea called the Juche Tower, 1982.
• Memorial to Egypt's fallen soldiers in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, at Ad Halom, Israel.
• Avis Obelisk, Avis Farms Office Park, Pittsfield Township, Michigan, 1998
• Marking the position of the future Bahá'í House of Worship in Haifa

21st century

Colonna Mediterranea in Luqa, Malta, is a contemporary modern Egyptian obelisk

• Capas National Shrine in Tarlac province, Philippines, a 70-meter obelisk erected in 2003.
• Kolonna Eterna, in San Gwann, Malta. Egyptian obelisk by Paul Vella Critien, erected in 2003.
• Colonna Mediterranea in Luqa, Malta, a 10-foot high abstract art by Paul Vella Critien. A landmark since its inauguration in 2006.
• Pond and white obelisk in the main square of Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Philippines.
• Obelisco Novecento, Rome, 2004. Sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro.
• Cyclisk is a 65-foot-high obelisk made of 350 bicycles erected in Santa Rosa, California.
• "Särkynyt lyhty", a 9 meter high Obelisk, made of stainless steel, was unveiled 23 November in Tornio, Finland.

Erection experiments

In late summer 1999, Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehner teamed up with a NOVA (TV series) crew to erect a 25-ton obelisk. This was the third attempt to erect a 25-ton obelisk; the first two, in 1994 and 1999, ended in failure. There were also two successful attempts to raise a two-ton obelisk and a nine-ton obelisk. Finally in August–September 1999, after learning from their experiences, they were able to erect one successfully.

First Hopkins and Rais Abdel Aleem organized an experiment to tow a block of stone weighing about 25 tons. They prepared a path by embedding wooden rails into the ground and placing a sledge on them bearing a megalith weighing about 25 tons. Initially they used more than 100 people to try to tow it but were unable to budge it. Finally, with well over 130 people pulling at once and an additional dozen using levers to prod the sledge forward, they moved it. Over the course of a day, the workers towed it 10 to 20 feet. Despite problems with broken ropes, they proved the monument could be moved this way.^[38] Additional experiments were done in Egypt and other locations to tow megalithic stone with ancient technologies, some of which are listed here.

One experiment was to transport a small obelisk on a barge in the Nile River. The barge was built based on ancient Egyptian designs. It had to be very wide to handle the obelisk, with a 2 to 1 ratio length to width, and it was at least twice as long as the obelisk. The obelisk was about 10 feet long and no more than 5 tons. A barge big enough to transport the largest Egyptian obelisks with this ratio would have had to be close to 200 feet long and 100 feet wide. The workers used ropes that were wrapped around a guide that enabled them to pull away from the river while they were towing it onto the barge. The barge was successfully launched into the Nile.

The final and successful erection event was organized by Rick Brown, Hopkins, Lehner and Gregg Mullen in a Massachusetts quarry. The preparation work was done with modern technology, but experiments have proven that with enough time and people, it could have been done with ancient technology. To begin, the obelisk was lying on a gravel and stone ramp. A pit in the middle was filled with dry sand. Previous experiments showed that wet sand would not flow as well. The ramp was secured by stone walls. Men raised the obelisk by slowly removing the sand while three crews of men pulled on ropes to control its descent into the pit. The back wall was designed to guide the obelisk into its proper place. The obelisk had to catch a turning groove which would prevent it from sliding. They used brake ropes to prevent it from going too far. Such turning grooves had been found on the ancient pedestals. Gravity did most of the work until the final 15° had to be completed by pulling the obelisk forward. They used brake ropes again to make sure it did not fall forward. On 12 September they completed the project.^[39]

This experiment has been used to explain how the obelisks may have been erected in Luxor and other locations. It seems to have been supported by a 3,000-year-old papyrus scroll in which one scribe taunts another to erect a monument for "thy lord". The scroll reads "Empty the space that has been filled with sand beneath the monument of thy Lord."^[40] To erect the obelisks at Luxor with this method would have involved using over a million cubic meters of stone, mud brick and sand for both the ramp and the platform used to lower the obelisk.^[41] The largest obelisk successfully erected in ancient times weighed 455 tons. A 520-ton stele was found in Axum, but researchers believe it was broken while attempting to erect it.

See also

• List of megalithic sites
• List of pre-Columbian engineering projects in the Americas
• Monuments
• Benben Stone
• Phallic architecture

Notes

1. ὀβελίσκος. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
2. Harper, Douglas. "obelisk". Online Etymology Dictionary.
3. οβελός in Liddell and Scott.
4. Baker, Rosalie F.; Charles Baker (2001). Ancient Egyptians: People of the Pyramids. Oxford University Press. p. 69. ISBN 978-0195122213. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
5. "NOVA Online | Mysteries of the Nile | A World of Obelisks: Cairo". Pbs.org. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
6. "OBELISK (Gr. b/3EXivrc... - Online Information article about OBELISK (Gr. b/3EXivrc...". Retrieved 21 August 2015.
7. Patricia Blackwell Gary and Richard Talcott, "Stargazing in Ancient Egypt", Astronomy, June 2006, pp. 62-67.
8. "NOVA Online | Mysteries of the Nile | A World of Obelisks: Rome". Pbs.org. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
9. "Caesarea Obelisk". Highskyblue.web.fc2.com. 18 June 2001. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
10. "NOVA Online | Mysteries of the Nile | A World of Obelisks: Istanbul". Pbs.org. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
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References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Further reading

• Curran, Brian A., Anthony Grafton, Pamela O. Long, and Benjamin Weiss. Obelisk: A History. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-262-51270-1.
• Chaney, Edward, "Roma Britannica and the Cultural Memory of Egypt: Lord Arundel and the Obelisk of Domitian", in Roma Britannica: Art Patronage and Cultural Exchange in Eighteenth-Century Rome, eds. D. Marshall, K. Wolfe and S. Russell, British School at Rome, 2011, pp. 147–70.
• Iversen, Erik, Obelisks in exile. Copenhagen, Vol. 1 1968, Vol. 2 1972
• Wirsching, Armin, Obelisken transportieren und aufrichten in Aegypten und in Rom. Norderstedt: Books on Demand 2007 (3rd ed. 2013), ISBN 978-3-8334-8513-8

External links

• Obelisk of the World (Shoji Okamoto)
• History of the Egyptian obelisks
• Obelisks in Rome (Andrea Pollett)
• Obelisks of Rome (series of articles in Platner's Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome)
• History of the obelisk of Arles (in French)
• Octavo Edition of Domenico Fontana's book depicting how he erected the Vatican obelisk in 1586.
• National Geographic: "Researchers Lift Obelisk With Kite to Test Theory on Ancient Pyramids"
• Obelisk of Psametik II from Heliopolis, removed and reerected by Augustus in the northern Campus Martius, Rome