WHAT THE HELL IS AN OBELISK?

I have to start this story off with a confession. Before I went To Egypt, I didn’t know what an obelisk was. To be more specific, I didn’t know that obelisks were called obelisks. Maybe, I thought they were called a needle, maybe I didn’t think they had a specific name. To further compound my embarrassment, there is an obelisk at my place of work. Friends would say met at the obelisk in 5. I knew what they meant and where to meet, yet I stil didn't make the connection.  It wasn’t until I was in Aswan, visiting the unfinished obelisk at its large outdoor museum that I connected the dots between the word obelisk with the monument obelisk. The unfinished obelisk would have been the largest one of the ancient world (standing 42 metres) but construction was stopped when cracks appeared in it where it lay in the bedrock. It is a type of architectural Rosetta stone, offering insights into ancient Egyptian stone-working techniques, with marks from workers' tools still clearly visible as well as ocher-colored lines marking where they were working when work was abandoned. Like other ancient monuments like Stonehenge, questions have been asked about how obelisks would have been built and then raised. Copper chisels and diorite pounders would have been used to render the massive monoliths out of the red granite in the quarries of Aswan, in a process that may have taken months or even years to finish. Once free, they were then shipped down the Nile to grace temple entrances, erected by cranes, levers and what one can only imagine, massive amounts of manpower.  

Since discovering that obelisk meant the needle like monolith and not just a character in Axterix, I endeavored to try and find more obelisks on my travels. Some are still in Egypt, but many others were taken by foreign powers and can now be found in Italy, France, Turkey, Israel, the UK and the US. Obelisks have been highly valued and because of this, have been a favourite item to steal, looted by Egypt's foreign rulers (Egypt has been in foreign hands for the majority of the last 3,000 years). Of the many obelisks raised in ancient Egypt, only nine still stand in Egypt, the rest either removed, broken by competing cults, preyed on by climate and time or pulled down by Christians or Muslims whose religions have long since replaced the ancient pantheon. Many still lie broken in the sand, representing lost dreams and grandeur faded. They recall Shelley's famous poem, Ozymandias, believed to be inspired by shattered statues of Rameses II

 "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings.
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, 
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

After the Unfinished Obelisk, I saw several standing and finished obelisks in Egypt. The first was at the great temple complex at Karnak. Two obelisks still stand here. The taller of the two was erected by Queen Hatshepsut, the other erected by Tuthmosis I. An inscription at the base of the taller one indicates that the work of cutting the monolith out of the quarry required seven months of labor. Hatshepsut actually raised four obelisks at Karnak, now only one stands. Some fell during her reign and were replaced. In fact, the unfinished obelisk may have been commissioned as a replacement for one of the fallen monuments until its fatal flaw was revealed. We went to Karnak on a beautiful day. Other buildings may be taller but the way that this obelisk reached towards the sky, hieroglyphs silhouetted against the bright blue sky, like a giant, divine finger was breathtaking.

Left: The unfinished obelisk in Aswan.Middle looking up at Karnak and Right; twin towers at Karnak.

From Karnak runs a 3-kilometre avenue of sphinxes. Up to 2000 sphinxes line the path, which is still being renovated, much of it still lying under housing and hotels. If you could follow this path, you would find that it leads to Luxor temple, which like Karnak, also boosts an obelisk. This obelisk was initially one of a pair (as almost all obelisks were). However, in 1829, Muhammad Ali Pasha, self-proclaimed Khedive of Egypt but really just a vassal of the Ottomans, ‘gave’ the two obelisks to the French. One was taken gleefully and arrived in Paris in 1833, where it still stands in the centre of Place de la Concorde. The other obelisk remained in Egypt, maintaining its guard at Luxor Temple. France symbolically renounced its claim to it in the 1990s. Both are made from red granite, and like so much of the remaining examples of Egyptian architecture, extols the virtues of Rameses II. Rameses II or Rameses the Great is recognized as ancient Egypt's most successful leader, with many monuments bearing his cartouche, including famous monuments like Abu Simbel and Ramesseum. Rameses II also hijacked buildings and monuments raised by previous pharaohs to change them to extol his deeds, accounting for the over abundance of monuments and statues bearing his name. He protected his legacy by insisting that his carvings were deeply engraved, which made them less susceptible to alteration by later pharaohs, saving his legacy from the same fate of the monuments he had defaced.

The next obelisk we saw was in Istanbul. When it arrived in Istanbul in 390AD, Istanbul was Constantinople and it was erected in the hippodrome. Here it still stands, shorter than original, the bottom half broken, whereabouts unknown. It was ironic that our guide was standing by the obelisk as he was telling us how much of the treasures of Constantinople and later Istanbul had been looted by foreigners. He didn't seem to get the irony when I pointed out he was standing beside a looted Egyptian artifact. In fact, he seemed rather perturbed that I would question the integrity of the Turkish people in such a manner. It still stands in the hippodrome, surviving in the shadow of two great, religious marvels in the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia.

My next obelisk sighting was in London. This obelisk is commonly known as Cleopatra's needle, despite having nothing to do with the famous queen, (it was made 1000 years before she was born). It was given to the UK as a gift by Muhammad Ali to commerate the Mediterranean victories of Lord Nelson. The British welcomed the gift but declined to pay for its transfer. So the obelisk stayed in the Alexandrian sand it had languished in for 2000 years until 1877 when a Sir William Wilson paid for its transfer. It wasn't plain sailing back to London; six crewmen died during a storm in the Bay of Biscay. The obelisk finally made it to London, where it now stands on the banks of the Thames, surviving both World Wars. It was damaged by a German bomb in 1917. Shrapnel damage pay testament to its near destruction.  It is flanked by two unusual looking faux sphinxes that stand either side of the needle. It makes for a rather incongruous Egyptian theme park in dreary London, about as far away from the Egyptian landscape as imaginable.

Left: Cleopatra's needle; Middle: The Rosetta stone and Right: Mary beside one of the sphinxes that guards the needle.

Rome can be considered the capital of obelisks. No fewer than thirteen found their way to the old imperial city, looted and transported across the Mediterranean (although only eight still stand today). We saw four obelisks here, not including the numerous replicas and custom made obelisks like the one at the Spanish steps. Given the trouble experienced by the British in the 19th Century, it must have been quite a task to transport them here. They were brought down the Nile to Alexandria and from there were taken across the Mediterranean to Rome on specially designed ships. When in Rome, cranes were used to put up the monoliths. The tallest one is known as the Lateran Obelisk. This was originally from Karnak and is another candidate to be the twin of the unfinished obelisk. It was initially intended to go to Constantinople, on the order of Emperor Constantine. On his death, his son Constantius II brought it to Rome, where it was erected in the Circo Massimo in 357 AD. It fell sometime before the 16^th Century, and a search in 1587 found it buried under 23 feet of dirt, surviving but in three pieces. It was re-erected in its current location in 1588, near the Church of St John Lateran. A cross was added to the top of it and it became an icon in this high profile area of medieval Catholicism. 

Top Left: Obelisk in St Peters Square, Bottom Left: Lateran Obelisk. Top Right: Obelisk in front of the Pantheon, Bottom Right: Ancient Roman obelisk at the top of the Spanish steps.

The next two obelisks we saw were within a couple of hundred metres of each other, on either side of the Pantheon. The first is a curious amalgamation of styles, with a small obelisk on the back of an elephant base designed by Bernini (the architect responsible for St Peters Basilica). Its twin is found in Urbino. The other is the centre piece of a fountain in front of the Pantheon designed by Filippo Barigioni. Both are small obelisks that merge ancient Egyptian with post-Renaissance architecture.

The fourth is the most famous in Rome, the 25.5 metre obelisk that stands in Saint Peter’s Square. It had originally stood since 37 AD on the wall of the Circus of Nero but had fallen over and was half buried. The task to erect it was taken over on by Domenico Fontana. It took 18 days to move it the short distance to where it stands now, with 1000 men, 140 horses and 47 cranes employed in the shift. It was erected successfully; although legend has it Fontana had a team of horses ready for a quick escape if it didn’t go to plan. Legend also had it that the ashes of Julius Caesar were contained in a small ball at the top of the obelisk (although when Fontana opened it up, it only contained dust).

Obelisks are a prominent example of colonist looting that has occurred to many countries. Egypt is maybe the most prominent victim, with most great museums having an Egyptian wing or hall, composed of items often taken without the consent of Egyptians. The Rosetta stone (in London) and the mask of Nefertiti (Berlin), other great Egyptian icons, are examples of items that also find themselves out of Egypt. Countries could do the right thing and return items that were taken illegally back to Egypt. This is unlikely given that they are such a draw card. Egypt can only hope.