A tall pillar, usually made of granite, square in section, tapering upwards, and ending in a small pyramid. Obelisks were common in ancient Egypt, being used for commemorative or religious purposes. Well-known examples are Cleopatra's Needles (c.1475 BC), one of which is now located on the Victoria Embankment, London, the other in Central Park, New York City.
Ancient obelisks were made of a single piece of stone (a monolith). The term stela (plural: stelae) is generally used for other monumental standing inscribed sculpted stones not of classic obelisk form.Ancient obelisks
Egyptian obelisks
In 1911, Encyclopædia Britannica wrote, "The earliest temple obelisk still in position is that of Senwosri I.
Obelisks were a prominent part of the architecture of the ancient Egyptians, who placed them in pairs at the entrance of temples. Twenty-seven ancient Egyptian obelisks are known to have survived, plus the Unfinished obelisk found partly hewn from its quarry at Aswan.
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. 62-67) that the shapes of the ancient Egyptian pyramid and obelisk were derived from natural phenomena associated with the sun (the sun-god Re being the Egyptians' greatest deity). The pyramid and obelisk would have been inspired by previously overlooked astronomical phenomena connected with sunrise and sunset: the zodiacal light and Sun pillars, respectively.
The Romans were infatuated with obelisks, 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 tallest Egyptian obelisk graces the square in front of the Lateran Basilica in Rome.
Not all the Egyptian obelisks re-erected 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 (racetrack) of his grand new city Caesarea in northern Judea.
In Constantinople, the Eastern Emperor Theodosius shipped an obelisk in 390 A.D.
Rome is the obelisk capital of the world. The most prominent is the 25.5 m obelisk at Saint Peter's Square in Rome. The obelisk had stood since A.D. 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.
Re-erecting the obelisk had daunted even Michelangelo, but Sixtus V was determined on erecting it directly in front of St Peter's, of which the nave was yet to be built, and had a full-sized wooden mock-up erected within months of his election. An uproar of suggested projects ensued, but 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. The obelisk, half-buried in the debris of the ages, was first excavated as it stood; When Carlo Maderno came to build the nave, he had to put the slightest kink in its axis, to line it precisely with the obelisk.
Another obelisk stands in front of the church of Trinità dei Monti, at the head of the Spanish Steps. There is a further famous obelisk in Rome, sculpted as carried on the back of an elephant. Rome lost one of its obelisks, which had decorated the temple of Isis, where it was uncovered in the 16th century.
Several more of the original Egyptian obelisks have been shipped and re-erected all over the world. The best-known examples outside Rome are the pair of so-called 21 m Cleopatra's Needles in London and New York City and the 23 m obelisk at the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
There are 26 known ancient Egyptian obelisks in the following current locations:
Egypt – 8 Pharaoh Tuthmosis I, Karnak Temple, Luxor Pharaoh Ramses II, Luxor Temple Pharaoh Hatshepsut, Karnak Temple, Luxor Pharaoh Sesostris I, Heliopolis, Cairo plus 4 more France – 1 Pharaoh Ramses II, in Place de la Concorde, Paris Israel – 1 Caesarea obelisk Italy – 11 8 in Rome (see Obelisks in Rome) Piazza del Duomo, Catania (Sicily) Boboli Gardens (Florence) Urbino Turkey – 1 Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, in Square of Horses, Istanbul United Kingdom – 3 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, in Wimborne, Dorset United States – 1 Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, Cleopatra's Needle, in Central Park, New YorkThe Romans also commissioned obelisks in an Egyptian style, and there are five known ancient Roman obelisks located in Rome.
Assyria
One obelisk form is known from the early Assyrian civilization, represented by the Black Obelisk of King Shalmaneser III from the 9th century BC, now in the British Museum.
Axumite obelisks
A number of obelisks were carved in the ancient Axumite Kingdom of Ethiopia. The most notable example – the 24 m high Obelisk of Axum carved around the 4th century AD – was looted by the Italians after the Second Italo-Abyssinian War and taken to Rome in 1937 where it stood in the Piazza di Porta Capena.
The largest obelisk, now fallen, at 33 m high and 3 by 2 meters at the base is the largest single piece of stone ever worked in human history 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 don't end in a pyramid, were used to mark graves and underground burial chambers. The obelisks were kept standing through the use of massive counterweights.
Other ancient obelisks
In Place de la République, Arles, France - 4th century, of Roman originModern obelisks
Starting in the Renaissance, the obelisk has become a staple of monumental architecture, especially funerary, mainly for freemasons. Also, occult symbology is invoked when placed in a circle of 8 wedges and or when a monolith or obelisk is fashioned from "black" marble, it becomes a symbol of fertility or copulation. Many thousands of modern obelisks can be found the world over, almost any American cemetery offering several examples. Among all these, the following are worthy of particular mention:
Stowe School, Buckinghamshire – General Wolfe's Obelisk, 1754. Chesma Obelisk in Gatchina, 1775 Rumyantsev Obelisk in St Petersburg, 1799. Villa Medici, Rome – a 19th century copy of the Egyptian obelisk moved to the Boboli Gardens in Florence in 1790. Villa Torlonia, Rome – two obelisks erected 1842. Patriots' Grave, Old Burying Ground, Arlington, Massachusetts (1818) Bunker Hill Monument, Charlestown, Massachusetts – built between 1827 and 1843, the first monumental public obelisk erected in the United States. The San Jacinto Monument measuring 173.7 m in height is the tallest obelisk in the world, and commemorates the acquisition of Texas and other states from Mexico following the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. Foro Italico, Rome (on Lungotevere Maresciallo Diaz) – obelisk erected in 1932 to honour Mussolini. Obelisk of Buenos Aires, Argentina – built in 1936. Obelisk of São Paulo, Brazil - built in 1954 Demidov Column in Barnaul, Siberia, Russia. A small obelisk stands at Trinity site, the location of the first atomic bomb explosion. The 351 foot obelisk rests on a foundation of solid Kentucky limestone, and contains walls seven feet thick at the base, tapering to two feet thick where the point inclines. Pond and white obelisk monument in the main square of Vigan City in the Philippines. The obelisk stone (rock) crosses of Kerala form another category of obelisks which perhaps were inspired by the Egyptian originals. For one thing, the Syrian Christians or St. Thomas Christians of Malabar on the west coast of India had close contacts with the Egyptian and Assyrian worlds, the original habitat of obelisks. In the computer game Age of Mythology an obelisk is a tower built by Egyptian Priests to provide a greater line of sight. Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, an Obelisk of Light is a Brotherhood of Nod defensive structure that emits a beam of light that destroys or heavily damages enemy units. In Newcastle, New South Wales there is an obelisk, named, appropriately enough, "The Obelisk".
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