The obelisk is an ancient Egyptian architectural feat. So why are so few in Egypt?
These unique pillars were once erected by pharaohs in honor of the sun god Re. As the monuments caught on, they were moved around the world.
One of Cleopatra’s Needles, a 224-ton Egyptian obelisk enveloped in hieroglyphs, stands today for all to admire—not in Cairo but in London. The ancient Egyptians left behind a magnificent architectural legacy from their 3,000-year civilization. Undoubtedly, the obelisk is one of the most distinctive monumental expressions of that culture, yet few remain in Egypt today. The tall, tapered pillar was often placed in pairs outside of temple entrances. Originally erected in honor of the sun god Re, the obelisk quickly caught on in Egypt and beyond, treasured as a spoil of war, a gift between nations, and a piece of history that world leaders sought to acquire.
The first outsider known to be an admirer of the obelisk was the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (r. circa 669-627 B.C.). After sacking Thebes in 664 B.C., he had a pair transported to the royal palace in Nineveh, now modern-day Iraq. Imperial Rome boasted various obelisks: some taken from Egypt, others manufactured at home. Today Egyptian obelisks can be found in New York City, Istanbul, and Paris.
(Why this ancient 'King of the World' was so proud of his library.)
The Greeks gave the monuments the name obeliskos, meaning “small, pointed pillars.” The Egyptians, however, called it tekhen, a word of uncertain origin. Usually made of granite, obelisks are square in cross section and taper slightly as they rise toward an apex topped by a small pyramid, or pyramidion, as the Greeks called it.
To reflect the sun’s rays, the pyramidion was sometimes covered with gold or electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver. The Egyptians called the pyramidion a benben, meaning “to shine, to radiate.” It symbolized the Primordial Hill, the seat from which Atum (a manifestation of Re) created all that exists. Solar symbols or an image of the reigning pharaoh protected by Re were also engraved on it.
The base of the obelisk often featured figures of baboons, animals associated with the sun because of the haunting cries they make at dawn and dusk. The shaft, which supported the pyramidion and held it skyward, was usually inscribed with hieroglyphs in honor of the god it was dedicated to and the ruler who had commissioned the obelisk.
The first obelisks
The ancient Egyptian monuments first appeared at the beginning of the third millennium B.C. in a northern Egyptian city home to the main cult of Re. This city would later become known as Heliopolis, meaning “city of the sun” in Greek. The Egyptians, meanwhile, called the place Iunu, or “city of pillars,” an allusion to the obelisks that symbolized petrified sunbeams. Unfortunately, nothing remains today of Heliopolis, a place praised for its beauty. Its ruins lie hidden beneath a neighborhood in modern-day Cairo, and almost all of its ancient obelisks have disappeared.
Save $5 on a Nat Geo Digital Subscription
In the area of Abusir, just south of Cairo, the rulers of the fifth dynasty of the Old Kingdom (2575-2150 B.C.) built solar temples. Each had an open-air courtyard, in the middle of which stood an obelisk with a large altar for offerings at its base. These obelisks were built out of blocks of stone but did not yet have the classical slender form. Although the solar temples ceased to be built after the fifth dynasty, the tradition of erecting obelisks spread throughout Egypt from the Middle Kingdom (circa 1975-1640 B.C.) onward.
It wasn’t until the New Kingdom (1539-1075 B.C.), however, that obelisks were built to the height for which they are now famed. New Kingdom obelisks, also carved from a single block of stone, were taller and slimmer than previous versions, making their extraction and raising even more complicated. Obelisks of the New Kingdom were almost always installed in pairs in front of the temple’s monumental entrances, called pylons, where they provided symmetry. Italian Egyptologist Maurizio Damiano-Appia argues the pairing may symbolize the sun and moon.
(Epic engineering rescued colossal ancient Egyptian temples from floodwaters.)
Needles
Not a single pair of Egyptian obelisks remains intact at its original location. The last set was commissioned by Ramses II (r. 1279-1213 B.C.), and it used to stand in front of the pylon at the Temple of Luxor. But in 1830 the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, donated one of the two obelisks to the king of France. The monument stands majestically in the Place de la Concorde in Paris, where it was erected in 1836.
During the New Kingdom, Thebes became the capital of Egypt and the center of the cult of Amun-Re, a divinity born from the union of the Theban god Amun and the sun god Re. The affinity between these two divinities was such that Thebes was also called Iunu Shema’u, “Heliopolis of Upper Egypt.” In the Theban sanctuaries of Karnak and Luxor, numerous obelisks were erected, but today only three remain: two in the temple of Karnak and one in Luxor. All the others were removed and transported to Europe, during either the Roman imperial period or the modern age.
(Egypt’s pharaohs welcomed summer with this fabulous festival.)
From the Nile to the Tiber
After the New Kingdom, erecting obelisks continued but on a smaller scale. The final two date from the reign of Ptolemy IX Soter II (r. 116-107, 88-81 B.C.), who commissioned the monuments for a temple dedicated to the goddess Isis on Philae Island. This marked the end for construction of obelisks in their homeland, but following Egypt’s conquest by Romans in 30 B.C., the monoliths became popular elsewhere.
Augustus Caesar (r. 31 B.C.-A.D. 14) began a tradition of transporting obelisks to Rome that would continue throughout the imperial period. At first, the obelisks were considered to be spoils of war, a symbol of Roman victory over Egypt. Later, as Egyptian cults became popular in Rome, they would be appreciated for their symbolic and religious significance.
Cracked and never finished
It was typical for a large obelisk to be placed in a Roman circus, where it would adorn a spina, the central barrier around which chariot races ran. In this context, obelisks maintained their defining link with the sun, since for the Romans, such races represented the trajectory of Apollo, god of the sun, across the sky. Smaller obelisks were usually placed in temples dedicated to Isis or Serapis, the Greco-Egyptian god. Today Rome has 13 Egyptian obelisks, far more than any other city—or country—in the world.
Obelisks of the Circus Maximus
In 10 B.C. Augustus brought the first obelisk to Rome from Egypt. It was placed on the spina of the Circus Maximus. This pillar—the construction of which began under Seti I and was finished by Ramses II and his son Merneptah—came from Heliopolis and was made of red granite. Almost 78 feet high and weighing some 235 tons, it was transported from Egypt aboard a ship around a hundred feet long and was displayed for the admiration of the people in the shipyard at Puteoli (present-day Pozzuoli, on the Gulf of Naples).
(Ramses II ruled for 70 years and had 100 children. Egypt paid the price.)
In A.D. 357, to commemorate his 20th year on the throne, Constantius II (r. A.D. 337-361) had two obelisks moved from the Karnak Temple Complex in Thebes. Originally commissioned by Pharaoh Thutmose III (r. 1479-1425 B.C.) the pillars were the tallest in the world, at around a hundred feet high. Constantius first took them to Alexandria and from there relocated one of them to Rome to place in the Circus Maximus; the second remained in Egypt until A.D. 390, when Theodosius I decided to take it to Constantinople to decorate his hippodrome, an ancient arena for horse and chariot races.
With the passing of the centuries, almost nothing of the Circus Maximus survived, and its two obelisks were broken into three parts and lost under 23 feet of earth. In 1587 they were unearthed by order of Pope Sixtus V. After their restoration, the Augustan obelisk was placed at the Piazza del Popolo while that of Constantius was installed in the square in front of the Basilica of St. John Lateran.
In the first century A.D., the Circus of Nero stood on Vatican Hill, where the Vatican stands today. Here, Nero executed thousands of Christians, including the Apostle Peter, after the emperor blamed them for the burning of Rome. On the spina of Nero’s circus stood an uninscribed obelisk that had been brought to the city by Caligula (r. A.D. 37-41) in the first year of his reign. According to first-century Roman scholar Pliny the Elder, this obelisk dates to the Middle Kingdom and had been commissioned by a son of Pharaoh Senusret I.
The Vatican Obelisk
Once the obelisk arrived in Rome, in A.D. 37, it was placed in the Circus of Nero, where Christians believe St. Peter was martyred in A.D. 64. Despite Rome’s Christian transformation over the centuries that followed, the obelisk remained at the circus. Fontana built a scaffold-cum-crane around the obelisk. In May 1586 an audience of thousands fell silent as the monument was lifted from its base by horse-drawn pulleys and successfully lowered onto a platform. Trumpets sounded in triumph.
In mid-June the platform, set on rollers, was used to bring the obelisk to its new site, nearly 900 feet to the east. The slightest mishap could have cracked the monolith. To avoid such a catastrophe, the monument was sheathed in iron rods and hoops. To place the obelisk into its new position, Fontana reassembled the scaffold-crane tower. On September 10, some 900 men and 150 horses deployed a system of 40 pulleys to reerect the monolith, the first time this had been achieved since the classical period.
A new pedestal increased the obelisk’s total height to nearly 135 feet. On September 26, Rome’s pope and clergy held a ceremony that placed a Christian cross at the top to mark the ancient obelisk’s new association with Christianity.
After the abandonment of Nero’s circus, the obelisk remained standing next to the basilica that the emperor Constantine had built over the tomb of the Apostle Peter in the fourth century A.D. Then, in 1585, Pope Sixtus V decided he wanted to move the obelisk in front of the new St. Peter’s Basilica. Architect Domenico Fontana masterminded the removal, an operation that involved 900 workers in 1586. A cross was placed on top of the newly positioned monument. The obelisk, present at the martyrdom of Peter, the first bishop of Rome, now stands in front of the basilica that bears his name, symbolizing the victory of the Church over the pagan world.
In the 19th century, the Roman tradition of transporting obelisks from Egypt resumed. But this time, the monuments were gifts. The Egyptian government separated a pair of obelisks known as Cleopatra’s Needles from Alexandria, sending one to New York City and the other to London. One of the Luxor obelisks was given to France and installed at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. New obelisks were also being built using modern techniques and materials, such as the Washington Monument in the United States’ capital. Standing five times higher than those of pharaonic Egypt, it symbolizes respect for a nation’s Founding Father. The continued desire for obelisks around the world shows fascination remains strong and ancient Egypt’s influence continues to span millennia.
