Pink Granite Obelisk

Made of one single piece of pink granite it has a height of 28 58 metres and its weight is 343 tons.

Pink granite obelisk.

The obelisk s creators began to carve it directly out of bedrock but cracks appeared in the granite and the project was abandoned. Four sacred baboons are carved on the pedestal and the names of ramesses appear on each side of the obelisks. It was hewn from a single block and stands 25 31 m. The unfinished obelisk offers unusual insights into ancient egyptian stone working techniques with marks from workers tools still clearly visible.

The obelisk was found in three pieces by the saccocci brothers in their vineyards in 1570 and was later bought by cardinal francesco barberini in 1632. The luxor obelisks french. Two 80 foot 25m pink granite obelisk built by ramesses once stood before the gateway but today only one remains the other stands in the place de la concorde in paris. It is located in the big temple of amon in karnak.

Unsurprisingly this was no small undertaking. The obelisk which comes from heliopolis egypt where it was built by the pharaoh mencares in 1835 bc in honor of the sun was brought to rome in 37 bc by the emperor caligula 37 41 and. The aswan pink granite obelisk which now stands in the pincian hill gardens was commissioned by hadrian after 130 ad to honour the deceased antinous. In february the egyptian government installed the foundation of a pink granite obelisk dating to the reign of ramses ii in tahrir square.

High on a base 8 25 m. Among them is the tale of its transportation from egypt to dorset. The reason you need granite is if you re going to do a really big obelisk you need a stone with internal structural strength that can support its own weight. The grade ii listed pink granite needle one of a pair of obelisks which dates from 150 bc holds a number of fascinating stories.

All obelisks come from the same quarry at aswan. The pink granite of which the unfinished obelisk is composed has a mohs hardness that sits between the scale of 6 and 7 the maximum being diamond at 10 and thus is more or less the same hardness as dolerite making the latter a poor material for shaping the former. The obelisk of hatshepsut built in the year 1457 bc during the xviii dynasty is the second biggest of all the ancient egyptian obelisks. A large pink granite obelisk can be admired in the center of the square.

The monument was unearthed in august 2019 in zagazig. We even call it aswan granite.