The Unfinished Obelisk is still in the process of being built.

Ancient Egyptian temples often had two obelisks in front to help people find their way to the main entrances. They were essential parts of the story.

Sites along the Nile River were mined for red granite, which was used extensively in their construction. Ancient Egyptians used granite to build tombs in places like Cairo and Alexandria, and they then moved the stone to other cities to use as a building material.

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Directions:

Unfinished Obelisk
Amazing top view of the Unfinished Obelisk

You can get to Aswan from the hotel in 7 minutes, Luxor in 3 hours, and Cairo in 1 hour.

History:

Unfinished Obelisk
Unfinished Obelisk in Aswan

A flaw was found in the granite used to build the obelisk, so it was never finished.

The unfinished obelisk would have been 42 meters tall and 1168 tonnes heavy when done.

This other building was said to have been the so-called Lateran Obelisk in Rome, which stood in front of the temple of Tuthmosis III at Karnak temple and is now thought to be the giant obelisk in the world.

The old ways of quarrying have been put together by looking at chisel marks and tools left behind. For example, they think that wooden wedges were used to separate cracks, and a slurry of quartz sand was used as an abrasive.

A long time ago, people who worked in the quarries painted murals of animals like dolphins and ostriches. At least a few of these paintings look pretty good.

Numbers and facts that help explain.

Unfinished Obelisk
Unfinished Obelisk from side view

International trade and government purchases have allowed Egypt to send more obelisks to other countries.

There are well-known examples in New York City, Paris, London, Istanbul, Israel, and Poland, on top of the many already in temples and other places around the country. These sculptures can be found in a total of eleven different locations. In Egypt, only eight people are still alive.

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