Amongst the hills south of Aswan there is a quarry which once provided the Egyptians with red granite for their temples, and within the quarry lies an unfinished obelisk. Three sides of the obelisk had been completed before a flaw was discovered. The Egyptians began cutting the Obelisk shorter before a second flaw caused them to realise that the flaw was within the granite rather than caused by a mistake in the cutting, and the obelisk was abandoned.
Had the obelisk been completed it would have been 134 feet high, and weighed 1197 tons, this would then have been transported via the Nile to a temple site and erected. Quite an impressive feat to accomplish over 1000 years BC!
Hello, Jay! This is so interesting. What a shame they didn’t finish it! It’s fascinating what people from hundreds of thousands of years ago could build. It makes what we do seem easy!
Have a lovely week and happy A to Z!!
Hi Laura! It’s magnificent isn’t it? It’s incredible how they built such stunning temples with such meagre tools. We’re so spoiled! Happy A to Z! The end is in sight!!
Wow! And how the heck they would lift it up?
They’d build a huge mound of earth & drag the obelisk up the mound, bottom first, and then let it slide slowly down the other side until it was standing the right way up! Geniuses for their time.