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Hand
Carved Egyptian obelisk made from Basalt
What is
Basalt :
basalt is a fine-grained
rock
of volcanic origin.
What is
obelisk :
Obelisk is a slender four-sided
tapering monument, usually hewn of a single great piece of
stone, terminating in a pointed or pyramidal top. Among the
ancient Egyptians these monoliths were commonly of red
granite from Syene and were dedicated to the sun god. They
were placed in pairs before the temples, one on either side
of the portal. The greatest number erected in any one place
was in Heliopolis, but eventually almost every temple
entrance was flanked by a pair of them. Down each of the
four faces, in most cases, ran a line of deeply incised
hieroglyphs and representations, setting forth the names
and titles of the Pharaoh. The cap, or pyramidion, was
sometimes sheathed with copper or other metal. Obelisks of
colossal size were first raised in the XII dynasty. Of
those still standing in Egypt, one remains at Heliopolis
and two at Al Karnak, one from the time of Thutmose I and
one of Queen Hatshepsut which is estimated to be 97.5 ft
(29.7 m) high. Many of the historic shafts have been
carried from Egypt, notably one of the reign of Ramses II
from Luxor, now in the Place de la Concorde, Paris, and
Cleopatra's Needles
in London and New York. Others are in Rome and Florence. In
the United States two familiar structures of obelisk form
(though not monoliths) are the Washington and the Bunker
Hill monuments.
Egyptian Basalt Obelisk. |
