Unfinished Obelisk Aswan

One of the most famous stone objects that is left from ancient Egypt in Aswan is the unfinished obelisk, taller than any known obelisk ever raised

What Does an Obelisk Mean and What Was It Used For?

An obelisk is generally defined as a tall and slender monument, with four sides converging to a mini pyramidal shape at the topmost point

Obelisk is the Greek name of this shape which means needle, when the Greeks came to Egypt they saw that it looks like a needle that’s why they called it Obelisk that has the same meaning. It was used back in ancient Egypt to show the people that this place is a holly place, a temple and everyone shall come and offer some of the offerings, that’s why all the temples had obelisks back in ancient Egypt

What Is The Reason For Leaving The Unfinished Obelisk Behind?

Quarry men apparently abandoned the obelisk when fractures appeared in its sides during its construction. It is estimated that a block of granite this size would easily weigh more than a 1000 tons, some geologists have suggested a figure in the region of 1100 tons – 1150 tons

How Did The Ancient Egyptian Carve Granite?

The main tools used to shape this excessively huge granite block were not chisels as most people would assume. The early Egyptian stone masons used small hand sized balls of the mineral Diorite to pound against the surfaces of the roughly hewn obelisks, until all the superfluous knobs and excrescences were flattened. Diorite is one of the few substances on Planet Earth that is harder than granite; most other rocks would simply crumble if they were repeatedly banged against granite

They used a special technique to separate the granite from the bedrock, where they made very small cavities in the body of the rock, all along the line of desired detachment and those cavities were filled with wood chips and then these chips were witted thoroughly with water. This soaking made the wood to expand in volume, causing the rock to crack along the drawn lines and finally got detached from its base. But nothing could be found out till now, about their other technological instruments, which were used in architecture or sculpting out from the hard granite