Dig days: Egypt's top 10: obelisks By Zahi Hawass Obelisks were signs of victory, and the inscriptions carved on them record the titles and achievements of the Pharaohs. The tip of an obelisk, called the capstone or pyramidion, was cased with gold, its brilliant shine connecting it with the sun-god Re. Egypt's obelisks were chosen by the Discovery Channel as one of the top 10 archaeological "discoveries" in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians cut small obelisks to place inside the funerary temple associated with each pyramid. The oldest and the largest obelisk still standing, however, dates from the reign of Sesostris I in the Middle Kingdom, about 3,600 years ago. The site of the ancient city of Heliopolis, where this obelisk stands, was the centre for the worship of the sun- god, and temples dedicated to this deity were built here throughout much of Pharaonic history. The granite quarry in Aswan was the main source of stone for obelisks. The famous quarry in the heart of the town still holds an unfinished obelisk weighing about 1,164 tonnes and believed to date to the reign of Queen Hatshepsut. From this site we can learn how the ancients cut these heavy monuments and then transported them to the temples of Karnak and Luxor. Inside Karnak Temple we can still see a standing obelisk dedicated by Queen Hatshepsut. In front of the first pylon at Luxor Temple, built by Ramses II, we can still see one huge obelisk in situ, along with two huge seated statues of the king. The other obelisk from the first pylon at Luxor was moved to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. I really cannot stand the way that the spiritual value of the site has been damaged by the removal of the obelisk. Another obelisk, taken from Heliopolis, stands today in New York's Central Park. It is in very poor condition, and I wrote to the mayor of New York telling him that if the city could not take better care of the obelisk, then we would take it back. We recently began an important study at the site of the unfinished obelisk, and we were able to add greatly to our understanding of how these huge objects were transported. We found a unique inscription left by Tuthmosis III, which said that he ordered his architect to cut two obelisks for the temple of his father, the god Amun, at Karnak. We also found scenes drawn by the workmen which showed long-necked ostriches and fish from Aswan. Some showed standing obelisks. Others, drawings of the god Bes, the god of pleasure and tunes, would have made them feel happy. Names written in demotic may be those of the workmen, and markings they left show us how they cut the obelisks. We also found several basalt balls which were used to smooth the surfaces of the obelisks. Now, for the first time, people who come to visit the unfinished obelisk can see all these archaeological discoveries, which enrich our knowledge of how the ancient Egyptians crafted these remarkable monuments. We can even see the harbour that connected the River Nile to the site of the granite quarry. I was not able to go with the Atlantic Productions crew to Aswan to explain the important work we had done at this incredible site. But now we can go back into the past and imagine what happened when the Egyptians moved obelisks thousands of years ago. I have talked a great deal with a man from Seattle named Nathan whose dream is to find the obelisks that must have fallen into the Nile while they were being moved by boat in the time of the Pharaohs. We are going to mount an expedition to search for these missing obelisks. They may still be under the water, and it is even possible that statues cut from the quarries at Gabal Al-Silsilah could be there as well. We even know that the 19th- century Egyptologist Gaston Maspero moved two small obelisks from Dra Abu Al-Naga on the west bank of Luxor, but that the boat sank near a small village to the north of Karnak Temple. We are going to save these obelisks.
