Obelisks

Obelisks Back to home page Back to group page Georgia Hallam 6-2 Obelisks have been around for thousands of years. They are monolithic, **stone monument. An Obelisk, is a four-sided, tall, narrow, tapering-like monument, which ends in a pyramid like point at the top.** The tallest Egyptian obelisk is in the square in front of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, standing at 105.6ft tall and weighs up to 455 tons. The picture below shows the whole Obelisk at the basilica. Obelisks are usually made of granite. The stone used to make the obelisk is Red Granite. It comes from igneous rock quarries at Elephantine. They people used this type of granite because it is very durable, high polish, and strong, so it will not get ruined throughout the shipping process. People shipped the obelisks in three parts. Many kings and queens used Obelisks in their civilization. Such as Queen Hashepsuts. Around 1485BC, **//Queen Hashepsut of the 18th Dynasty erected 6 Obelisks. One of her six obelisks still stands at Karanak.//** Queen Hashepsut’s last Obelisk at 97.5ft high, 8.6ft wide at the base, and 5.3ft wide at the top.

The word Obelisk comes from the greek word Obelos, meaning split or a similar pointed object. They were common in the egypt cultures, but now they are commonly used for backyard gnomen, they can be used at a sun-dile or a calendar, as was done by Augustus in Rome. The end of a shadow can be used as a certain time to. Obelisks wonderful form has been used in many other things, such as the Washington Monument. It was built in 1848-1884, it is the shape of an obelisk, accept it is not monolithic. The egyptians would approve, but the washington monument is a little smaller.

The obelisk form highly effected the Egyptians.they were so influenced and affected by the Obelisk there is twice as many obelisks in Rome, than that remain in Egypt! It represented the sun god Ra. In the Egyptian culture obelisks are very important. They are made for beauty or a clock, (sun dial), also for royalty. Usually there was writing on Obelisks of old stories, or names, or a story of a great telling of an acheivment of a person. Obelisks were so popular form the egyption emperor, 13 of them were taken to Rome.

In conclusion, Obelisks have been around for a long time and we have used the idea for many things so thank the egyptians for inventing them. The Obelisk has been around for thousands of years and it has brought scientists a bunch of information.

**Bibliography:**
@http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/classics/obelisk.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obelisk @http://www.masters-table.org/pagan/oblis.htm
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