Obelisk, << OB uh lihsk, >> is a great, upright, four-sided stone pillar. The sides slope slightly so that the top is smaller than the base. The top is shaped like a pyramid and ends in a point. The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., is a good example of an obelisk.
Ancient Egyptians erected huge obelisks that were cut from single blocks of granite. Most obelisks had inscriptions in hieroglyphics (picture writing). They were often erected in pairs at entrances to temples. Two obelisks, now known as Cleopatra’s Needles, were originally at Heliopolis, Egypt. In the 1800’s, one was taken to New York City, and the other to London (see Cleopatra’s Needles). An obelisk from the temple of Luxor, Egypt, is now in Paris’ Place de la Concorde.
Obelisks were cut right at the quarry. The ancient Egyptians first made a horizontal, three-sided form by cutting deep trenches all around the form. Then they split away the fourth side either by inserting copper or wooden wedges, or by pounding through the underside with balls of diorite, a hard rock. Finally they polished the obelisk. Still unexplained is exactly how they raised the huge stone pillar to an upright position at its final site. Some scientists think the Egyptians might have begun by hauling the obelisk up a gravel and stone ramp to the edge of a pit filled with sand. The obelisk was lowered into the pit by slowly removing the sand while crews pulled on ropes to guide the obelisk into place.
