Unfinished obelisk
The unfinished obelisk in the Upper Egyptian city of Aswan is an unfinished obelisk of red granite. It is located in a pit in the northern part of the ancient Egyptian quarries in and around Aswan, about a kilometer south-east of the Nile. With a height of 41.75 meters on a base of 4.2 x 4.2 meters and a weight of about 1168 tons, it would have been the largest obelisk of antiquity upon completion.
Time of origin
At the time of origin of the unfinished obelisk is not known. It is believed that he was started under Queen Hatshepsut and was intended for the temple of Karnak. Cracks in the material should have led to the suspension of work. The lower part of the obelisk is still attached to the rock from which he was beaten. At the object tracks later division attempts are recognizable, possibly from the time of Thutmose III. The wedge-shaped depressions, which together are the obelisk at one point ranked seen come from the Roman period. Both the division attempts and the attempts of splitting wedges were concluded without success.
The unfinished obelisk and the quarries in itself provide insights into the art of stone working of the ancient Egyptians. The ancient quarries at Aswan extended to six kilometers along the Nile. The red granite rock this occurrence was the preferred material for building pyramids. For this hard stone sarcophagus chambers, paneling, false doors, corridor walls of the interior spaces, columns, pillars and door structures were manufactured.
The highlight of granite use was in the times of the Pharaohs Khafre and Menkaure. The amount of rose granite for the building program of Khafre ( Valley, Sphinx and Pyramid Temple, Pyramid base cover ) is 17,000 cubic meters, the estimated for the Pyramid of Mycerinus to 15,000 m³. The total volume of the then decomposed granite rose, also called Aswan granite is calculated at about 100,000 cubic meters, of which about 45,000 cubic meters could be installed.
Exposure
About the uncovering methods of unfinished obelisk has been much speculation. The rounded bulges in about 60 cm wide trenches that you can still see today, were sufficient for a job. Worked the Steinhauer back to back, so could be used simultaneously with the existing grave length 130 people.
The extraction of granite in Aswan area as well as the work on the unfinished obelisk were carried out with stone hammers out of the Basalt dolerite. This material was in the immediate vicinity of Aswan and was broken into sizes of about five kilograms. With the sharp-edged rock hammers fine rock chip or rock flour could be knocked off. The dolerite to Aswan is a tough rock and the hammers made from it were used until they were partially rounded. Remains of hand tools can be found in large numbers near the quarries.
Through experiments, it was found that with the stone hammer method about 12 cc could be knocked off per minute. This would result in an 8 -hour day 6000 cc volume or in a year, with insinuation of 300 working days, 1.8 m³. With a total number of 130 Egyptian masons were needed for this calculation just under one year to prepare the existing trenches.
Only at the Unfinished Obelisk, the technique of exposing was applied by means of ditches, in other workpieces natural fractures, operations of Wollsackverwitterung and cracks in the granite quarries for stone extraction were used for the purpose of building.
In rock known union studies recently was found that only a few pieces at a length would have been about 20 meters winnable. Whether the decision not to stop the degradation of the obelisk, due to the cracks that are low compared to other obelisks, or dropped due to political decisions or because of the size of the stone can no longer comprehend.
The quarries are now an open air museum and made available as archaeological site of the Government of Egypt under protection. Furthermore, the quarries are on the World Heritage list of UNESCO since 1979.
Wedge holes in the quarry from the Roman period
Wedge holes from the Roman period at the Unfinished Obelisk
Obelisk tip