List of Egyptian obelisks

Bonomi (1843) ^[1]

H.H. Gorringe (1882) ^[2]

Lists of obelisks published during the 19th century

Obelisks had a prominent role in the architecture and religion of ancient Egypt. ^[3] This list contains all known remaining ancient Egyptian obelisks. ^{[1] [2]} The list does not include modern or pre-modern pseudo-Egyptian obelisks, such as the numerous Egyptian-style obelisks commissioned by Roman Emperors. The list also excludes approximately 40 known obelisk fragments, catalogued by Hiroyuki Nagase and Shoji Okamoto. ^[4]

Number

Aswan

Beirut

Cairo

Dorset

Durham

Faiyum

Florence

Istanbul

London

Luxor

New York City

Paris

Poznań

Rome

Urbino

The location of the extant ancient Egyptian obelisks

Only about 30 such obelisks are still in existence worldwide; figures vary between sources with different definitions of extant Egyptian obelisks. ^[5] For example, David Allen states there are 29 such obelisks, with more in Italy than in Egypt. ^[5] Only two known obelisks date prior to the New Kingdom, both of which were dedicated to the Middle Kingdom Pharaoh Senusret I. At least 22 of the known obelisks date to the New Kingdom, four date to the Late Period and one to the Ptolemaic period.

The international transportation of Egyptian obelisks dates to the Roman conquest of Egypt following the death of Cleopatra, and in modern times as Egyptian "gifts" to other major cities such as the Luxor Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, and the Cleopatra's Needles on the Victoria Embankment and in Central Park in London and New York City respectively. ^[5] Only five obelisks still stand at the ruins of Ancient Egyptian temples. ^[4]

The largest known obelisk, the unfinished obelisk, was never erected and was discovered in its original quarry. It is nearly one-third larger than the largest ancient Egyptian obelisk ever erected (the Lateran Obelisk in Rome); if finished it would have measured around 41.75 metres (137.0 ft) ^[6] and would have weighed nearly 1,090 tonnes (1,200 short tons), a weight equal to about 200 African elephants. ^[7]

The most recent ancient obelisk to be re-erected is the 17-metre-tall Ramses II obelisk in Tahrir Square, the main city square of Cairo, having been reassembled from eight blocks discovered at Tanis in the late 19th century. ^[8] Dr Khaled El-Anany, Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, said, "When we go to European capitals like Rome or Paris or London, and also Washington [ sic ], we see that they use Egyptian obelisks in decorating their major tourist squares, so why do we not do the same?" ^[9]

List

Name	Image	Height (with base)	Pharaoh		Original location	Current location			Ref
			Name	Reign		Place (since)	City	Sovereign state
Unfinished obelisk		41.75 m	Hatshepsut	1479–1458 BC	Aswan (in situ)	Stone Quarries, Aswan	Aswan	Egypt	[7]
Lateran Obelisk		32.18 m (45.70 m with base)	Thutmose III / Thutmose IV	1479–1425 BC / 1401–1391 BC	Karnak	Lateran Palace	Rome	Italy	[1]
Karnak obelisks of Hatshepsut		29.56 m	Hatshepsut	1479–1458 BC	Karnak (in situ)	Karnak Temple	Luxor	Egypt	[1]
Vatican obelisk (a.k.a. St Peter's Square obelisk or Caligula's obelisk)		25.5 m (41 m with base)	Unknown	Unknown	Alexandria	St. Peter's Square	Vatican City	Vatican City	[1]
Luxor obelisks (Luxor and Paris obelisks)		25.03 m and 22.83 m	Ramesses II	1279–1213 BC	Luxor Temple	Luxor Temple (in situ)	Luxor	Egypt	[1]
						Place de la Concorde (1833)	Paris	France	[1]
Flaminio Obelisk (a.k.a. Popolo obelisk)		24 m (36.5 m with base)	Seti I / Ramesses II	1294–1279 BC / 1279–1213 BC	Heliopolis	Piazza del Popolo	Rome	Italy	[1]
Obelisk of Montecitorio (a.k.a. Solare obelisk)		21.79 m (33.97 m with base)	Psamtik II	595–589 BC	Heliopolis	Piazza di Montecitorio	Rome	Italy	[1]
Karnak obelisk of Thutmosis I		21.20 m	Thutmose I	1506–1493 BC	Karnak (in situ)	Karnak	Luxor	Egypt	[1]
Cleopatra's Needles (London and New York obelisks)		21.00 m	Thutmose III	1479–1425 BC	Heliopolis (via Alexandria)	Victoria Embankment (1878)	London	United Kingdom	[2]
						Central Park (1881)	New York City	United States	[1]
Al-Masalla obelisk (a.k.a. Al Mataraiyyah obelisk)		20.40 m	Senusret I	1971–1926 BC	Heliopolis (in situ)	Al-Masalla area of Al-Matariyyah district in Heliopolis	Cairo	Egypt	[1]
Obelisk of Theodosius (a.k.a. Istanbul obelisk)		18.54 m (25.6 m with base)	Thutmose III	1479–1425 BC	Karnak	Sultanahmet Square	Istanbul	Turkey	[1]
Tahrir obelisk		17 m	Ramesses II	1279–1213 BC	Tanis	Tahrir Square (2020)	Cairo	Egypt	[10] [8]
Cairo Airport obelisk		16.97 m	Ramesses II	1279–1213 BC	Tanis	Cairo International Airport (1984)	Cairo	Egypt	[11]
Pantheon obelisk (a.k.a. Macuteo or Rotonda obelisk)		14.52 m (26.34 m with base)	Ramesses II	1279–1213 BC	Heliopolis	Piazza della Rotonda	Rome	Italy	[1]
Gezira obelisk		13.5 m (20.4 m with base)	Ramesses II	1279–1213 BC	Tanis	Gezira Island, Cairo	Cairo	Egypt	[12]
Abgig obelisk (a.k.a.Crocodilopolis obelisk)		12.70 m	Senusret I	1971–1926 BC	Faiyum (local area, found fallen)	Abgig	Faiyum	Egypt	[13]
Philae obelisk		6.70 m	Ptolemy IX	116–107 BC	Philae (Temple of Isis)	Kingston Lacy (1815)	Dorset	United Kingdom	[1]
Boboli Obelisk		6.34 m	Ramesses II	1279–1213 BC	Heliopolis (via Rome)	Boboli Gardens (1790)	Florence	Italy	[2]
Elephant and Obelisk (a.k.a. Minerveo obelisk)		5.47 m (12.69 m with base)	Apries	589–570 BC	Sais	Piazza della Minerva (Roman period, rediscovered 1665)	Rome	Italy	[1]
Abu Simbel obelisks		3.13 m	Ramesses II	1279–1213 BC	Abu Simbel (Great Temple)	Nubian Museum	Aswan	Egypt	[14]
Urbino obelisk (a.k.a. Albani obelisk)		3.00 m	Apries	589–570 BC	Sais (via Rome)	Ducal Palace	Urbino	Italy	[2]
Poznań obelisk		3.00 m	Ramesses II	1279–1213 BC	Athribis (via Berlin, 1895)	Poznań Archaeological Museum (2002)	Poznań	Poland	[15] [16] [17]
Matteiano obelisk (a.k.a. Celimontana obelisk)		2.68 m (12.23 m with base)	Ramesses II	1279–1213 BC	Heliopolis	Villa Celimontana	Rome	Italy	[1]
Durham obelisk (a.k.a. Alnwick or Algernon obelisk)		2.15 m	Amenhotep II	1427–1401 BC	unknown (within the Thebaid)	Oriental Museum, University of Durham (1838)	Durham	United Kingdom	[1] [18]
Dogali obelisk (a.k.a. Casanatese obelisk)		2 m (6.34 m with base)	Ramesses II	1279–1213 BC	Heliopolis	Baths of Diocletian	Rome	Italy	[19] [20]
Abishemu obelisk		1.25 m (1.45 m with base)	Abishemu (King of Byblos)	1800s BC	Temple of the Obelisks	Beirut National Museum	Beirut	Lebanon	[21]
Karnak obelisk of Seti II		0.95 m	Seti II	1203–1197 BC	Karnak (in situ)	Karnak	Luxor	Egypt	[22]
Luxor obelisk		0.95 m (original est. 3 m)	Ramesses III	1186–1155 BC	Karnak	Luxor Museum (1923)	Luxor	Egypt	[23]
Obelisks of Nectanebo II		0.95 m (original est. 5.5 m)	Nectanebo II	360–342 BC	Hermopolis	British Museum	London	United Kingdom	[1]

References

1. Joseph Bonomi the Younger (1843). Notes on Obelisks. pp. 40 v – via Hathi Trust.
2. Gorringe, Henry Honychurch (1885). Egyptian Obelisks. Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO): Photography: The World through the Lens. John C. Nimmo – via Google Books.
3. Mark, Joshua J. (November 6, 2016). "Egyptian Obelisk". World History Encyclopedia. World History Publishing.
4. Hiroyuki Nagase and Shoji Okamoto, 2017, Obelisks of the World: "Although about 30 ancient obelisks are currently well maintained and stand at the public places (plaza, square, park, etc.), but only 5 remain at the ruins of Ancient Temple in Egypt. And two more obelisks stand at the public space in Egypt. So 7 obelisks in total in Egypt."
5. Allen, D. (2013). How Mechanics Shaped the Modern World. Springer International Publishing. ISBN   978-3-319-01701-3 . Retrieved 2022-01-23. By the way, there are 29 extant Egyptian obelisks in the world today. Nine are in Egypt, and eleven in Italy (eight of which are in Rome, having been pilfered by the Romans after Augustus defeated Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE, thereby conquering Egypt). Others are scattered across the world.
6. Reginald Engelbach, 1922, The Aswân Obelisk, with some remarks on ancient engineering
7. Bard, Kathryn (1999). Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge. p. 587. ISBN   978-0-415-18589-9.
8. Nevine El-Aref, Sep 2019, An obelisk in Tahrir "After centuries of being scattered in eight large blocks on the sands at San Al-Haggar archaeological site in Zagazig, a 17 m-tall obelisk of King Ramses II will be restored, re-assembled and re-erected to decorate the historic Tahrir Square"
9. Machemer, Theresa (May 11, 2020). "Egypt Defies Archaeologists' Protests by Relocating Four Ancient Sphinxes". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution.
10. Mira Maged, Feb 2020, Ramses II obelisk to be fully reassembled in Cairo's Tahrir Square "...with Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities having transported eight blocks of the statue unearthed in August 2019 at Zagazig, a city in Lower Egypt"
11. Flinders Petrie, Tanis, I, plate VIII (48, North Obelisk)
12. Flinders Petrie, Tanis, I, plate IX (51, North Obelisk)
13. 1809: Description de l'Égypte , IV, plate 71, Text II, ch. XVII, 43–45
14. Charles Kuentz (1932) Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire N°1308–1315 et 17001-17036 Obélisques, 45–50, plate XIII (Cairo Museum JE 42955 C, CG 17023 & 17024)
15. Obelisk of Ramesses II in the Museum's courtyard
16. Königliche Museen Berlin, Ägyptische und Vorderasiatische Altertümer II (1897), pl.116
17. Ausführliches Verzeichnis der Ägyptischen Altertümer (1899), pp.124–125, fig.26.
18. Cooper & Chabas 1877.
19. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, II, 483, § 183 C
20. Orazio Marucchi, 1898, Gli obelischi egiziani di Roma, page 96
21. Maurice Dunand, Fouilles de Byblos, volume 2, p. 878, no. 16980; and plate XXXII number 2
22. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions, IV, 250:12–16
23. Maurice Pillet, Rapport sur les travaux de Karnak. X, "Un petit obélisque de Ramsès III." Annales Du Service Des Antiquités de L'Egypte 24 (1924): 82–3

Bibliography

• Cooper, William Ricketts; Chabas, François (1877). A Short History of the Egyptian Obelisks. Bagster.
• Habachi, Labib (1977). The obelisks of Egypt : skyscrapers of the past. New York: Scribner. ISBN   978-0-684-14805-2. OCLC   2614302.

External links

• Peter Lundström, pharaoh.se
• Hiroyuki Nagase and Shoji Okamoto, 2017, Obelisks of the World