Unfinished Aswan Obelisk

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Unfinished obelisk in Aswan
The ancient Egyptian rose granite quarry with the unfinished obelisk

The unfinished obelisk in the Upper Egyptian city ​​of Aswan is an unfinished obelisk made of rose granite . It is located in a pit in the northern area of ​​the ancient Egyptian quarries in and around Aswan, about one kilometer southeast of the Nile . With a height of 41.75 meters on a base of 4.2 × 4.2 meters and a weight of around 1168 tons, it would have been the largest obelisk of ancient times when completed .

Time of origin

Nothing is known about the time the unfinished obelisk was built. It is believed that it was started under Queen Hatshepsut and was intended for the Temple of Karnak . Cracks in the material should have led to the discontinuation of the work. The lower part of the obelisk is still connected to the rock from which it was cut. Traces of later attempts at division can be seen on the object, possibly from the time of Thutmose III. The wedge-shaped depressions, which can be seen in a row on the obelisk, date from Roman times. Both the division attempts and the attempts with riving knife were ended without success.

The unfinished obelisk and the quarries themselves give insights into the stone-working technique of the ancient Egyptians. The ancient quarries near Aswan stretched six kilometers along the Nile. The red granite of this rock deposit was the preferred material for building pyramids. Sarcophagus chambers , cladding, false doors , interior corridor walls, pillars, columns and door constructions were made from this hard stone.

The height of the use of granite was in the times of the Pharaohs Chephren and Mykerinos . The amount of rose granite used for the building program of Chefren (valley, sphinx and pyramid temples, pyramid base cladding) is estimated at 17,000 m³, that for the Mykerinos pyramid at 15,000 m³. The total volume of the rose granite mined at that time, also called Aswan granite, is calculated to be around 100,000 m³, of which about 45,000 m³ could be built.

Exposure

Much has been puzzled over the methods of exposing the unfinished obelisk. The rounded bulges in the approximately 60 cm wide trenches, which can still be seen today, were sufficient for a workplace. If the Steinhauer worked back to back, 130 people could be deployed at the same time with the length of the trench.

Working trench with worked-out depressions in the bottom of the trench

The extraction of the granite in the Aswan area as well as the work on the unfinished obelisk were carried out with stone hammers from the basalt rock dolerite . This material stood in the immediate vicinity of Aswan and was broken into sizes of around five kilograms. With the sharp-edged rock hammers, fine rock fragments or rock dust could be knocked off. The dolerite around Aswan is a tough rock and the hammers made from it were used until they were partially rounded. The remains of hand tools can be found in large numbers near the quarries.

Traces of exposure of numerous rectangular depressions

Tests have shown that the stone hammer method could knock off about 12 cm³ per minute. That would result in a volume of 6000 cm³ on an 8-hour day or 1.8 m³ in a year, assuming 300 working days. With a number of 130 Egyptian stone carvers, according to this calculation, it took just under a year to build the existing trenches.

The technique of uncovering by means of trenches was only used on the unfinished obelisk, with other workpieces natural fissures , processes of wool sack weathering and cracks in the granite deposits were used for stone extraction for the purpose of building.

In recent rock studies it has been found that only a few workpieces longer than 20 meters could have been extracted. Whether the decision not to continue the work here was made because of the cracks, which are small compared to other obelisks, or because of political decisions or because of the size of the stone, can no longer be traced.

The quarries are now an open-air museum and are protected as an archaeological site by the government of Egypt. Furthermore, the quarries are on the 1979 World Heritage List of UNESCO .

  • Quarry at the unfinished obelisk

  • Top of the unfinished obelisk

  • Wedge holes in the quarry from Roman times

  • Wedge holes from Roman times on the unfinished obelisk

  • Rock drawing 45 meters north of the unfinished obelisk

See also

Web links

Commons : Unfinished Aswan Obelisk  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Unfinished Obelisk (www.ch-forrer.ch) ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ch-forrer.ch
  2. ↑ a b Rosemarie Klemm , Dietrich Klemm : stones and quarries in ancient Egypt. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 1992, ISBN 3-540-54685-5 , p. 322.
  3. ↑ Rosemarie Klemm, Dietrich Klemm: stones and quarries in ancient Egypt. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 1992, ISBN 3-540-54685-5 , p. 321.
  4. ↑ Rosemarie Klemm, Dietrich Klemm: stones and quarries in ancient Egypt. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 1992, ISBN 3-540-54685-5 , p. 321 ff.
  5. ^ Nubian Monuments from Abu Simbel to Philae - UNESCO World Heritage Center

Coordinates: 24 ° 4 ′ 36.8 ″  N , 32 ° 53 ′ 43.6 ″  E