Site · Egypt and Nubia · Egypt
Unfinished obelisk
Finished, the Aswan obelisk would have weighed 1,168 tons. The granite cracked first.
History Its creation was possibly ordered by Hatshepsut (1508–1458 BC), possibly to…
The quarry shows how it was cut, but not how it would have been lifted. How would you raise it?
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons