Egyptologists are still discussing with interest the unfinished obelisk - one of the ancient mysteries of Egypt. This archaeological site is located in the city of Aswan. The first mentions of it are found in the sources of the 1920s. And although the exact date of the construction of the obelisk cannot be established, some scientists attribute it to the era of the Great Pyramids of Egypt.
The Aswan Obelisk is the largest ever created in Ancient Egypt. If it were possible to finish it, its height would most likely be equal to almost 42 meters. The base of the obelisk is a square, one side of which is 4.2 meters. The weight of the obelisk was calculated arithmetically and in the unfinished state is 1200 tons. Scientists suggest that the completed Aswan Obelisk could weigh almost 2000 tons.
The most important and interesting question for researchers is how the obelisk was built and how was it supposed to be raised and delivered to a certain place? It was built in the region where the Egyptians mined pink granite. It was from this material that not only massive obelisks were built in Egypt, but also statues, sarcophagi, portals of temple complexes. Usually the obelisk was covered with gold or copper, hieroglyphs were applied to it. But the Aswan obelisk was unfinished due to a crack in the upper part. Scientists say the reason for this is a possible earthquake.
Regarding the construction of ancient obelisks, it is believed that holes were first cut in the rock into which wedges of wood were driven. These wedges were soaked in water, causing the tree to gradually swell and fracture the rock. After that, the builders leveled the blocks, gave them the desired shape, and polished the surface.
But in the case of the Aswan obelisk, this version cannot be taken into account. Because there is a narrow trench around the monolith, which is less than a meter wide. That is, it looks like the obelisk was carved into the rock and work on it was carried out not from its sides, but from above. The most interesting question is what tools the ancient Egyptians could use in the process of such construction. Interestingly, the monolith has much later cuts and splits using wedges. But these remaining traces testify only to the fact that they never managed to cut or split the obelisk.
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The second no less exciting question is how people were going to raise their structure from a stone massif and deliver it to its destination? In 2005, not far from the Aswan Obelisk, another unfinished obelisk was discovered. It was slightly smaller in size, and did not graduate either, but at least they began to get it out of the rock. The question is "how?" remains open. Even the marking lines made with ocher on the obelisk and markings from workers' tools did not shed light on the mystery of the construction. Although, of course, modern scientists were able to get a rare opportunity to study the ancient Egyptian technique of processing stone mass.
There is a version that the obelisk began to be built on the orders of Hatshepsut, a woman-pharaoh of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt from the 18th dynasty. And, of course, the Aswan Obelisk is far from the only example of the highest level of technology used in ancient Egyptian granite architecture. It is interesting that earlier samples were created using more complex technologies. This fact gives many researchers the right to assume that such grandiose structures could only be within the power of very developed civilizations. Which may have preceded the ancient Egyptian.