The Unfinished Obelisk

Continue onward, we stopped at the Unfinished Obelisk, after first passing the Fatimid Cemetery. The cemetery looked interesting, the tombs seemed to be above ground but we didn’t stop in for a closer look. I took a quick snapshot as the coach passed by.

In all the Egyptian temples, you can see that obelisk were used everywhere. It was one of the unique characteristics. Much of the red granite used for ancient temples and colossi came from quarries in the Aswan area. The Unfinished Obelisk has a crack, discovered as it was being hewn from the rock, and therefore left unfinished! Possibly intended as a companion to the Lateran Obelisk for the Karnak temple; it would have weighed over 2.3 million pounds and would have been the world’s largest piece of stone ever handled.

By the time we visited the site, the sun was high up and the temperature accelerated quickly. We asked mom to stay below as we ascended up to check out the obelisk. Here, one has to understand the story behind in order to appreciate the “leftover”.

Just before lunch, we had a quick demo of how the Egyptian makes papyrus. The plant Papyrus is more widely available than one would think. I had them in the backyard of my Irvine home. I loved them since my last visit to Africa on a safari, not realizing it was named “Papyrus”. Then I started to tune into them when I returned to California. I am attracted to the grass-like clump of triangular green stems that rise up from thick woody bark body. Here, this store did not disappoint me. I spent most of my souvenirs allowance!!! I cannot wait to get them framed up for my home. I supposed I could just get the $2 fake papyrus from the bazaar. But then who am I fooling???