Template:Obelisks

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  • Various notes:
    • The obelisk enacts the same formula as the pyramid - maximum height for minimum base - but in different material, leading to different scale and architectural setting. The tip of the obelisk might be covered in shining metal - gold or the gold-silver alloy electrum; this would catch the first ray of the sun just before dawn, dramatising the illuminating and life-giving power of the creator. These effects are specified in the inscriptions of New Kingdom obelisks, which also make clear the intimate relation of king and sun-god (see the pages on kingship on this website).
    • Most often, pairs of giant monoliths of red granite from Aswan were erected in front of the massive double towers of a temple gateway. As a symbol of the sun, the creator-god of the ancient Egyptian pantheon, the giant obelisks marked the temple as a zone of sun worship. Therefore obelisks are not found in front of every temple, but only in temples associated with the sun-god. [8]
    • See also:


  • Obelisk graves of the 'elite':


  • Black obelisks: