Why obelisk

With those clues, and using this obelisk, Champollion managed to crack the mysterious code of hieroglyphics, translating their words and thus unlocking the secrets of ancient Egypt. The lander is named Philae. The oldest obelisks are almost impossibly old—ancient even by the standards of antiquity. First conceived in , the Washington Monument took decades to build. It is, by law, the tallest structure in the District of Columbia, and is twice as tall as any other obelisk in the world.

Gordon notes that it stands unique among memorials in Washington. Whereas people visit memorials to Lincoln and Jefferson among others to see giant statues of the men they commemorate, the highlight of the Washington Monument is the monument itself.

In the end, though, they kept the obelisk and threw out the rest of the original design, leaving the monument as it is today. This approach is the reason why stone from three different quarries was used, resulting in the multi-toned effect that Monument still has today. The real point of the Washington monument seems to be, well, its point. It was constructed in the s and 30s as a memorial to a Revolutionary War battle and to the very idea of liberty.

So it remained, but by the end of the 19th century it had become an even more powerful symbol of place — of Charlestown, Massachusetts.

It became the emblem of the city and after annexation by Boston, the neighborhood , appearing on shop signs, the bottles of the local pickle packager, and the jackets of high-school students. His reference point was the monument itself, a symbol of place, rather than the ideas the monument was originally intended to embody. But symbolism can also come full circle. In Boston he chose the Bunker Hill Monument as his canvas.

During the s and 80s, Charlestown, then a tight-knit and somewhat insular neighborhood, had been the scene of violent gang warfare, accompanied by a rash of murders. By the late s the neighborhood had changed, tensions had calmed, and Wodiczko convinced people to talk about the murders for his projection.

The whole rises nearly 39 feet nine meters before the broken shaft of the steel obelisk trails off into the air. The sculpture not only embodies the very form of an obelisk, but even maintains the curious balance of great size and delicacy that characterizes the Egyptian original.

The effect is reinforced by the fact that the contact point between the massive pyramid and the only slightly less massive obelisk is but a few square centimeters. Martin Luther King, Jr. Any number of 20th-century states, cities, and rulers tried to turn obelisks to their own political or commemorative advantage.

Nearly all seem to have suffered from cases of equivocal symbolism. Yet amid this very modern cacophony of meanings, the traditional association of obelisks with political power has never been drowned out completely. The salvageable half, still a very respectable 17 meters, stands by St. The obelisk became a symbol of the city, but it, too, took on a more sinister cast after Argentina began its long slide into political darkness.

In Latin America obelisks even made the Marxian turn from tragedy to farce. Also in , Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic, ordered up a gigantic obelisk for Santo Domingo, part of his grand project to modernize and remake the city, which was, of course, renamed Ciudad Trujillo. The 20th-century political leader who adopted the obelisk with the most historically informed style was Benito Mussolini.

It was a tall order. Italy, seat of the original European empire, came very late to the new imperialism of the 19th and 20th centuries. There had been no country of Italy at all until the s, when Giuseppe Garibaldi united a fractious group of principalities into an equally fractious kingdom.

The new country almost immediately began trying to acquire overseas colonies. In short order it acquired both Eritrea and what is now the southern part of Somalia. The Italians tried to conquer Ethiopia as well, but met with an embarrassing defeat in There matters remained until Mussolini came to power in the s. Mussolini got lucky. Some of that wealth was spent on monuments. Mobile Newsletter chat close. Mobile Newsletter chat dots. Mobile Newsletter chat avatar. Mobile Newsletter chat subscribe.

Towering Obelisks Are Everywhere. Here's Why They're So Awe-inspiring. The Washington Monument in Washington, D. The left-hand obelisk remains in its location in Egypt, but the right-hand stone, 75 feet high, now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France. Now That's Ancient. Cite This! Try Our Sudoku Puzzles! More Awesome Stuff.