The Unfinished Obelisk

Of all the world’s ancient marvels, one of the most astounding was never quite finished by it’s creators. Egypt’s Unfinished Obelisk still lies abandoned and forgotten by all but the few curious tourists intrepid enough to seek it out.

Nearly complete when it was flawed by a disastrous crack in the stone, it would have been one of the largest stone monuments ever conceived had it been erected. It weighs close to 1200 tons, a mind boggling load by even today’s standards, leading some observers to conclude that moving it from it’s bed in the quarry at Aswan down the Nile to is probable destination at Luxor, and leaving it standing there for the ages was well beyond the abilities of even the megalith-loving Egyptians.

This paper takes the opposite view and assumes that, but for the crippling crack, they had every intention of finishing the job. Every stage of this incredibly difficult project is analyzed, and practical solutions are proposed to surmount each step in the process. See if you agree that the author got it right.

This paper was originally published as Chapter 11 in Vincent Lee’s book, Ancient Moonshots, but is also available here individually.