12/17/2009
Located at Karnak Temple in Luxor, Hatshepsut's Obelisk weighs an astonishing 323 tons and stands 97 feet tall. It is made out of one single piece of granite. Hatshepsut's name is written on it towards the bottom in a cartouche, which is just her name written inside a circle. Hatshepsut was a very powerful woman who reigned for 22 years as a pharaoh and insisted on being called "his majesty". She is even dipicted on walls of some of the temples we saw as a man. She demanded that 4 obelisk's were to be built for her and we saw two of them at the Karnak Temple that were standing. It took only 5 months and 1 week to build one obelisk. This is an amazing piece of ancient history because Hatshepsut was one of the most powerful women in ancient Egypt and for an obelisk to be built for her says a lot about the woman she was. It's amazing that they could build something that big in such a short amount of time out of one huge piece of granite. I think this is like the Washington Monument of ancient Egypt. What I find so fascinating about this obelisk is that it withstood time which shows us that the ancient Egyptians really knew a lot about architecture and how to build something right.
Posted at 12:23 PM by Jennifer Hamilton