Description
An obelisk is a memorial. It is a square, slightly tapering column or pillar with a pyramidal blunt tip, usually made of granite. Ancient columns were often monoliths, but modern obelisks are usually made of more stone and may also contain interior spaces. The largest obelisk from antiquity was erected under Pharaoh Thutmose IV around 1400 BC. The 32-meter-high, 455-ton monolith now stands at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. Original obelisks were also built outside Egypt between 1000 BC and 1000 AD, including in Assyria, the Kingdom of Aksum, the Roman Empire (including the Caesarea Obelisk near Benjamina in Israel), and the Byzantine Empire.
