Voyage of the obelisk

A new exhibition is revisiting the journey of the ancient Egyptian obelisk from Luxor to the Place de la Concorde in Paris, writes David Tresilian

The ancient Egyptian obelisks that today decorate many European cities, among them Paris and London, were mostly transported during the nineteenth century when the desirability of preserving ancient sites was less well appreciated than it is today and when Egypt’s rulers, not always particularly interested in the country’s heritage, found themselves casting round for suitable gifts to press upon their European neighbours.

As a result, while at the beginning of the nineteenth century only Rome, among European cities, had a significant population of obelisks, most of them having been transported by the Romans in antiquity, by the century’s end London and Paris each boasted particularly fine examples. The London obelisk, carved during the reign of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Tuthmosis III, was re-erected on the Thames embankment in 1878, and the Paris one, dating from the reign of the 19th Dynasty pharaoh Ramses II, was set up in the more splendid location of the Place de la Concorde in 1836.

New York gained its obelisk in 1881, when the Egyptian khedive, surrendering to arguments that if Paris and London were to have obelisks than New York should have one too, presented the twin of the 18th Dynasty London obelisk to the city. It now stands in New York’s Central Park a short distance away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The idea of presenting obelisks first to European countries and then to the United States appealed to successive Egyptian rulers because these objects, given as gifts to the cities concerned, were as emblematic of Egypt as the Great Pyramids or the Sphinx at Giza and they had the advantage of being considerably more portable.

Ancient Heliopolis under threat

Caesar Augustus sent the obelisks from Heliopolis to Alexandria, from where they were moved to Rome, Paris and New York. This was the beginning of the looting of the ancient site of Heliopolis, a process that has continued to this day.

By Monica Hanna

Heliopolis, the site of ancient Iunu or Biblical On, is the only Ancient Egyptian archaeological site still visible in Cairo. The site is located to the northeast of Cairo, in close vicinity to contemporary Heliopolis or Misr Al-Gadeeda. The site was the capital of the 13th nome of Lower Egypt and was famous for the temples of the gods Ra, Ra-Atum and Ra-Horakhty, which turned Heliopolis into a significant religious centre since the pre-dynastic period.

During the Ptolemaic period the sun-god Ra was referred to as helios (Greek for ‘sun’), thus the city was renamed Heliopolis or the “City of the Sun”; the modern Arabic name “Ain Shams” also is a derivation. The priesthood of the temple of the sun created the Heliopolitan cosmogony (a narration of the creation of the world) where the god Atum played the role of the creator. The site was thought to be where the benben primordial mound arose from the waters of Nu in the creation of the world. The benu (phoenix) bird and the Mneuvis bull were worshipped in the area as manifestations of Ra, and Hathor “Mistress of Hetpet” was worshipped as the female deity of the area.

The oldest cemetery found in the area dates to the period of Naqada I and II (4000-3000 BCE); the pottery recovered during the excavations can be compared to that found on sites of comparable date, like Maadi and Wadi Degla. The rest of the site has had features dating from the Third Dynasty (2649-2575 BCE) to the Late Period (712-332 BCE).

The most famous landmark currently remaining on the site is the Obelisk of Senusert I, from the Middle Kingdom (2010-1640 BCE) and other inscribed blocks and gates on the site of Arab El-Hisn dating to the Ramesside period (1307-1196 BCE).