Obelisk in Washington DC
To know the meaning of the term obelisk, it is necessary, first of all, to discover its etymological origin. In this case, it must be stated that it derives from Greek, specifically from “obeliskos”, which can be translated as “griller”. And that word was used by the Greeks to refer to the punches with which they hunted and which they later used to put their prey on fire.
An obelisk is a tall pillar that has four identical faces. The structure ends in a pyramidal tip.
Obelisks are stone monuments that are installed in public spaces, usually to commemorate some event.
It is estimated that the first obelisks arose two and a half millennia before Christ . Those objects were monoliths carved from a single block of stone . In Ancient Egypt , for example, they used to be made with granite from the quarries of Aswan and were placed in pairs at the entrance to the temples.
There were obelisks in the temples of Luxor and Karnak , to mention two cases. Several of the Egyptian obelisks, over the years, were moved to other countries . In Rome ( Italy ) you can see the Lateran Obelisk , from the temple of Amun in Karnak , while an obelisk from Luxor is currently in a square in Paris ( France ).
The Romans also built several obelisks. In the French town of Arles you can see one whose origins date back to the 4th century .
It is important to highlight that, in more recent centuries, obelisks have also been developed that acquired great relevance. The Washington Monument , inaugurated in 1888 in honor of the first American president ( George Washington ), was once the tallest structure on the planet . In Argentina , one of the most famous monuments is the Obelisk of Buenos Aires , built in 1936 to commemorate the four hundred years of the city's first founding.
Other interesting information about the obelisks are the following:
-The tallest obelisk in the world is considered to be the San Jacinto Monument, which is located in Texas (United States) and dates back to 1936. It has a height of 173.7 meters. It comes to commemorate the victory in the Battle of San Jacinto that gave independence to Texas.
-In the same way, we cannot ignore that the city in the world with the most obelisks is considered to be Rome, since it has a total of thirteen. Of those, five were built during the Roman Empire and eight are of Egyptian origin. Not to mention that they also have modern obelisks.
-One of the most modern obelisks that exist in Rome is the so-called Marconi Obelisk, which has a height of 45 meters and was built in 1959. It is dedicated to the Italian engineer Guillermo Marconi, inventor of the radio, and was built to the 1960 Olympic Games. It is made up of allegorical scenes and others that relate the life of the aforementioned character.