A granite obelisk carved in Aswan

A granite obelisk carved in Aswan

The traces of the workers' work are still visible today the largest ancient obelisk ever discovered weighs approximately 1,200 tons revealing the ancient Egyptian stone-cutting techniques this unfinished predynastic obelisk in Aswan Egypt dates back over 3,500 years to the time of the First and Second Dynasties approximately 3,100-2,686 BC. when King Narmer unified the land the builders abandoned the project midway due to cracks in the granite making the structure unstable the cracks prevented further work or relocation leaving it embedded in the rock.

An unfinished granite obelisk in Aswan Egypt / Photo credit : amusingplanet

The site has become an open-air museum helping archaeologists understand the ancient Egyptian stone-cutting techniques and monument-building methods most predynastic archaeological discoveries are in Upper Egypt due to the heavy deposition of Nile sediments in the Nile Delta the gradual development of the predynastic period has led to debate about its end the term "predynastic" generally encompasses the late Neolithic and Bronze Ages beginning around 6000–5500 BC. archaeological and biological evidence suggests that settlements in Egypt’s Nile Valley resulted from complex interactions between coastal North Africans

Neolithic Saharans Nylotic hunter-gatherers and early Nubians along the river Other artifacts date back to 3,100–2,900 BC. However detailed records of the first two dynasties remain except for short inscriptions on a Palermo stone. Manitho’s account of Agiptiaca contradicts both archaeological and other historical records the first group of pharaohs of unified ancient Egypt marked the beginning of the early dynastic period a time when power was centered in Tinis the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by Pharaoh Narmer and the unfinished obelisk in Aswan may be considered the starting point of the oldest surviving obelisks.