An inscribed obelisk in the temple of Ammon at Karnak, Egypt. The obelisk is carved from a single block of granite quarried at Aswan on the Upper Nile, and was erected for Queen Hatshepsut around 1473–1458 BC.

Egyptian obelisk. Ancient Egyptian obelisks were originally placed in pairs at the entrance to temples. They were carved from a single piece of stone, usually red granite; an inscription from the base of an obelisk at Karnak reveals that it took seven months to cut that particular stone out of the quarry. All four sides of an obelisk are decorated with hieroglyphs that typically commemorate the lives of rulers or make dedications to the gods.