obelisk

The opening scene of the 2023 film “Barbie” shows little girls awestruck by the bosomy totem, who appears in their desert landscape like the towering obelisk in “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026

At a time when the most exciting films were 10 seconds of a train, bored teenagers probably would go berserk at the chance to loiter near an obelisk.

From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026

The 92-year-old Pistoletto's most famous work, Il Terzo Paradiso, comprises a three-metre-tall mirrored obelisk and a series of blocks tracing out the mathematical symbol for infinity in the sand.

From Barron's ● Nov. 11, 2025

Among the GEM showstoppers are a 3,200-year-old, 16m-long suspended obelisk of the powerful pharaoh, Ramesses II, and his massive 11m-high statue.

From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2025

The strength of hundreds of men—motivated by the pharaoh and the fear of killing his son—was somehow overcoming the weight of the obelisk.

From "The (Mostly) True Story of Cleopatra's Needle" by Dan Gutman

They’ve done it with the obsession of a pharaoh chipping away all mentions of his predecessors from obelisks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2025

The idea to transport imposing obelisks to Paris came about at the turn of the 19th century, during Napoleon Bonaparte’s military campaign in Egypt.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2024

One of the obelisks had been transported to Rome when Italy occupied Ethiopia in the 1930s.

From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2023

A great builder, Ezana is also likely responsible for the construction of several obelisks.

From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023

This: A flat map of ancient Egypt; when the sun is directly overhead, vertical obelisks cast no shadows in Alexandria or Syene.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan