Ancient Obelisks: Column of Senusret I

A lot of the world’s 30-odd surviving obelisks presently stand deteriorating in the rainfall in cities like Rome, Istanbul, Paris, and New York City, having actually long back been pulled down and floated across the sea by Egypt’s succeeding conquerors. Extremely, the earliest tower of them all has actually never ever been relocated from its original site. For almost 4,000 years, the Column of Senusret I has stood guard over what is currently Cairo as cities and empires have actually fluctuated around it.

Location of Senusret I’s Column

The Column of Senusret I stands in the modern area of El Matareya, walking distance from the Ain Shams metro station. Anybody in your area ought to have the ability to aim you in the direction of “al-masalla” (the pillar). The shaft shows up from the street, yet there is a little admission fee to enter the site, which additionally displays a couple of dug deep into artefacts from Heliopolis.

The column was still standing virtually 2,200 years later when Alexander the Great marched with the city. The shaft continued to stand as Heliopolis fell into wreck and went away, as a tiny farming town called al-Matariyah changed the once-glorious city, and as the village was soaked up into the city sprawl of Cairo.