It is known that in ancient times people worshiped the sun, the earth and sacred trees and stones. Stones received special attention, because it was believed that some of them were able to heal diseases, bring good luck and even fulfill wishes. Today I want to introduce you to the most famous stones in Russia, to which people still come in the hope of getting rid of misfortunes.

Located in the Bolsheselsky district of the Yaroslavl region, the Tikhonov Stone, unlike its many brothers, was quite revered by the Orthodox Church. The fact is that it was on it that at the end of the 17th century a large icon depicting saints was found, the main place on which was occupied by Tikhon of Amafuta. Since then, for several centuries, every year on June 15, a religious procession was held to the stone in honor of the discovery of the icon. Alas, at the beginning of the last century, the chapel built nearby collapsed over time, and the place itself was overgrown with almost impenetrable forest and grass. However, the stone still lies in the forest, three to five kilometers from the almost abandoned village of Berezino, and they say that the water collected in its recess can heal any eye diseases and make a person sighted who has long lost hope of a cure. True, it is not easy to find it; most likely, you will have to spend the whole day searching.

Blue stone.

The Blue Stone is a legendary boulder located near the village of Gorodishche near Pereslavl-Zalessky. According to ancient Russian legends, a certain spirit lives in this stone, fulfilling dreams and desires. At the beginning of the 17th century, the church entered into the fight against pagan religion. Deacon of the Pereslavl Semyonovskaya Church Anufry ordered to dig a large hole and throw the Blue Stone into it. But a few years later, the boulder mysteriously peeked out from under the ground. After 150 years, the church authorities of Pereslavl decided to lay a “magic” stone at the foundation of the local bell tower. The stone was loaded onto a sleigh and transported across the ice of Lake Pleshcheevo. The ice broke, and the Blue Stone sank at a depth of five meters. Soon the fishermen began to notice that the boulder was slowly “stirring” along the bottom. Half a century later, it ended up on the shore at the foot of Yarilina Mountain, where it still lies... This and similar stones gave scientists a riddle that they have been struggling with in vain for decades. What assumptions are made about this? Mystics say that there is nothing to think about here - otherworldly entities live in the “wandering stones”.

This 12-ton boulder on the shore of Lake Pleshcheevo is perhaps the most famous wish-granter to contemporaries. The stone received its name due to the blue tint that its surface gets wet from rain. The fact that the giant has mystical powers was known to the ancient Slavs, who celebrated various rituals around him. Subsequently, the champions of Christianity decided to fight pagan cults and in 1788 they tried to take the stone across the ice of Lake Pleshcheevo in order to lay it in the foundation of a church being built nearby. However, the boulder had other plans, and a few meters from the shore the sled, on which such a heavy load lay, broke through the ice and went under the water. 70 years later, the stone mysteriously “crawled” onto the shore and has been lying in the same place ever since, slowly sinking underground. People who come to him believe that if you make a wish by touching the rough surface, it will definitely come true. More destructive to the shrine is the belief of some that to cure diseases one must ingest a crushed monolith mixed in water. As a result, the boulder is constantly chiseled, picked and scratched by adherents of alternative medicine. So it won't be surprising if sooner or later they eat it whole.

Kindyakovsky stone (Shutov stone).

No less ancient stone hiding in the Shutovsky forest, not far from the village of Turbichevo in the Dmitrovsky district of the Moscow region. They say that he once sailed to his current place at the confluence of three rivers absolutely independently, and even against the current. In the old days, all sorts of rituals were performed around the stone and even sacrifices were made. People believed that he was able to heal sick children; they just had to bring the sick child to the stone and wash him with water, which had previously been “rolled” over the stone. In addition, it was believed that touching the shrine would protect against any enemies. Be that as it may, everyone who comes to these secluded places is invariably surprised that such a large boulder has been lying on swampy soil for centuries, on which it is sometimes difficult to walk, and does not go underground. Nowadays there are few pilgrims to the stone, although around it you can find pagan paintings and trees decorated with multi-colored ribbons.

Rooster stone.

The stone, lying on the bank of the Keka stream, near the village of Erosimovo in the Uglichesky district of the Yaroslavl region, is the heir to the boulder that once suggested to Pushkin the idea of ​​“The Tale of the Golden Cockerel”. A huge flat cobblestone with a giant symbol of a rooster’s paw embossed on it was located in Uglich, near the Church of St. Nicholas and protected the city from uninvited guests. According to legend, in case of danger, at exactly midnight, a huge rooster would sit on a stone and cry three times to warn of the approach of the enemy. But around the 30s of the last century, the boulder was split and used for paving. A stone near the village of Yeroshimovo with the same imprint of a chicken paw survived and people still come to it to climb on it and make their deepest wish.

Zvenigorod miracle stone.

The largest miraculous stone lies near Zvenigorod in the village of Lyzlovo, Ruza district of the Moscow region. The height of the magic boulder is about three meters, and its weight exceeds 50 tons. It was found relatively recently in a sand quarry and, on the initiative of the rector of the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in the village of Lyzlovo, it was transported to the territory of the church. They say that it was near this stone that the Monk Savva, the founder of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, prayed in one of the dry years and that at the end of the prayer the boulder moved from its place and a miraculous spring gushed out from under it, which, by the way, exists to this day. The stone itself disappeared for the time being and appeared only in our days to help people again. Now barefoot pilgrims crowd around the stone in any weather, confident that bare feet contribute to a better connection with the sacred object. Someone sits down, leaning their back against it, and talks about their lives, while others climb up a specially constructed wooden ladder and ask the stone to fulfill their wishes.

God-stone.

Shaman's stone in Tula region between the villages of Selivanovo and Shchekino, the surrounding grandmothers have long visited. They poured water on him, read spells, and then treated all sorts of ailments with the collected water and brewed love potions with it. They say they are very effective.

Stone in Belokurikha.

In the Altai Territory, near the resort of Belokurikha, on Mount Tserkovka there lies a magic stone that fulfills wishes. You just need to put your hand on it and dream about your innermost thoughts. True, according to legend, the desire should not be momentary, and therefore you can contact the boulder only once a year. They say that Vladimir Putin has been here twice. The first time, while still in the rank of prime minister, he asked the stone to make him president of Russia, and the second time the current president climbed the mountain before being elected for a second term.

Whether to believe in the miraculous power of stones is up to everyone to decide for themselves. It is possible that the fact that people who come to them, perhaps for the first time in their lives, think about what is really important to them, and gives strength to fulfill any desires.

Today I will show you the rock of Uluru, recognized as one of the wonders of the world. This is the largest rock in the world, which is a pure monolith, that is, a solid stone measuring two by three kilometers. The height of Kamenyuki is about 350 meters, but according to the latest data, this is only the tip of the stone iceberg and most of Uluru is underground.

The mountain is located far from Sydney, almost in the center of the continent. The flight to it is quite long - three and a half hours. And if in Sydney the weather was more or less comfortable, then Uluru was met with hellish heat of forty degrees. The heat was not the only problem: in addition to the scorching sun, millions of flies live in the Uluru region. I have never seen such a number of insects per square meter anywhere, not even in a pigsty. The nasty insects don’t seem to bite, but they constantly try to get into your nose and ears. Brrr...

Another famous mountain is known for its ability to change color throughout the day, depending on the weather and time of day. The range of changes is very wide: from brown to fiery red, from purple to blue, from yellow to lilac. Unfortunately, it is impossible to capture all the shades of the rock in one day. For example, Uluru acquires a lilac-blue color when it rains, which has not happened here for more than a year.

Like all ancient places of this kind, this mountain is sacred among the local peoples and climbing it is considered sacrilege. The aborigines revere the stone as a deity, which, however, did not stop them from renting out the shrine to the Australian authorities. For access to Uluru, natives receive $75,000 annually, not counting 25% of the cost of each ticket...

While we were flying, I took a few shots of Australia from the plane. Below us is a dry salt lake:

Riverbed:

We are approaching Uluru. Those with advanced abstract thinking claim that the stone on top looks like a sleeping elephant. Well, OK:

Kata Tjuta is located 40 km from Uluru, we will return to it separately:

Ayers Rock Airport. We are landing:

Not far from the airport there is a resort where tourists and vacationers stay:

As I already said, the Uluru area is home to swarms of flies. On average, a tourist needs 10 minutes to make a decision about purchasing a special protective net:

Flies are a terribly annoying stomp on your head and face. Many even take pictures without taking off their protection:

The guides pretend that they are seasoned guys, accustomed to flies, but in fact they are actively smearing themselves protective creams. By the way, we were unlucky with the guide - the girl was working for the first time, her story was not very interesting, and in some questions she was simply lost:

You can't just fly into the center of Australia, wear a net and not take a selfie:

Let's return to Uluru. There are only a few legal shooting points in the surrounding area, so most of the photographs of Uluru do not shine with original angles:

All tourist routes are marked and marked; you can only walk and drive on special roads:

Cave drawings:

The images are on the walls of the caves. The black stripe is a trace of flowing water during sparse and rare precipitation:

Some places are prohibited from filming according to the beliefs of local aborigines.

The caves can hardly be called caves in the strict sense of the word. These are, rather, stone canopies. It is very convenient to sit in the shade during the heat of the day:

The places where water flows are strictly limited by the shape of the rock. Over time, natural reservoirs of water form under the drains, where local animals come to drink:

During the day, animals do not poke around here, but at night they move in large numbers. Local scientists set up camera traps (on the barrier) to study Australian fauna. The black stripes on the stone show that the water level has dropped noticeably:

Everyone saves themselves from flies as best they can:

Tourist bridges over impassable places. Painted red to match the color of Uluru:

During the excursion we moved several times from one part of Uluru to another. In general, it was possible to walk around the mountain on foot, but it would be extremely tiring in this heat:

Flies flock with special pleasure to green color, somehow he attracts them:

Another cave:

An interesting point: if you look closely, you can see that Bottom part the walls are without drawings and it is noticeable that they seem to have been erased. Previously, when showing rock paintings to tourists, guides would pour water on the wall to make the images appear clearer. Ten years later, water destroyed most of the images and the practice was abandoned.

Since ancient times, huge stones have been revered by people. In pre-Christian times, miraculous properties were attributed to boulders, they were worshiped and prayed for. Sacred stones were believed to bring good luck. With the adoption of Christianity, the pagan rite was replaced by the Orthodox. But the stones remained. Many of them began to be revered on a par with holy springs in Orthodox world. Some are still shrouded in some kind of mystery. And there are also very unusual “stones”.

Horse-stone

A huge boulder and a small chapel on it appear unexpectedly before the traveler and immediately amaze the imagination with their ancient power. Once upon a time, the Horse-Stone was one of the main pagan sanctuaries of the Karelians. According to legend, a horse was sacrificed before him. The huge block really looks like a horse's head. At the end of the 14th century, Saint Arseny Konevsky prayed in front of a stone. The life of the saint tells how the spirits came out of the stone, turning into black ravens. Arseny consecrated the stone, and since then the Horse-Stone has been a place of veneration for Orthodox Christians.

Borisov stone

In the 12th century, boats sailing to Polotsk could encounter on their way huge stones towering lonely above the waters of the Western Dvina. Swimming closer, the words of the prayer and the carved cross were clearly read: “Lord, help your servant Boris.” Why the Polotsk prince Boris Vseslavovich installed such stones still remains a mystery. One of them can now be seen in Polotsk, in front of the entrance to the Church of St. Sophia.

Blue stone

Blue stone is actually gray, but changes color after rain. It really takes on a characteristic blue color. At first he was worshiped by the Finno-Ugrians, then by the pagan Slavs. The stone gradually goes underground. But popular rumor ascribes to it the miraculous properties of moving. Neither centuries nor the Orthodox faith could erase faith in the miraculous properties of the stone.

Stone of St. Paul of Obnor

In the distant Vologda region among dense forests in the picturesque valley of the rivers Nurma and Obnora lies the monastery of St. Paul of Obnor. A student of Sergius of Radonezh founded a monastery in these remote places in 1414. Not far from his cell there was a flat boulder. The Monk Paul spent long days on it in prayer, kneeling. According to legend, during such prayerful standing on a stone, forest animals came to St. Paul. By standing on it, you can touch the mystery of the feat of prayer.

Stone on Mount Maura

Mount Maura is one of most beautiful places Vologda region. There is a stone at its top. From a stone located on this mountain, according to life, the Monk Cyril saw the place that the Mother of God indicated for the founding of the monastery. On the stone there was a print very similar to the footprint of a bare human foot. The people attribute this trace to St. Cyril. A visible image of the holiness of the place? Another secret remains silent.

Babi stone

This stone does not have such a long history. But it has already become overgrown with legends that are so quickly spread by popular rumor. And Blok wrote poetry on it, and it helps with women’s diseases - that’s why Babiy. And in the summer it acts as a natural platform for poets who decide to surprise everyone with their verses. Whether there is a secret in it or not, everyone decides for themselves.

Spas-stone

Spas-Kamen is not just a huge boulder. This is a whole monastery. A small island (only 120 by 70 meters) on Lake Kubenskoye that can be walked around in a minute. In the 13th century, monks settled on the island. They lined it on all sides with piles of wild stone so that the banks would not be washed away. And so, after each spring ice drift on the lake, many large boulders are thrown onto the island. The lonely bell tower seems to float in the air between heaven and earth. Here is the time to think about the true solidity of the world that is hidden in the soul.

Clickable 2000 px

Everyone knows about the largest processed stone, which is located in Lebanon. And until recently, this particular stone, called the “Southern Stone,” was the largest - it lies nearby in a quarry, a ten-minute walk in the southwest direction. The dimensions of this stone block are 23 m long, 5.3 m wide and 4.55 m high. She weighs approximately 1000 tons.

It turns out that this is not the case. The largest processed stone in the world HERE:

The obelisk (entrance 1OLE.) is located on the eastern bank of the Nile, a kilometer from the center of Aswan. To get to the obelisk you need to go along El-Bandar St. Nearby are several tombs with round roofs from an ancient cemetery from the Fatimid era. The obelisk, fused with the rock from which they wanted to carve it, lies all its weight (1200 t) and the entire length (42 m) on a granite bed.

Queen Hatshepsut intended to erect the obelisk, but the obelisk was abandoned and left unfinished because several cracks were found in it. For this reason it was never separated from the rock. If it had been erected, it would have been the largest obelisk known to us. It is surrounded by ancient quarries stretching for almost 6 km, where workers worked to extract huge stone blocks for the construction of temples and palaces.

It was hell of a job! It was necessary to chisel the rock with a hard stone in order for sufficiently wide and deep cracks to appear. Wooden wedges were driven in there and water was poured over them, and as the wedges expanded, they split the rock. The work was carried out on three sides, with endless precautions at all stages so as not to split the stone block. In accordance with the intended purpose, the block was ground on site. Then he was placed on a wooden sleigh, which was pulled either by animals or people, lowering him to the water, to a special platform.

It was built from construction waste, on which masons placed several layers of brick, covered with a thick layer of wet mud. The barge, which was supposed to transport stone blocks, was placed near the shore before low tide. The barge ran aground, and now it was possible to load it. At the next flood, the platform was again on the water and ready for transportation. Unloading was carried out in the same way.

Considering the primitive soft metal tools of the ancient Egyptians, the obelisk at the Northern Quarry shows us an amazing feat of technology. During excavations, archaeologists learned a lot about stone-cutting techniques. And even the mistake that the builders made during its construction did not prevent it from being motionlessly attached to the rock for more than 3,000 years!

At the word Ancient Egypt The vast majority of people naturally have an association with pyramids or mummies. But an equally famous type of monumental architecture of the ancient Egyptians are obelisks. The word "obelisk" is of Greek origin, meaning skewer or skewer, and appeared in the late period when the Greeks established close contacts with Egypt. The Egyptians themselves designated the obelisk as “ben-ben.” This was the name of a pyramid-shaped stone that fell from the sky at the beginning of time and was installed on a pillar in the sacred capital city of Innu (the Greeks called it Heliopolis). This ben-ben stone, placed on a pillar, was hidden from the eyes of the uninitiated in the Phoenix Temple, but, as is known, it disappeared in ancient times. The obelisk repeats the shape of the ancient sacred ben-ben in the form of a regular square pillar with a pyramidal top pointing into the sky.

It is known that the tops of obelisks were usually covered with gold or copper, which, of course, have not survived to this day. Almost all known obelisks were made of pink granite, which was mined in quarries located near the first cataract of the Nile, where the modern city of Aswan lies today. Here the Nile cuts through the rocky body of the Nubian Plateau and finally breaks out onto the plain, taking on its usual majestic dimensions. In the Aswan quarries, the Egyptians mined pink granite since the era of the Old Kingdom and, possibly, earlier. Pink granite undoubtedly had a special meaning for the ancient Egyptians. rock. The most important architectural and sculptural forms were created from it: temple portals, sarcophagi, statues of kings and, of course, obelisks.

Naturally, not all of them have reached our time. Moreover, most of them today are located outside of Egypt. After establishing their dominance here, the Romans began actively exporting obelisks to Rome, without especially considering the physical and financial costs. And today there are 13 obelisks in the Eternal City. In the 19th century, the French and British staged a real hunt for ancient Egyptian antiquities, not neglecting obelisks that weighed several hundred tons. Therefore, today Egyptian obelisks from three thousand years ago can be seen in Paris, London and even New York. According to surviving sources, the construction of obelisks reached its greatest flourishing during the New Kingdom period (XVI-XI centuries BC). The most famous pharaohs of this time, Thutmose III and Ramesses II, especially “distinguished themselves” in the construction of granite monoliths.

The latter is believed to have erected 23 obelisks during his reign. The average height of large obelisks was 20 meters, weight exceeded 200 tons. One of the obelisks made under Thutmose III is now in Rome and has a height of 32 m. About a third of the 27 obelisks that have survived to this day do not exceed a height of 10 m. Almost all obelisks known today are covered over the entire surface with hieroglyphic inscriptions glorifying the king and his deeds. Obelisks were dedicated to the supreme solar deity and, as a rule, were installed in pairs. The technology for producing sacred stone pillars included three stages: cutting the monolith from the mother rock and polishing it, transporting it to the construction site and, finally, installation. All three technological stages are considered quite well known, since a number of written sources have reached our time describing the production of obelisks and a set of images from funerary structures and temples, which reflect the different stages of this process. It is believed that cutting down the stone was carried out in the following way: first, holes were cut out in the rock, positioning them in a straight line, then wooden wedges were driven into them and water was poured over them. The tree swelled and broke the rock. The resulting blocks were leveled using saws and, if necessary, polished.

Even the ancient Roman historian Pliny the Elder (1st century AD) mentions that the process of sawing stone was carried out using thin saws, under the blade of which fine sand was constantly poured, which served as an abrasive. Transportation of stone blocks was carried out using wooden sleds, under which water or liquefied silt was added to improve their sliding. Numerous images of such sleds are well known both in fine art and in archaeological finds. This is how the stone was moved over short distances. Long-distance transportation was carried out along the Nile using special barges pulled by small rowing ships. When transporting large monoliths, there could be several dozen such ships. The installation of the obelisk was carried out using an inclined embankment, which was a brick structure divided into numerous compartments filled with sand and rubble. The embankment had a very slight slope and, accordingly, a very significant length. The obelisk was dragged along it with the lower end first and erected on a pedestal.

It would seem that this historical issue can be considered well studied and does not raise any doubts. However, facts are stubborn things, especially those that lie, in the truest sense of the word, on the surface. A significant part of the ancient Aswan quarries has already been absorbed by the territory of the modern city of Aswan. These granite quarries contain the only obelisk in Egypt that remains unfinished, i.e. not completely separated from the mother rock. And this is what raises a whole series of paradoxical questions that modern science cannot answer. First of all, it should be noted that this is the largest obelisk known in Egypt. Its length is 41.8 m! The Aswan obelisk does not have any inscriptions, so it cannot be dated. But due to its gigantic size, the obelisk dates back to the time of the Old Kingdom, i.e. to the era of the Great Pyramids. The obelisk is located on the surface and lies at a slight angle, following the direction of the layers of the granite massif.

Along its entire perimeter, the monolith is surrounded by a narrow trench less than 1 m wide, which follows the contour of the obelisk. Thus, it turns out that the obelisk was hollowed out of the rock, and the work was carried out from above, and not from the sides. What instrument was used here? It is clear that there is no need to talk about the use of saws here. The sides of the obelisk and the surrounding trench bear traces of a large rounded tool. The width of the trace is 27 cm. The Italian researcher A. Preti in the late 80s of the last century suggested that the traces were left by a rotating cutter, which the ancient Egyptians used to cut a monolith from the rock. Where could the ancients have such a tool? However, similar traces are found in abundance on horizontal surfaces around the obelisk. And they look more like marks from a giant chisel. But is it possible to imagine a chisel with a working edge of 30 cm, cutting granite like plasticine? On the monolith itself, by the way, there are numerous traces of cuts and traditional splitting techniques using wedges.

But they are clearly left in more late times and these attempts did not cause significant damage to the monolith. It was not possible to split or saw it. It is believed that the Aswan obelisk remained unfinished because an error was made during the work and the monolith cracked. Indeed, the upper part of the obelisk is crossed by a longitudinal crack, which has disrupted its integrity. But the reasons for such a fault do not necessarily lie in the miscalculations of the builders. This could be, for example, the result of an earthquake. We should not blame the ancient engineers who were able to complete such a volume of work for stupidity or negligence, especially since the method of solving this technical problem is not clear to us. Moreover, the problem can be posed somewhat differently: since the ancients carved such a monolith, it means they were going to transport it somewhere and install it. And then a number of more questions arise. Firstly, how can a monolith located inside a rock and surrounded by a narrow trench around the perimeter be separated from this rock? After all, the obelisk lies on a rock; only its lower wall remains intact. How can saws be used in such a situation? Cut through forty meters of granite rock horizontally without disturbing the straight plane and avoiding the monolith breaking under its own weight? The literature gives different figures for the weight of the Aswan monolith, but on average they fluctuate around the figure of 1200 tons. This is the heaviest artificial monolith in the world! Although it is not very clear why such a figure appears.

It is clear that no one is able to weigh such a giant and its weight is calculated arithmetically. Although the obelisk remained intact from the rock, its planned dimensions are well known. The height should have been 41.8 m, the obelisk has a square cross-section with sides 4.2 m by 4.2 m. Its sides stretch parallel throughout, only narrowing at the top and forming a peak. With an average density of granite of 2600 kg per cubic meter. It is easy to calculate the weight of the monument. And if we do not take into account a slight correction for the narrowed top, the estimated weight of the Aswan obelisk should not have been close to 1200 tons, but would have been approximately 1900 tons! It is clear that there was nothing like the Aswan obelisk either in the ancient world or in modern history humanity. And the ancient engineers were going to move such a monolith somewhere and then install it.

The Guinness Book of World Records is full of examples of people single-handedly moving heavy vehicles, airplanes, and railroad cars. But in all these cases we are talking about huge loads placed on wheels and they must be moved on a flat horizontal surface. How can one solve the problem of transporting a single monolith weighing almost 1,900 tons over uneven mountainous terrain? And the mysteries associated with the Aswan obelisk do not end there. Ten meters from the obelisk there are two vertical wells or shafts, drilled vertically into the body of a granite rock. Their depth is approximately 3-4 m, diameter - about 80 cm. The shape of the holes is something between a circle and a square. Antiquities inspectors working in Aswan explained that the Egyptians dug these wells to determine the direction of cracks in the rock mass. Perhaps this explanation is correct; there are not two such wells on the territory of the quarries, but about ten. But the question remains: what tool was used? The fact is that the walls of the wells have a smooth, uniform surface without any traces of chips; one gets the feeling that the rock was simply removed using an installation similar to that used for drilling wells.

This is how the obelisk was hollowed out

Only here we are talking about granite. The art of processing this hard volcanic rock reached unprecedented heights in Ancient Egypt. And it evokes not only respect, but also amazement. Indeed, it is impossible to explain everything by the principle “persistence and work will grind everything down.” This is not enough. The examples of ancient Egyptian granite architecture that have reached us demonstrate not only the highest level of processing and construction technology, but also require the ancients to have sufficiently advanced knowledge in the field of natural sciences. Moreover, the closer we come to the origins of Egyptian civilization, the higher these indicators are. The construction technology exhibited by the Giza Plateau monuments has not since been surpassed or improved upon. On the contrary, there is a process of degradation of many aspects of early Egyptian civilization that we observe in the 3rd millennium BC. during the period of the Old Kingdom.

The very phenomenon of the emergence of such a cultural complex with an ordered system of hieroglyphic writing, a developed calendar, and a developed technology for monumental construction causes genuine amazement. And in this aspect, the ideas of those researchers who consider Ancient Egypt the heir of an even more ancient and more developed civilization, the traces of which have reached us very few, are completely appropriate and legitimate. But there are such traces, you just need to not ignore them, be able to study them and interpret them correctly.

This is what the obelisk was supposed to become in the future:

Or, for example, like the famous Luxor Obelisk, which now stands in France.

For comparison, the height of the obelisk reaches 23 meters, the weight is equal to 220 tons, age - 3600 years. On all four sides of the monument there are hieroglyphs and drawings that were carved in honor of Ramesses II. The most important moments of his transportation from Egypt to Paris were also captured on the Luxor obelisk. On both sides around the monument in the mid-19th century, the architect Hittorf created elegant fountains that still function today. In 1999, the peak of the obelisk was dressed in a gold tip, the casting of which took one and a half kilograms of gold of the highest standard.

In the southern part of Aswan there was once an area where ancient granite quarries were located. It was considered the most valuable stone used for construction in Egypt. Now this square interests tourists because of the monument there, which is still attached to one of the rocks - an unfinished obelisk.

In general, the Northern Quarry itself is a great place to visit for those interested in studying ancient technologies. It was famous for its production of granite, which was used in the construction of the burial chamber of the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and as casing stone in other pyramids. Every rock in it shows the imprint of ancient stone cutters.

The northern quarry area has only recently been excavated. Previously unknown granite objects were found here, including fragments of columns and statues. To the south of the obelisk, archaeologists discovered an inscription dated to the 25th year of the reign of Tuthmose III. Also near it, niches of seven more large obelisks were excavated, which today are located in the temples of Karnak and Luxor.

An entrance ticket to the open-air museum, as the Northern Quarry is also called, will cost 30 EGP.

The northern quarry is located next to the Fatimid cemetery, in the southern part of Aswan. It is easily accessible by taxi or by walking uphill from the Nubian Museum.

More and more secret corners and previously unexplored places are opening up in the Aswan quarries. Here you can see the bed of the obelisk(s) of Thutmose III with your own eyes. Why Thutmose III? Because it was his workers who wrote right on the wall of the quarry about the extraction of two obelisks for His Majesty

In the 23rd year of his majesty, the mighty Horus “refers to the king” of Kemet” Egyptian name” “who is blessed by Nakhebet and Wajet” the vulture goddess of Upper Egypt and the cobra snake of lower Egypt” Eternity to him who is like Ra “the Sun” in the sky. The living god, master of offerings “and “ structures of the beloved gods, king of Upper and Lower Egypt- (Men -Kheper-Ra), child of Ra of his body, his beloved ( Thut-moses III) master of offerings, he who is given the life as the Sun forever, made with love two great obelisks in the abode of Amun, in the Karnak.”

Aswan- a city in southern Egypt, located on the right bank of the Nile River, approximately 865 km from Cairo. One of the driest populated areas on the planet. Population - 275,000 people (2008).

Aswan was a trading center on the caravan route for many centuries. Even in ancient times, trade flows from Nubia and back passed through the city, which occupies the right bank of the river. Today, the streets of Aswan do not sell ivory and precious wood, but Egypt's third city is filled with aromas and spices that arrived from the south. Local markets are reminiscent of Sudanese bazaars in their color and smells.

Numerous tourist ships operate between Aswan and Luxor. On the way, they usually make stops in Kom Ombo and Edfa, where they can explore the beautifully preserved ancient temples.

The bulk of tourists come to Aswan during the winter months. At this time, the city is filled with crowds of tourists.

Aswan has a charming Botanical Garden, the cottage and mausoleum of the Aga Khan, the ruins of the Monastery of St. Simeon and the Nubian Museum, which is located somewhat on the outskirts. The museum covers an area of ​​50,000 m², and includes not only exhibition halls, but also a library, educational centers, and a green park around.