In the south of Egypt, on the banks of the river Nile at Aswan, is one of the strangest riddles of antiquity, an ancient quarry. In between the many bizarre quarry marks that are characteristic to the area, lies an enormous obelisk. A deep trench has been chopped away so that the profile of the obelisk is clearly recognizable. But the base is still attached to the rock floor. Obviously the obelisk was never finished and one suspects that the clearly visible crack is the reason. If finished, it would have measured around 42 m (approximately 137 feet) and would have weighed nearly 1,200 tons.

The obelisk, made of granite, one of the hardest materials on Earth, lies embedded in the rock mass with little or no maneuvering space around it, making it almost inconceivable how workers in the narrow trench were capable of carving the obelisk. How would this giant structure have been removed from the quarry if it had indeed been finished?