Obelisks of Nectanebo II

Two fragmentary obelisks stand in the Great Court of the British Museum. They were carved for a temple at Hermopolis in Middle Egypt during the 4th century BCE, under Pharaoh Nectanebo II of the Thirtieth Dynasty. Only half of each monolith survives, their pink Aswan granite worn by time and travel.

European travellers first spotted the pieces in Cairo: Richard Pococke in 1737 and Carsten Niebuhr in 1762. French scholars later moved them to Alexandria, intending to display them in the Louvre. After Nelson’s victory at the Nile and the Treaty of Alexandria, the British Crown took possession and gave the obelisks to George III, who donated them to the museum in 1802.

The hieroglyphs on the remaining shafts praise Thoth, chief god of Hermopolis. One smaller fragment stayed in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. In the Great Court the two tall stumps rise beside the modern glass roof, silent witnesses to ancient craftsmanship and modern collecting.