The oldest Egyptian Obelisk that lies outside of Egypt is the Abishemu Obelisk from Byblos in modern Lebanon. This obelisk is different from all the others in one key regard. The French, British and Americans will all argue that their obelisks are gifts, but they come with a distinct whiff of gunpowder from the days of gunboat diplomacy. By contrast the Abishemu Obelisk is a genuine gift and is an example of the projection of Egyptian power, rather than the projection of European power.
It is small, only 1.25 metres. Also it is carved not from the red granite of Aswan, but from limestone. It was never designed to face the elements outside for thousands of years. This is a stone that was always intended to reside within a temple.
Byblos was one of the most important towns outside of Egypt for much of Egyptian history. It is the cradle of Phoenician culture and the birthplace of the Phoenician alphabet, which was the precursor to all European alphabets, Greek and Latin included. The Phoenicians were the first masters of the sea and built a trade empire that stretched from Byblos, Sidon, Tyre and Acre in the east all the way to Carthage and Spain in the west. The oldest extant maritime laws we have are Phoenician laws to determine how to share losses amongst owners following disasters at sea.
Byblos provided access to the forests of Lebanon and the famed cedar trees. The Egyptians primary reason for being there was access to the timber which was used to construct temples and palaces, but also to build ships and a navy. The Phoenician skill at shipbuilding undoubtedly became a valued knowledge share for the Egyptians. The Egyptian phrase for a “Sea-going ship” was “Byblos ship”. Lebanese wine and Tyrian purple were other valued trade goods, and Byblos served as a conduit to Mesopotamian trade.
The most important and prized export from Egypt was papyrus. So much so that the Greeks and Romans name for papyrus was “Byblos”. Indeed the root word for the Christian Bible is the name of this city.
Byblos being so important to the Egyptians housed a substantial Egyptian colony. It is no surprise that the Pharaoh would extend fraternal gifts to the Kings of the city. This obelisk dates from 1800 BC, the tail end of the 12th Dynasty in the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. It was the final stable dynasty of the Middle Kingdom before the Hyksos invasion. It is thought to be a gift from Amenemhat III to King Abishemu I.
It was rediscovered by Maurice Dunand in the Temple of the Obelisks in Byblos in the 1950’s. It is the third oldest known Egyptian Obelisk in the world. Dunand was a French archeologist who spent most of his career from 1924 to 1975 excavating the site at Byblos.
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