Abishemu obelisk

The Abishemu obelisk or the Abichemou obelisk is a 1.25 meter <a href="/facts/Limestone/8ntvtFnR">limestone</a> <a href="/facts/Obelisk/L2VkHv7j">obelisk</a> dedicated to the <a href="/facts/Phoenicia/6GXLneNU">Phoenician</a> king <a href="/facts/Abishemu_of_Byblos/o1R0z7eY">Abishemu I of Byblos</a>. The obelisk is decorated with two lines of inscriptions in <a href="/facts/Egyptian_hieroglyphics/qXRpprLe">Egyptian hieroglyphics</a>. It was created c. 1800 BCE, and was unearthed in the 1950s by <a href="/facts/Maurice_Dunand/RbC5CgBa">Maurice Dunand</a> in the <a href="/facts/Temple_of_the_Obelisks/5vUH43w5">Temple of the Obelisks</a>. It is the world's <a href="/facts/List_of_Egyptian_obelisks/Vs3R4UAv">third-oldest obelisk</a>, and by far the oldest obelisk found outside Egypt.
Although only approximately a dozen words long, the obelisk contains:

<ul><li>the name of one of the oldest known <a href="/facts/King_of_Byblos/skv57naG">kings of Byblos</a>, Abishemu I</li>
<li>the earliest reference to the <a href="/facts/Lukka/QFMd817L">Lukka people</a>, known from numerous later Egyptian and <a href="/facts/Hittite_texts/JJCPK0oX">Hittite</a> sources</li>
<li>a reference to "Herishef", considered by Dunand to be the Egyptian name of the Canaanite god <a href="/facts/Resheph/q2yxxIs8">Resheph</a>, and thus giving the alternate name "Temple of Resheph" for the Temple of the Obelisks</li></ul>
The obelisk is the only example of a complete obelisk with a true pyramidion found in the Temple of the Obelisks; most of the others were rough steles. It consists of a square <a href="/facts/Plinth/khLJPkCG">plinth</a> at the bottom, a tapering shaft and with a <a href="/facts/Pyramidion/UsFBe6lH">pyramidion</a> at the top.

Abishemu obelisk open-in-new

Abishemu obelisk