Unfinished Obelisk of Aswan belongs to the years before the Common Era — dated here to c. 1473 BCE at Aswan granite quarries. The date is a scholarly centre of gravity, not a foundation-stone timestamp.
Hatshepsut’s crews began a 42-metre obelisk — the largest attempted — then abandoned it when the granite cracked.
How it was made
Dolerite pounding balls still lie in the trench. The monument teaches the method: isolate a needle of stone, then fail in public.
Why it still counts as a wonder
It never needed a Greek list to be a wonder: the labour, the alignment, or the survival is enough.
It is a wonder of almost: the pyramid’s cousin that never stood.
On dating
BCE in this series means years before the traditional birth of Christ, counted backward. A monument listed as c. 1473 BCE may have been founded earlier, rebuilt later, or famous only in one phase. Where ancient writers disagree — as they do for Babylon’s gardens — we say so.
This is story 21 of 100 in The Trend Ledger’s illustrated desk on world wonders raised before the Common Era.