The rest of the summer I spent studying the history of Egypt, its architecture, and specifically the meaning of obelisks in its culture. As with all things Egyptian, sifting the sands of truth from the sea of speculation, proved difficult. Anything really interesting was tenuous and strongly denied by experts.
The obelisk was a symbol of the sun. In the reign of my friend Akhenaten, it was thought to be a sunbeam turned to stone. It was possible that this belief was influenced by the solar pillar, an atmospheric phenomenon caused by ice crystals reflecting light into a vertical column at sunrise or sunset. The pyramidion at the top was sheathed in gold, adding to the connection with the sun.
The original Egyptian word used for an obelisk, tejen, means both protection and defence. Perhaps
