The Obelisk: A Symbol of Egypt’s Stolen Past, Oppressive Present, and Revolutionary Future
Whether you come to Cairo as an adventurer in search of ancient history, a backpacker staying in a $10 downtown hostel, or really anything in between, chances are your path across the endless city will cross Tahrir Square.
No spot is more fitting for the title of “the heart of Cairo.” This bustling mecca of commerce and tourism pumps the gasoline scooters, cars, and throngs of people to and from every corner of the city. The square houses some of Cairo’s most famous landmarks, including the notorious Egyptian Museum, and the Nile Ritz-Carlton, and the headquarters of the Arab League, which Egypt was ironically kicked out of in the 70s. What most visitors will notice first about the square, however, is the rose-colored obelisk that stands at its center.
This obelisk and so many before it in Egypt represent the rich culture of the nation, acting as a beacon inviting the rest of the world to come discover the nation that crafted such a magnificent monument to its history. However, if you live in the West, there’s a good chance that when you think of an obelisk, you don’t think of Egypt. Obelisks now dot the Western world and seem to be permanent fixtures of the places they inhabit. Washington has the Washington Monument, New York has Cleopatra’s Needle, Paris has the Luxor Obelisk, and Rome even has thirteen of these famed monuments. Contrary to their aura of permanence, obelisks across the Global North have not always been there, and their construction, transit, and controversies are guideposts in unraveling a millennia-old story of global politics.
The truth about the obelisks of the North is that their presence thousands of miles away from where they were once celebrated is a legacy of stolen history. This story begins with the Roman conquest of Egypt under Augustus, who upon defeating Cleopatra stole an Obelisk from a temple in Heliopolis and brought it back to Rome as a trophy of its conquests. In one move, the meaning of the obelisk and the global image of Egypt changed forever. An obelisk came to signify power, the ability to defile a “once powerful empire.” Egypt, however, came to be viewed as a land of “past glory,’ a prize for the strong and powerful to pillage. The effects of this initial orientalization of Egypt are still present today in the West. When those in America and Europe think of Egypt, they see pyramids and ancient temples, completely oblivious to the 100 million people who currently inhabit the country. As far as the Global North is concerned, history hit pause on Egypt two millennia ago.
After Augustus came more Roman Emperors, all of which accelerated the pillage of Egypt. In post-Constantine Rome, the Roman and later Catholic leaders would even destroy parts of the obelisk to adorn a Christian cross at the top. Following the Arab conquest of Egypt in the 7th century, the country changed once again in the eyes of Europeans. Cairo quickly became the beating heart of the Muslim world, and the European hegemony over the legacy of Egypt quickly fell out of their grasp. Egypt became a land beyond their Christian god, placing them squarely outside their view of “civilization.” During the crusades, Egypt represented a bulwark of opposition to European colonization efforts in the Holy Land, deepening the hatred of Egyptians and Arabs at large in the West. The rampant islamophobia that swept Europe through the Middle Ages laid the seeds for the colonial period that would come later the rise of capitalism in Europe.
The 19th century brought the hurricane of changes sweeping the world to Egypt. Egypt during the early 19th century was firmly under the control of a new power: the Ottomans. Under this system, the Sultan in Istanbul promoted non-Egyptians to rule over the province of Egypt. These leaders often had little regard for the people of the nation and viewed Egypt more like a political chessboard than a home where human beings lived. And they weren’t alone. The capitalist powers of Europe were now looking to expand their empires beyond the continent. One of the first lands they set their eyes on was the land Romans called their greatest prize 1,500 years ago.
In Upper Egypt stands the city of Luxor, a city of immense importance to the Ancient Egyptians. One of its historical wonders is Luxor Temple, an ornate place of worship adorned with two obelisks at its doors. During the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt, the French attempted to steal the two obelisks and take them back to Paris. The campaign ended before they were successful, but the French did not give up then. A mere 30 years later, the obelisks were “gifted” to the French by the Ottoman monarch Muhammed Ali Pasha. Fifty years later, his successor Ismail Pasha “gifted” two more obelisks to Britain and the United States upon the completion of the Suez Canal, the crowning achievement of the colonization of Egypt. Neither monarch was Egyptian. In the new age of post-Enlightenment European politics, the acquisition of power through covert means was more desirable. Obelisks were no longer stolen conquests, but gifts from foreign aristocrats. They no longer were memories of Egypt, but instead symbolized the strength of their European hosts. When it came time for America to build its new capital city from the ground up, it was no surprise that they chose to show the strength of their emerging empire by constructing an obelisk of their own.
In fashion with the more covert means of projecting soft power, Egypt was no longer a prize to be pursued by military brute force, but rather by backroom deals and predatory commerce tactics. France and Britain competed over Egypt in a tournament of shadows for decades. Finally, once Egypt threatened to secede from Ottoman rule, Britain coerced the declining Ottoman Empire into signing a treaty that gave virtually all economic control of the land to Britain in exchange for military aid. After a rebellion against increasing British influence in Egypt failed, Britain quickly acted to make the colonization of the country official. Thus began the darkest age of Egypt’s history. As the capitalist class in London grew, Britain was stripping Egypt of its resources, starving the population, and stealing its historical artifacts. And what happened to the obelisks built during this period of “civilized acquisition?” Cleopatra’s Needles still stand in London and New York to this day, the latter of which has been completely neglected in terms of preservation and is almost unrecognizable now. All Egyptian requests to repatriate the obelisk have been ignored or denied. The Luxor Obelisk left in Egypt that was unable to be moved to Paris remained French property until 1981, when it was ceremonially given back to Egypt. You would think this meant France would return the obelisk they smuggled to Europe, but the Luxor Obelisk still stands tall in Paris to this day.
The most destructive consequences of European rule in Egypt came after it ended. Shortly after Egyptian revolutionaries Mohammed Naguib and Gamal Abdel Nasser overthrew the monarchy and ended British rule over Egypt, the new Arab socialist government legally nationalized the Suez Canal in order to feed and house the population starved by colonial rule. The response from France and Britain was to coerce Israel into invading Egypt so that France and Britain could also invade and recapture the canal to “keep the peace.” This event wasn’t 200 years ago; it happened in 1956. What followed the Suez Crisis was an era of Egyptian self-sufficiency stifled by Western powers clinging to imperial power structures to maintain economic control in Egypt. These predatory practices always came at the expense of the Egyptian people who had to fight to create a livable reality amid a postcolonial nightmare. To this day, the currency of Egypt is not the Egyptian rial or the Egyptian dinar; it’s the Egyptian Pound.
Finally, our tale through time brings us to the twenty-first century, Postcolonial Egypt has been marked by starvation, neo-imperialism, and most notably, authoritarianism, Hosni Mubarak ruled as a dictator over Egypt for 30 years while the economy stalled, cost of living inflated, and a population boom of educated citizens struggled to find work. Finally in 2011, a match was lit that would engulf the entire Arab World. With the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunis, a revolution began in Egypt and ended with the ousting of Mubarak’s government. Mubarak stepped down, elections were held, and the people elected a new president. Sadly, the new leadership failed to deliver on their promises to the people, leading them to take to the streets again in 2013. This time, the opportunistic military saw this as its chance to seize power and install a military government.
Present-day Egypt comprises a military-controlled state that has failed to deliver for its people. The failures of Egypt’s last three governments show the sad truth that the nation still hasn’t escaped its colonial past. Egypt is still heavily influenced and controlled by foreign corporations and governments who prefer to see it weak and unstable. The West no longer extracts obelisks in order to assert power over Egypt; it now extracts capital.
Photos of the 2011 and 2013 Revolutions in Egypt went viral on social media, giving many across the global community their first glimpse of Egypt in 2000 years. The most famous of these images vividly captured the powerful sea of Egyptians who flooded Tahrir Square, where our story first began. Looking at these images, you won’t find the pink obelisk that now adorns the central traffic circle of the square. Instead, you’ll find a park filled with organizers, agitators, and dissidents, organizing civil disobedience against their government. When the military government took power in 2013, it decided to remove this hotbed of revolutionary activity by erecting one of Egypt’s most prized artifacts there. And thus, the obelisk dating to the same age as the first stolen obelisk was erected in the center of Tahrir Square.
Today, this obelisk is only visible from a distance. In addition to armed guards all around the square, a constant 24/7 security force prevents Egyptians from going anywhere near the central obelisk, a frightening symbol of the modern age. A people forcibly made distant from their own history by Western powers for centuries, creating wounds so deep that now in the twenty-first century, Egypt’s own government has come to reinforce this same distance. While the obelisk in Tahrir Square does serve as a painful reminder of Egypt’s brutal past and present, it also serves as a symbol of hope. A world in which Egyptians can finally embrace their culture, history, and homeland is standing tall right in front of them. They just have to fight for it.
