An obelisk is a tall stone pillar that is square at the base and pointed at the top. It is generally erected as a monument or landmark or to commemorate an event. There are many important obelisks to be found around the world. Touriosity likes to bring to its readers a compilation of important attractions around the world. For those who find interest in Obelisks, this article is a compilation of 123 amazing obelisks around the world.
17th century
1. Fontaine des Quatre Dauphins (Place: Aix-en-Provence, France; Year: 1667)
18th century
2. Market Square obelisk (Place: Ripon, United Kingdom; Height: 24 m; Year: 1702; Fact: The first large scale obelisk in Britain)
3. Stillorgan Obelisk (Place: Stillorgan, Dublin, Ireland; Height: 30m; Year: 1727)
4. St. Luke Church (Place: London, United Kingdom; Year: 1727–33; Fact: spire by Nicholas Hawksmoor)
5. Boyne Obelisk (Place: near Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland; Height: 53 m, Year: 1736; Fact: To commemorate William of Orange’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. It was destroyed in 1923, only the base remains)
6. Conolly’s Folly (Place: Leixlip, County Kildare, Ireland; Year: 1740)
7. Killiney Hill Obelisk (Place: Killiney, County Dublin, Ireland; Year: 1742)
8. Mamhead obelisk (Place: Mamhead, United Kingdom, Height: 30 m, Year: 1742–1745; Fact: An aid to shipping)
9. General Wolfe’s Obelisk (Place: Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom; Year: 1754)
10. Montreal Park Obelisk (Place: Riverhead, Sevenoaks, Kent, United Kingdom; Year: 1761; Fact: Lord Jeffery Amherst’s Obelisk)
11. St George’s Circus Obelisk (Place: St George’s Circus, London, United Kingdom; Year: 1771; Fact: Obelisk by Robert Mylne)
12. Kagul Obelisk (Place: Tsarskoe Selo, Russia; Year: 1772)
13. Chesma Obelisk (Place: Gatchina, Russia; Year: 1775)
14. Villa Medici (Place: Rome, Italy; Year: 1790; Fact: A 19th-century copy of the Egyptian obelisk moved to the Boboli Gardens in Florence)
15. Obelisk Fountain (Place: James St., Dublin, Ireland; Year: 1790)
16. Constable Obelisk (Place: Gatchina Palace, Gatchina, Russia; Year: 1793)
17. Moore-Vallotton Incident marker (Place: Wexford, Ireland; Year: 1793)
18. Rumyantsev Obelisk (Place: St Petersburg, Russia; Year: 1799)
19. Obelisk at Slottsbacken (Place: Stockholm, Sweden; Year: 1800)
19th century
20. Nelson memorial (Place: Springfield Park, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom; Year: 1805)
21. St. Emmeram’s Palace Obelisk (Place: Regensburg, Bavaria, Germany; Year: 1810)
22. Constitution Obelisk (Place: St. Augustine, Florida, United States; Year: 1814; Fact: In commemoration, of the Spanish Constitution of 1812)
23. Brightling Needle (Place: Brightling, East Sussex, United Kingdom; Height: 20m; Year: 1815)
24. Patriots’ Grave, Old Burying Ground (Place: Arlington, Massachusetts, United States; Year: 1818)
25. George IV Monument (Place: Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland; Year: 1823)
26. Blantyre Monument (Place: Erskine, Renfrewshire, United Kingdom; Height 24 m; Year: 1825)
27. Captain Cook’s Monument (Place: Easby Moor, Great Ayton, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom; Height: 15.5 m; Year: 1827)
28. Groton Monument (Place: Fort Griswold, Groton, Connecticut, United States; Height: 41 m; Year: 1830)
29. Bunker Hill Monument (Place: Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States; Height: 67 m; Year: 1827-43)
30. Spencer Monument (Place: Blata l-Bajda, Malta; Year: 1831)
31. Thomas Jefferson Obelisk, Monticello (Place: Charlottesville, Virginia, United States; Year: 1833; Fact: Erected by his family, Jefferson had willed that only three achievements be sketched onto it: Author of the Declaration of Independence, author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia)
32. Obelisk of Lions, Copou Park (Place: Iași, Romania; Height 13.5m; Year: 1834)
33. Villa Torlonia (Place: Rome, Italy; Year: 1842, Fact: Two obelisks)
34. Reggio Emilia obelisk (Place: Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy; Year: 1842; Fact: Commemorates marriage of Francis V, Duke of Modena to princess Adelgunde of Bavaria)
35. Rutherford’s Monument (Place: Anwoth, Scotland, United Kingdom; Year 1842; Fact: A memorial to Samuel Rutherford)
36. Political Martyrs’ Monument (Place: Calton Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom; Height: 27 m; Year: 1844)
37. Lansdowne Monument (Place: Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom; Height: 38 m; Year: 1845; Fact: Erected by the 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne to commemorate Sir William Petty)
38. The Obelisk (Place: Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia; Year: 1850)
39. Wellington Monument (Place: Wellington, Somerset, United Kingdom; Height: 53 m; Year: 1854)
40. Stoodley Pike Monument (Place: Todmorden, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom; Year: 37 m; Year 1856)
41. Hyde Park Obelisk (Place: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; Height: 22 m; Year: 1857)
42. Herndon Monument (Place: Annapolis, Maryland, United States; Height: 6.4 m, Year: 1860, Fact: Erected by the US Naval Academy to commemorate the loss of William Lewis Herndon.)
43. Obelisk of Fontenoy (Place: Fontenoy, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France; Year: 1860)
44. Wellington Monument (Place: Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland; Height: 62 m; Year: 1861; Fact: The tallest in Europe)
45. Prince of Wales’ Obelisk (Place: Port Elizabeth, South Africa; Fact: Intended for one George Kemp but erected to commemorate the marriage of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra of Denmark in 1861. Originally on Market Square, now in front of the Bayworld Museum Complex)
46. Lincoln Tomb (Place: Springfield, Illinois, United States; Height: 36 m; Year: 1865)
47. Tyndale Monument (Place: North Nibley, Gloucestershire, England; Height: 34 m; Year: 1866)
48. Nicholson’s Obelisk (Place: Margalla Hills, Rawalpindi–Islamabad, Pakistan; Height: 12 m; Year: 1868)
49. Captain Cook Obelisk (Place: Kurnell, New South Wales, Australia; Height: 1870)
50. Dauphin County Veteran’s Memorial Obelisk (Place: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, 34 m, 1876)
51. Washington Monument (Place: Washington, D.C., United States; Height: 169 m; Year: 1884)
52. Oriskany Battlefieldmonument (Place: Rome, New York, United States; Year: 1884)
53. Monument to the Restorers [Place: Restauradores Square, Lisbon, Portugal; Year: 1886; Fact: Erected to celebrate the victory in the Portuguese Restoration War (1640–1668)]
54. Ludwig van Beethoven’s grave (Place: Vienna Central Cemetery, Austria; Year: 1888)
55. Bennington Battle Monument (Place: Bennington, Vermont, United States; Height: 92 m; Year: 1889)
56. Monolith “The Obelisk” (Place: Villalar de los Comuneros, Castile and León, Spain; Year: 1889)
57. Dalhousie Obelisk (Place: Raffles Place, Central Area, Singapore; Year: 1891)
58. The Obelisk, Penn State University (Place: University Park, Pennsylvania, United States; Year: 1896)
59. Confederate War Memorial (Place: Dallas, Texas, United States; Year: 1896)
20th century
60. William Dudley Chipley Memorial (Place: Plaza Ferdinand VII, Pensacola, Florida, United States; Year: 1901)
61. Sergeant Floyd Monument (Place: Sioux City, Iowa, United States; Year: 1901)
62. Joseph Smith Birthplace Memorial (Place: South Royalton, Vermont, United States; Height: 15 m; Year: 1905)
63. McKinley Monument (Place: Niagara Square, Buffalo, New York, United States; Height: 29 m; Year: 1907)
64. Veterans’ Monument (Place: Elizabethton, Tennessee, United States; Year: 1904; Fact: Dedicated to American Civil War veterans from Carter County, Tennessee)
65. Finn’s Point National Cemetery (Place: Pennsville Township, New Jersey, United States; Height: 26 m; Year: 1910; Fact: Erected by the U.S. government in 1910 to memorialize Confederate soldiers buried at the cemetery.)
66. Coronation Memorial (Place: Coronation Park, Delhi, India; Year: 1911; Fact: To commemorate the founding of New Delhi in 1911 followed by other obelisks around the Rashtrapati Bhavan)
67. Victory Memorial (Place: Fort Recovery, Ohio, United States; Height: 31 m; Year: 1913)
68. Rizal Monument (Place: Luneta Park, Manila, Philippines; Height: 12.7 m; Year: 1913; Fact: Built to commemorate executed Filipino nationalist, José Rizal.)
69. National Women’s Monument (Place: Bloemfontein, South Africa; Year: 1913)
70. Ozark Trail (Place: Various locations including Stroud, Oklahoma, Farwell, Dimmitt, Wellington, and Tulia, Texas, United States; Year: 1913; Fact: Formerly a series of 21 obelisks)
71. PAX Memorial (Place: Walmer, Port Elizabeth, South Africa; Height: 6 m; Year: 1919; Fact: A World War I memorial to local fallen soldiers)
72. Flagler Monument (Place: Flagler Monument Island, Miami Beach, Florida, United States; Height: 34 m, Place: 1920)
73. Southport War Memorial (Place: London Square, Southport, Lancashire, England, United Kingdom; Height: 20.6 m; Year: 1923)
74. Veterans Memorial Plaza (Place: Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States; Height: 30 m; Year: 1923)
75. Jefferson Davis Monument (Place: Fairview, Kentucky, United States; Height: 107 m; Year: 1924; Fact: Commemorating the birthplace of the President of the Confederate States of America)
76. Boer War Monument (Place: King’s Domain, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Height: 23 m; Year: 1924)
77. Camp Merritt Memorial Monument (Place: Cresskill, New Jersey, USA; Height: 20 m; Year: 1924; Fact: Monument dedicated to the soldiers who passed through Camp Merritt, New Jersey, en route to Europe in World War I, particularly those who died at the camp due to the influenza epidemic of 1918)
78. Hobart Cenotaph (Place: Queens Domain, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; Year: 1925; Fact: A World War I memorial)
79. The Big Red Apple (Place: Cornelia, Georgia, United States; Height: 2.4 m; Year: 1925; Fact: A short square obelisk with the world’s largest apple on top)
80. Prague Castle Obelisk (Place: Prague Castle, Prague, Czech Republic; Height: 15.42 m, Year: 1930)
81. Obelisk of Montevideo (Place: Parque Batlle, Montevideo, Uruguay; Height: 40 m; Year: 1930)
82. High Point Monument (Place: High Point, Montague, New Jersey, United States; Height: 67 m; Year: 1930, Located on top of New Jersey’s highest point, 550 m above sea level)
83. Foro Italico (Place: Lungotevere Maresciallo Diaz, Rome, Italy; Year: 1932; Fact: Erected to honour Benito Mussolini)
84. Paterson Monument (Place: Windmill Point, George Town, Tasmania, Australia; Year: 1935, Fact: Erected to commemorate the 1804 landing of William Paterson)
85. Obelisk of Buenos Aires (Place: San Nicolás, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Height: 71.5 m, Year: 1936)
86. Trujillo Obelisk (Place: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Height: 42 m; Year: 1937)
87. War Memorial (Place: Floriana, Malta; Year: 1938)
88. San Jacinto Monument (Place: La Porte, Texas, United States; Height: 172.92 m; Year: 1939)
89. Trylon and Perisphere (Place: 1939 New York World’s Fair, Flushing, New York, United States; Height: 190 m; Year: 1939; Fact: Not a true obelisk, but an art deco variant.)
90. Maungakiekie Obelisk (Place: One Tree Hill, Auckland, New Zealand; Year: 1940)
91. Victory Monument (Place: Bangkok, Thailand; Year: 1941; Fact: To commemorate Thai victory in the Franco-Thai War, a brief conflict waged against the French colonial authorities in Indo-China, which resulted in Thailand annexing some territories in western Cambodia and northern and southern Laos. These were among the territories which the Kingdom of Siam had been forced to cede to France in 1893 and 1904, and patriotic Thais considered them rightfully to belong to Thailand)
92. Plaza Francia Obelisk (Place: Altamira, Caracas, Venezuela; Year: 1944)
93. Banská Bystrica Obelisk (Place: Banská Bystrica, Slovakia; Year: 1945; Fact: Commemorates the soldiers of the Red Army and those of the Romanian Armywho fell while liberating the town.
94. Cenotaph on Leinster Lawn (Place: Leinster House, Dublin, Ireland; Height: 18.28 m; Year: 1950; Fact: Erected to commemorate the memories of Arthur Griffith, Michael Collinsand Kevin O’Higgins; and replaced an earlier temporary cenotaph, erected in 1923)
95. Lucas Gusher Obelisk (Place: Beaumont, Texas, USA; Year: 1951; Fact: Recognizes the 50th anniversary of the birth of the liquid fuel age as the Lucas Gusher came in at Spindletop on January 10, 1901)
96. Heroes Monument (Place: Surabaya, Indonesia; Height: 41.5 m; Year: 1952; Fact: Commemorate the events of November 10, 1945 at the Battle of Surabaya)
97. Israel War of Independence Memorial (Place: Safed, Israel)
98. Obelisk of São Paulo (Place: São Paulo, Brazil; Height: 72 m; Year: 1954)
99. Monument to the abolition of slavery (Place: Abolition Park, Ponce, Puerto Rico, Height: 30 m; Year: 1956)
100. Obelisk of La Paz (Place: La Paz, Bolivia)
101. Demidovsky Pillar (Place: Tsentralny City District, Barnaul, Altai Krai, Russia; Height: 14 m)
102. Victory Obelisk (Place: Poklonnaya Hill, Moscow; Height: 141.8 m)
103. Bayonet-Obelisk of the War Memorial (Place: Brest Fortress, Brest, Belarus; Height: 100 m)
104. Trinity Nuclear Test Site Obelisk (Place: Jornada del Muerto, Socorro, New Mexico, United States; Height: 3.7 m; Fact: The location of the first atomic bomb explosion)
105. Cairn to mark the Geographic Centre of North America (Place: Rugby, North Dakota, USA; Height: 4.6 m; Year: 1971; Fact: The structure is more like a cairn sited near the geographical center of North America (Mexico, USA and Canada). The location of the geographical center is approximately 15 miles (24 km) for the location of the cairn.)
106. Pirulito da Praça Sete (Place: Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil)
107. Oregon Trail (Place: Boise, Idaho, United States; Fact: 21 obelisks that mark the trail)
108. Islamic Summit Minar (Place: Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan; Height: 47 m; Year: 1974; Fact: An obelisk-shape structure built to commemorate the Organisation of Islamic Conference)
109. Monumen Nasional (Place: Merdeka Square, Jakarta, Indonesia; Year: 1975; Fact: Symbolizing the fight for the independence of Indonesia)
110. Juche Tower (Place: Pyongyang, North Korea; Height: 170 m, Year: 1982)
111. Leningrad Hero City Obelisk (Place: Vosstaniya Square, Saint Petersburg, Russia; Year: 1985)
112. 1948 Arab–Israeli War Memorial (Place: Ad Halom, Ashdod, Israel; Fact: Memorial to Egypt’s fallen soldiers)
113. Avis Obelisk (Place: Avis Farms Office Park, Pittsfield Township, Michigan, United States; Year: 1998)
114. Bahá’í House of Worship (Place: Bahá’í World Centre buildings, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel; Year: 1971; Fact: Marking the site of the future Bahá’í House of Worship)
115. Independence Monument (Place: Maha Bandula Park, Yangon, Myanmar)
21st century
116. Capas National Shrine (Place: Tarlac province, Philippines; Height: 70 m; Year: 2003)
117. Kolonna Eterna (Place: San Gwann, Malta; Height: 6 m; Year: 2003; Fact: Egyptian obelisk by Paul Vella Critien)
118. Colonna Mediterranea (Place: Luqa, Malta; Height: 3 m; Year: 2006; Fact: Abstract art by Paul Vella Critien)
119. Plaza Salcedo Obelisk (Place: Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Philippines)
120. Cyclisk (Place: Santa Rosa, California, United States; Height: 20 m; Fact: Made of 340 bicycles)
121. Obelisco Novecento (Place: Rome, Italy; Year: 2004; Fact: Sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro)
122. Armed Forces Memorial (Place: National Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire, United Kingdom; Year: 2007)
123. Särkynyt lyhty (Place: Tornio, Lapland, Finland; Height: 9m; Fact: Made of stainless steel)