The southern end of Aswan town was an area of ancient granite quarries, where stone for the building of many of Egypt's monuments was obtained. Visitors are often taken to see the 'unfinished obelisk' which still remains in situ attached to the rock on one side. This gigantic single piece of granite was intended to be an obelisk and is generally attributed to Queen Hatshepsut, being very similar to her obelisk in Karnak Temple in Luxor. Reliefs depicting the transportation of an obelisk can be seen in Hatshepsut's Deir el-Bahri temple.

In ancient times obelisks and other large stone objects were usually blocked out roughly before they left the quarry. There are several techniques suggested for the splitting of hard stone away from its surrounding rock. One method may have been to cut a groove along the line where the stone was to be detached and then to drive in wooden wedges which were soaked with water. The force of the swelling wood would act to split the granite - there is certainly evidence that this method was used in Roman times. Another method may have been to cut a groove with stone tools, or a primitive saw used with an abrasive, which would then be heated with charcoal and rapidly cooled with water, causing the stone to split.

Given the primitive soft-metal tools of the ancient Egyptians, the obelisk in the Aswan quarry shows us an amazing feat of technology and archaeologists have learned much about the techniques of stone-cutting from examining this abandoned monument and from the tools which have been left behind.

It would appear that the stone, which measures 42m in length and would have weighed around 1216 tonnes, developed a flaw during quarrying and was never completed, left to lie still attached to the living rock for the next 3000 years.

Nearby monuments

There are also many rock inscriptions in the quarries and the surrounding areas and on the river banks around Elephantine. There are boulder inscriptions on the river bank below the public gardens behind the Old Cataract Hotel.

Another important inscription nearby, depicting Akhenaten's sculptors Men and Bek, is carved on a rock near the Coptic Cathedral but recently has been inaccessible as it was enclosed within a building site.