Why the obelisk? To early Egyptians it was the shape sacred to the Sun God Re or Ra; the creator of humanity, the source of all heat and light, the being on whom man was totally dependent. By the fifth dynasty Re had become so popular he was elevated to the role of state deity. His main centre of worship was On-Heliopolis where the first kings erected primitive obelisks, rough-hewn and truncated, but tipped off by the pyramidion shape which distinguishes obelisks from other monumental columns. These prototype obelisks were known as 'benben' stone.
The spirit of the Sun-God was supposed to enter the stones at certain periods, and on these occasions human sacrifices were offered to it. The victims were probably prisoners of war who had been captured alive, and foreigners, and when these failed, the priests must have drawn upon the native population.
At On-Heliopolis king after king erected benbens in Re's honour, so that by 1300 B.C. the city was full of obelisks; some decorated with gold to resemble the sun's rays, others with inscriptions glorifying Re's daily passage through the skies, or hailing earthly occasions such as victories, feasts and jubilees.
The pharoahs of later dynasties switched their obelisk erecting affections to Osiris; God of the earth, vegetation and the Nile flood that gave life to all Egypt; God of rebirth; God also of the Underworld, the Last Judgement and Life and Death. As this cult became ever more popular, the priests at Heliopolis shrewdly grafted it on to Re-worshiping by claiming Osirus was Re's grandson. This ensured that Heliopolis remained the greatest religious centre in Egypt and the entire Mediterranean region. Even the Roman author Pliny knew of this city where kings 'entered into a kind of rivalry in forming elongated blocks of stone, known as obelisks, and consecrated them to the divinity of the Sun.
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