At the close of the sixteenth century, the Roman architect Domenico Fontana choreographed the transformation of the Vatican Obelisk from its antique position on the circus of Nero, to its present location facing St. Peter's. Fontana's treatise Della trasportatione dell'obelisco Vaticano (1590), records this event in a detailed narrative, and a series of remarkable etchings. Architect to Pope Sixtus V, Fontana is often cited as a founder of city planning due to his seminal reorganization of Rome's topography, and as an early proponent of civil engineering owing to his calculated mechanics. Yet neither of these appellations do justice to Fontana's complex practice, one in which architecture is composed in time, characterized by the intensity and profundity of the festival, and the divine power of Man to operate within a world of sympathies. The scaffold which translates the obelisk---and the occulted knowledge of these cosmographic relations---into the space of the city, also invokes an alternate tradition for architecture. Opposite classical solidity and eternal being, Fontana's castello proposes the immaterial, and the ephemeral. An inquiry into this scene of emerging order is particularly relevant for our contemporary world, with our idols fallen and our foundations in rain. / Appended to this thesis is an abridged English translation of Della trasportatione, chapter 1.

Dès le début de leur histoire, les Égyptiens ont réussi à maîtriser l'extraction et la taille du granite dans les carrières d'Assouan. Cette roche, réputée pour sa dureté, est particulièrement appréciée au Nouvel Empire où son exploitation prend une importance sans précédent. Les temples de Karnak, lieux de cultes majeurs à cette époque, constituent à ce titre les sites d'érection privilégiés de ces monuments en granite, à l'image des quinze obélisques qui furent, pendant un temps, dressés dans l'enceinte d'Amon. L'utilisation de ce matériau ne se limite cependant pas à ces monolithes ; il a également été employé pour de nombreux éléments d'architecture, de statuaire et de mobilier de culte.S'inscrivant dans une démarche pluridisciplinaire comprenant une approche égyptologique, géologique et technique, cet ouvrage propose une étude sur ces réalisations à travers le prisme du site de Karnak, suffisamment riche pour être, dans une certaine mesure, représentatif de l'utilisation générale du granite dans les temples de l'Égypte ancienne / From the beginning of their history, the Egyptians have acquired an expert knowledge of granite quarrying and cutting in Aswan region. This stone, whose hardness made it famous, has been particularly used during the New Kingdom, when it got an unprecedented importance. The Karnak temples, as major cult spots at that time, have been a privileged site for the erection of monuments made from granite, as reflected by the fifteen obelisks which stood in the Amon enclosure for centuries. Its usage has not been limited to these large monolith pieces ; it has also been shaped in a tremendous amount of architectural elements, statues and objects for worship.Following an interdisciplinary approach combining an egyptological, a geological and a technical study, this work presents an investigation of granite monuments through the prism of the Karnak temples, whose history spreads far enough to be representative, in some way, of the general use of granite in ancient Egypt temples.

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Today, there are more Egyptian obelisks outside of Egypt than there are left where they were made. The obelisks are certainly beautiful, but what lies beneath are uncountable hours, days and years of work. Work which made the obelisks end up where they are today. From quarrying these enormous pieces of stone by smashing rock against rock, to building ships without equal for their transportation. It is hard to understand the amount of resources, manpower and organization that went into creating these tall monuments. Therefore, this study will attempt to examine each step in transporting the obelisks, from the quarry to their destination. Where theories collide, the study will weigh them against each other critically to give a fuller account of the transportation of the obelisks of Egypt. This study will begin by presenting a background, or basis, which will be further built upon as it progresses. The first chapter is mainly focused around the circumstance of transportation, along with giving a basic description of obelisks as individual objects. The next step lies in studying the general shipbuilding techniques used in ancient Egypt. This in turn will help in understanding the obelisk ships and the loading and unloading of these vessels. The obelisk ships and their loading will be the focal point of this study. The mainstay of the sources used for this study comes from earlier theories. The primary sources of this study will mainly consist of textual remains along with depictions. / Idag finns det fler obelisker utanför Egypten än vad det finns kvar innanför dess gränser. Obeliskerna är helt klart vackra, men vad som ligger under ytan är oräkneliga timmar, dagar och år av arbete. Arbete som gjorde att obeliskerna hamnade på den plats de är idag. Från att bryta dessa enorma stenblock genom att slå sten mot sten, till att bygga skepp utan dess like för deras transport. Det är svårt att förstå den enorma mängd resurser, arbetskraft och ren vilja som krävdes för att skapa dessa höga monument. Av denna anledning kommer den här studien att försöka närma sig varje steg i transporten av obelisker, från stenbrottet till deras destination. Där teorier kolliderar, kommer denna studie att väga dem mot varandra kritiskt för att ge en mer komplett inblick i transporten av antika Egyptiska obelisker. Denna studie kommer att börja med att presentera en bakgrund, eller bas, som kommer att byggas vidare på under arbetets gång. Studiens första del fokuserar  på omständigheterna för transporten, samt med att ge en grundläggande beskrivning av obelisker som individuella objekt. Det nästkommande steget ligger i att studera de tekniker som användes för skeppsbygge i det antika Egypten. Detta kommer i sin tur underlätta för förståelsen av obeliskskepp och avlastning samt pålastning av dessa farkoster. Obeliskskeppen och deras lastning kommer att utgöra huvuddelen i denna studie. Huvuddelen av källorna som använts för denna studie kommer från tidigare teorier. Primärkällorna som använts består till största del av textuella lämningar samt avbildningar.