I think I remember reading in one of Peter Tompkins’ books about obelisks, that the standard way of constructing one was for the pyramidion to be 1/14 the length of the obelisk. Alas, I am unable to find that reference. Can anyone verify that?
This site says it’s 1/10th…
Thank you for the reply. I am amazed at the lack of information on this topic online and from the Teeming Millions. The site URL provided does say 1/10, but I found another site that seems to say that the 1/10 ratio is the width of the shaft by the height and does not mention the ratio of the pyramidion to the height. Any thoughts on that? Perhaps I am just chasing my tail.
Like this:
Marsh’s reply was spontaneous, direct, and to the point, “Throw out all the gingerbread of the Mills design and keep only the obelisk.” he suggested. Marsh pointed out that based on his studies he had found that the heights of the best-known Egyptian obelisks, even though puny (being no more than 100 feet) compared to the plans for the Washington Monument, were almost precisely ten times the base dimensions. The shaft of the monument was 55 feet square at the baseline, therefore, the Washington Monument should rise to a height of about 550 feet and not to 600 feet as in the Mills design.
Here’s another link to all 27 standing obelisks.