Obelisk Odyssey

26 Ancient Monoliths, 4 Continents, and 1 Monumental Search for Meaning

“The Egyptian obelisks are the oldest globally distributed human creations on earth and have a unique physical presence in the lives of millions of people every day. It is as if they have intentionally positioned themselves far and wide in order to tell the contemporary world something. And I wanted to hear what they have to say.”

Easing into life after the daily grind of corporate climbing and consulting, semi-retired businessman Mark Ciccone was faced with a first-world problem—how to find meaning as a “man of leisure”?

He finds the answer more than five thousand miles away, lying in the stone quarries of one of the cradles of civilization: the Egyptian obelisk. With a presence on four continents, the twenty-six surviving granite monuments are some of history’s most mysterious and meaningful man-made objects, each with its own “voice” and message for the world.

Setting out to see each one, he embarks on a six-month, twenty-five-thousand-mile odyssey of “fun with a purpose” from his hometown of Boston to Egypt, England, Italy, Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, and beyond to discover what these ancient “voices” have to say about religion, technology, tribalism, and the conflicts that plague the world of today.

Obelisk Odyssey is a powerful blend of history, humor, and self-discovery that reveals just as much about the present and the future as it does about the past.