Abishemu obelisk

The Abishemu obelisk or the Abichemou obelisk is a 1.25 meter limestone obelisk dedicated to the Phoenician king Abishemu I of Byblos. The obelisk is decorated with two lines of inscriptions in Egyptian hieroglyphics. It was created in c.1800 BCE, and was unearthed in the 1950s by Maurice Dunand in the Temple of the Obelisks. It is the world's third-oldest obelisk, and by far the oldest obelisk found outside Egypt.

Abishemu obelisk
The obelisk in its current location
Material	Limestone
Size	1.45 meters (1.25 meters above the plinth)
Writing	Egyptian hieroglyphs
Created	c.1800 BC
Discovered	c.1950
Present location	National Museum of Beirut
Identification	DGA 17917

Although only approximately a dozen words long, the obelisk contains:

• the name of one of the oldest known kings of Byblos, Abishemu I
• the earliest description of an ethnic group later considered to be among the purported "Sea Peoples", transliterated as Kukunnis, son of Lukka" (in analysis of the Sea Peoples, Lukka have been proposed as "Lycians").[1][2]
• a reference to "Herishef", considered by Dunand to be the Egyptian name of the Canaanite god Resheph, and thus giving the alternate name "Temple of Resheph" for the Temple of the Obelisks[3]

The obelisk is the only example of a complete obelisk with a true pyramidion found in the Temple of the Obelisks; most of the others were rough steles.[4] It consists of a square plinth at the bottom, a tapering shaft and with a pyramidion at the top.[4]