Nancy Rosebush, age 10 of Warsaw, On., for her question:

What is an obelisk?

An obelisk is a slender, four‑sided pillar. It is tapered towards the top and crowned with a little pyramid. It is made of stone and the sides are usually ornamented with ancient script. For the obelisk belonged in the ancient world of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Often it stood in front of a temple as a monument. In any case, it was an everyday sight in the world of 3,000 and 4,000 years ago.

The obelisk may well be a great‑great‑grandfather of the clock. In the dim, distant past, it may have been used as/shadow stick to tell the time of day. Shadows change as the sun moves over the sky. When the shadow points towards the west, the sun is in the east. It is morning. At evening the shadow from the shadow stick points to the east. The stick watchers could even tell the exact time of high noon. For then the shadow is shortest.

Shadow sticks were used before the dawn of history. Perhaps in time they were beautified and used merely as monuments. In this case, the obelisk may be a glorified shadow stick for telling time ‑ an ancestor of the clock.