Roadside Curiosities

The city of Memphis was founded on May 22, 1819 by John Overton, James Winchester and Andrew Jackson. They named it after the ancient capital of Egypt on the Nile River located in the far northern part of the African continent.  Which probably explains the origins of this pyramid...

click on images to enlarge

And this obelisk...

The real story behind these oddly out-of-place architectural wonders goes like this.  

The Memphis Pyramid - aka the Great American Pyramid, Pyramid Arena or simply The Pyramid was originally owned and operated by the city of Memphis and Shelby County as a sports venue in downtown Memphis.  Following many years of not being used to host sporting events Shelby County eventually sold out to the city.  A couple of years ago it re-opened as a Bass Pro Shops megastore featuring  shopping, a hotel, restaurants, a bowling alley, and an archery range, with an outdoor observation deck located at the top.  

South of Memphis and north of Jackson, MS is the obelisk featured above.  Situated west of Mississippi-Highway 55 it looks like a smaller version of the Washington Monument and as we suspected it is a cell phone tower.  The mayor and city of Ridgeland thought that the miniature obelisk would be more visually appealing than.a common garden-variety cell phone tower.    

Lots of ancient Egyptian influence this part of the country enjoys.