Cleopatra's Needle: Encyclopedia - Cleopatra's Needle

Cleopatra's Needle

Cleopatra's Needles are a trio of obelisks in London, Paris (Place de la Concorde) and New York City. Each is made of red granite, stands about 21 metres (68 feet) high, weighs about 180 tons and is inscribed with hieroglyphs. Although the needles are genuine Ancient Egyptian obelisks, they are somewhat misnamed as neither has any connection with queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt. They were originally erected in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis on the orders of Thutmose III, around 1450 BC. The material of which they were cut is granite, brought from Aswan, near the first cataract of the Nile. The inscriptions were added about 200 years later by Ramses II to commemorate his military victories. The obelisks were moved to Alexandria and set up in the Caesarium — a temple built by Cleopatra in honor of Mark Antony — by the Romans in 12 BC, during the reign of Augustus Caesar, but were toppled some time later. This had the fortuitous effect of burying their faces and so preserving most of the hieroglyphs from the effects of weathering.

Cleopatra's Needle - History of the needles

Cleopatra's Needle - London

The London needle is in the City of Westminster, on the Victoria Embankment near the Golden Jubilee Bridges. It was presented to the United Kingdom in 1819 by Mehemet Ali, the Albanian-born viceroy of Egypt, in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801. Although the British government welcomed the gesture, it declined to fund the expense of transporting it to London.

The obelisk remained in Alexandria until 1877 when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, a distinguished anatomist and dermatologist, sponsored its transportation to London at a cost of some £10,000 (a very considerable sum in those days). It was dug out of the sand in which it had been buried for nearly 2,000 years and was encased in a great iron cylinder, 92 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, designed by the engineer John Dixon and dubbed Cleopatra. It had a vertical stem and stern, a rudder, two bilge keels, a mast for balancing sails, and a deck house. This acted as a floating pontoon which was to be towed to London by the ship Olga.

The effort met with disaster on 14 October 1877, when the Cleopatra capsized in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, with the loss of six lives. The Cleopatra did not sink but instead drifted in the Bay until it was rescued by the English ship Fitzmaurice and taken to Ferrol in Spain for repairs. It finally arrived in Gravesend on 21 January 1878. The obelisk was erected on the Victoria Embankment the following August.

Cleopatra's Needle is flanked by two faux-Egyptian sphinxes cast from bronze. The Embankment has other Egyptian flourishes, such as buxom winged sphinxes on the armrests of benches. On 4 September 1917, during World War I, bombs from the first German air raid on London by German aeroplanes landed near the needle. In commemoration of this event, the damage remains unrepaired to this day and is clearly visible in the form of shrapnel holes and gouges on the right-hand sphinx. Restoration work was carried out in 2005.

Cleopatra's Needle - Paris

The Paris Needle is in the Place de la Concorde

The center of the Place is occupied by a giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramses II. It once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple. The viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, presented the 3,300-year-old Luxor Obelisk to France in 1829. King Louis-Philippe had it placed in the centre of Place de la Concorde in 1833. Given the technical limitations of the day, transporting it was no easy feat — on the pedestal are drawn diagrams explaining the machineries that were used for the transportation. The red granite column rises 23 metres high, including the base, and weighs over 250 tonnes. Missing its original cap, believed stolen in the 6th century BC, in 1998 the government of France added a gold-leafed pyramid cap to the top of the obelisk. The obelisk is flanked on both sides by two fountains constructed at the time of its erection on the Place.

Cleopatra's Needle - New York

The New York needle is in Central Park. It was presented to the City of New York by Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt, and its transportation was funded by the railroad tycoon William Henry Vanderbilt. In contrast with the tortuous journey of the London needle, it arrived safely and was erected in Central Park on 22 February 1881.

Cleopatra's Needle - The inscriptions

Cleopatra's Needle - New York

The New York needle's inscriptions are well-preserved due to the long burial of the needle, although some have been weathered into illegibility on the exposed face. They are translated as follows:

Face 1:

Face 2:

Face 3:

Face 4:

Categories: Obelisks | Monuments in London | Buildings and strutures in Paris | Manhattan | New York landmarks

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