Embankment

Cleopatra's Needle

The Embankment London

One of a trio (the others are outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Place de la Concorde Paris)  this well weathered and ancient Obelisk, covered in heiroglyphs,  was a beachcomer's dream.  It was on of three obelisks made of red granite and standing about 68 feet (21 metres) high, weighing about 180 tons and inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

Left: The Sphnix and the London Eye - photo courtesy Les Baker and reproduced by kind permission

All three of the "needles" are geniune Ancient Egyptian obelisks abandoned on the beach at Alexandria in Egypt.  However, none of them is connected with Queen Cleopatra!!  The fact that the obelisks were buried in the sand on the beaches was a fortuitous one - it buried the four sides of the obelisks, and so preserved most of the hieroglyphs from the effects of weathering.

In 1819 the one now set in a plinth in London was reclaimed from the beach at Alexandria, and sent by sea encased in a container of iron, as a present to one of this country's ambassadors from a grateful King of Egypt, who was thankful that his country had been saved from the French by Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile.

Cleopatra's Needle on the Embankment - photo courtesy D Burgess

It was erected on the newly constructed Embankment, flanked by two very authentic copies of the Sphinxs in Egypt, and it is one of the most instantly recognizable landmarks in London.

 Nearest Tube station:  Temple

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