Millions of people walk past ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’ on the Victoria Embankment in London. Few may recognise this obelisk is truly ancient and the oldest monument on the Thames Path National Trail.
The 21 metre high obelisk is at least a thousand years older that Queen Cleopatra. It was carved from pink granite stone in 1450 BCE in Heliopolis on the orders of the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III. The hieroglyphic inscriptions were added two centuries later.
In 12 BCE this obelisk and its twin (now in New York) were taken to Alexandria and set up in a temple built by Cleopatra in honour of Mark Antony. This obelisk fell and lay hidden in sand for several centuries, which helped to preserve the inscriptions.
How did this ancient obelisk come to Britain and be erected here on the river embankment?
In 1819 the Sultan of Egypt and Sudan presented the obelisk to the British Government, in commemoration of Lord Nelson’s victory at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 and Sir Ralph Abercromby’s victory at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801.
Plaques on the sides of the obelisk reveal the history of the obelisk and a marine mishap on its journey from Egypt to London in 1877. The Victoria Embankment Gardens were newly created in 1870 and provided the ideal public space for the obelisk to be erected in 1878.
The two bronze sphinxes that guard it were added in 1882. They bear the scars of a bomb dropped in an air raid on London in 1917 during the First World War.
Take a few minutes to spot other Egyptian-inspired designs in the Victorian iron benches along the Embankment, and wonder at the work of the stone carvers creating this magnificent stone obelisk in ancient Egypt.
