Cleopatra's Needle, London

Cleopatra's Needle is an obelisk at Victoria Embankment in London. It is one of three obelisks of the same name - the other two are in Paris and New York City. The Cleopatra's Needle is made of red granite, is 21 metres (68 feet) tall, and weighs 180 tons. Egyptian hieroglyphs are inscribed on it. Although the needles are genuine Ancient Egyptian obelisks, none of them 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 granite used came from the quarries of Aswan, near the first cataract of the Nile. The inscriptions were only added about 200 years later by Ramesses 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. They toppled some time later, but the good thing that came out of it is that their hieroglyphs were preserved from the effects of weathering.

Cleopatra's Needle, London
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cleopatras.needle.from.thames.london.arp.jpg
Author: Adrian Pingstone


Cleopatra's Needle remained in Alexandria until 1877, when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, a distinguished anatomist and dermatologist, shipped it to London at a cost of some £10,000 (a fortune in those days). It was dug out of the sand, where it had laid face-down for the past two thousand years, and placed in a huge iron cylinder 92 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, complete with a mast for sails, and towed to London by ship. Disaster struct on 14 October, when a storm off the Bay of Biscay caused the ship to capsize, at a loss of six lives. The iron cylinder did not sink, but drifted in the bay until another British vessal retrieved it, and towed it to Ferrol in Spain for repairs. It finally arrived in Gravesend, England, on 21 January 1878. At the base are plaques mounted to provide information on the obelisk and to remember those who died during its transportation.

In August 1878, it was erected on the Victoria Embankment, in the City of Westminster, near the Golden Jubilee Bridges, and presented by Mehemet Ali, the Albanian-born viceroy of Egypt, to the United Kingdom, to commemorate the victory of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of the Nile, and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801.

Cleopatra's Needle is flanked by two faux-Egyptian sphinxes cast from bronze. The Spinxes bear hieroglyphic inscriptions that say netjer nefer men-kheper-re di ankh, meaning "the good god, Thuthmosis III given life". Due to improper installation, the Sphinxes appear to be looking at the Needle rather than guarding it.During World War I, bombs from one of the first German air raids on London landed near the needle, damaging it but not destroying it. To commemorate that event, the damage was left unrepaired to this day, when during the 2005 restoration.

Visitor Information

Nearest Tube Station: Embankment tube station
Nearest Tourist Office:
Britain Visitor Centre, 1 Lower Regent Street SW1Y xXT

List of Monuments in London

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