|
 |  |
|
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 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 II, 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 InformationEntrance Fee: FreeTube Station: Embankment Nearest Tourist Office: Britain Visitor Centre, 1 Lower Regent Street SW1Y xXT |
Local Tours of London
A practical and often cost effective way to see London is to join a local tour. Check out the Local Tours of London that you can book online.Return to London Budget Travel Guide or to UK Budget Travel Guide
Find lowest price for your Hotel RoomBefore booking a hotel room, make sure you are getting the lowest price for it. Different hotel booking websites offers the same room at different prices. If you stick with one site all the time, you could be paying more for the same room. Now why pay more?The form below is a Research Engine. It doesn't take bookings. Instead it lets you find the hotel booking website that offers the room you want at the lowest price. You can see and compare what different sites are offering, and then click to choose the one with the best price. Do this, and you're guaranteed to save a whole lot of money on your room reservations!
|
Return to EarthDocumentary World Budget Travel GuideMy message introducing God to all the world: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO TIM  EarthDocumentary and globe logo are trademark and service mark of Timothy Tye. |
|
|
 EarthDocumentary logo © copyright Timothy Tye 2007-2010. Content and articles in EarthDocumentary are provided in goodwill and are believed to be correct at time of writing. While every reasonable care is taken to check and verify the information shared, EarthDocumentary disclaims responsibility for its use. Text in EarthDocumentary is available under Creative Commons Attribution/ShareAlike License meaning you are free to copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make derivative works, as long as you attribute your resulting work and apply it under the same, similar or a compatible license. You may use the information on this website on your blog or website so long as you place a link back to the page in AsiaExplorers where it appears. Wikipedia and Wikitravel are cited as among the sources of references. Photographs appearing in EarthDocumentary are available according to the licensing terms specified in its caption. Photographs supplied by Panoramio are governed by the Panoramio API terms & condition, are for display only, and may not be downloaded for use. Photographs belonging to the author are the copyright of Timothy Tye and may not be reused without prior written permission from the author. Contact the author for permission and licensing of the photos. |
