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Cleopatra's Needle
Cleopatra's Needles are a trio of obelisks in London, Paris and New York City, Each stands about 68 feet high. They are genuine Ancient Egyptian obelisks but have no connection with Queen Cleopatra. They were originally erected in the city of Heliopolis on the orders of Thutmose III, around 1450 BC and are made from granite brought from Aswan. 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 temple built by Cleopatra in 12 BC, but were toppled some time later buried by sand preserving most of the hieroglyphs from the effects of weathering.
The London needle is on the Victoria Embankment and was presented to the UK in 1819 in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson and Sir Ralph Abercromby. Although the British government welcomed the gesture, it declined to fund the expense of transporting it to London.
In 1877 Sir William James Erasmus Wilson sponsored its transportation to London and it was dug out of the sand in which it was buried for nearly 2,000 years and encased in a great iron cylinder dubbed Cleopatra, which was to be towed to London by the ship Olga. But the Cleopatra capsized with the loss of six lives. It did not sink but drifted into the Bay of Biscay until it was rescued and finally arrived in the UK on 21 January 1878.
Cleopatra's Needle is flanked by two faux-Egyptian sphinxes that bear hieroglyphic's that say netjer nefer men-kheper-re di ankh (the good god, Thuthmosis III given life). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra's_needle)
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