London - Cleopatra's Needle

Although this obelisk of pink granite, standing 21m/68ft high and weighing 180 tons, comes from Egypt, it has no connection with Cleopatra. It was presented to Britain by Mohammad Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, in 1819, but was brought to London (after a stormy voyage in which six seamen were lost) only in 1878. It was set up on the Victoria Embankment and was at once christened by Londoners with the nickname by which it is still known. The obelisk is one of a pair erected at Heliopolis about 1500 B.C. Its companion, in New York's Central Park, has suffered the effects of pollution and is not in such a good state of preservation. The hieroglyphic inscriptions glorify the deeds and victories of Tuthmosis III and Rameses II, the Great.