Cleopatra’s Needle – London Titbits

Cleopatra’s Needle is an ancient looking Egyptian obelisk that can be found on the banks of the River Thames, on the Victoria Embankment in London to be precise. I have walked past it many times – as well as eyeballing this ancient lookng lump of granite every time I cross over the nearby Hungerford Bridge and each time I see it, I look at in wondermont, thinking how the hell did that huge and magnifcent looking artefact end up in London.

I must admit I have been kinda lazy and I never bothered myself to go and find out any of the history behind London’s Cleopatra’s Needle. I wrongly assumed that the Victorian English probably had just stolen it from Egypt because they could and transported it back to the heart of the Empire.

Cleopatra’s Needle – London Titbits

1. Cleopatra’s Needle – Is made from red granite, stands 68 feet (21 metres) tall, weighs 224 tons and was built around 1460 BC, which makes it close to 3500 years old. They sure made things to last in ancient Egypt. When I was there  in the late 1980′s the cheap and tacky souvenirs which I bought from the amazing ‘Khan el Khalili’ bazaar in Cario only lasted for about 2 weeks and that aftershave they conned me into buying gave me a rash!
2. Believe it or not, Cleopatra’s Needle was not plundered by the English, but was instead given to the English, sorry slip of the tongue, I meant to say the United Kingdom in 1819 by the ruler of Egypt and Sudan Muhammad Ali, in commemoration of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801.
3. The English Government being  ‘tight as a ducks arse’, gladly accepted the gift of Cleopatra’s Needle, but didn’t want to spend their own money shipping this priceless artefact to London. So it wasn’t until 1878 that Cleopatra’s Needle finally sailed up the River Thames to her new home in London. It took the  UK government 59 years to figure out how to raise the £15,000 required to ship the obelisk to its new home. William Wilson a prominent anatomist and dermatologist contributed £10,000 and the public stumped up the rest. It makes me wonder how the hell they managed to build the Empire and rule so much of the world.
4. Cleopatra’s Needle in London, is one of a pair of identical obelisks, the other one sits in Central Park in New York. They were originally erected in the ancient Egyptian city of Heliopolis, at the bequest of Thutmose III. Even though when the obelisks were originally built they had nothing to do with Cleopatra, she had them moved to Alexandra and had them placed at the Caesareum, which is a temple built  in honour of Mark Antony. Hence I guess that’s whey they became to be called Cleopatra’s Needle. There is also a third Cleopatra’s Needle, which is not related to the London and New York pair, and sits in centre of Place de la Concorde, Paris. The Paris obelisk was also one of pair once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple.
5. A cigar shaped ship called the Cleopatra constructed to transport Cleopatra’s Needle from Alexandra to its new home in London. Cleopatra was  towed by the Steamship Olga.
6. The journey was not a straightforward one and the ship nearly sank in a violent storm on 14 October 1877 in the Bay of Biscay. The Olga sent out a rescue boat to save the crew of Cleopatra, but it sank and the 6 men on board drowned. Eventually the crew of Cleoptra were rescued and the boat was set adrift. But there was a happy ending – don’t you just love a story with a happy ending? A few days later the Cleopatra was found floating in the Bay of Biscay.
7. The Cleopatra eventually made it to London on the 21 January 1878 and Cleopatra’s Needle was erected at her new home on the Victoria Embankment on 12 September 1878.
8. When the Obelisk was erected, a time capsule was placed in the front part of the pedestal. Just in case you are curious as to what the Victorians would place in time capsule, it contained – 12 photographs of the best looking English woman of the day, a map of London, 10 daily newspapers, map of London, a box of hairpins – WTF?, a box of cigars, several tobacco pipes, a set of imperial weights, a baby’s bottle, some children’s toys, a shilling razor, a hydraulic jack and some samples of the cable used in erection, a 3′ bronze model of the monument, a complete set of British coins, a rupee, a portrait of Queen Victoria, a written history of the strange tale of the transport of the monument, plans on vellum, a translation of the inscriptions, copies of the bible in several languages, a copy of Whitaker’s Almanack and a Bradshaw Railway Guide. It must have been a big time capsule.

When I walk past Cleopatra’s Needle later on today, as I enjoy a wee stroll along the River Thames, I will now look at it differently. It is more than just a lump of old Egyptian granite. It has an amazing story and a huge amount of history behind it…

And before I forget the story doesn’t quite end there, Cleopatra’s Needle is said to be haunted…there have been countless sightings of ghostly figures jumping off the obelisk into the Thames, as well as ghoulish howls. Espcially when there is a full moon – go and see for yourself if you dare..!

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