![]() Both Wilson and Gorringe published books commemorating the transportation of the Needles: Wilson wrote Cleopatra's Needle: With Brief Notes on Egypt and Egyptian Obelisks (1877) and Gorringe wrote Egyptian Obelisks (1885). Farman, the then- United States Consul General at Cairo secured the other needle for the United States – the needle was transported by Henry Honychurch Gorringe. The London needle was presented to Great Britain in 1819, but remained in Alexandria until 1877 when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, a distinguished anatomist and dermatologist, sponsored its transportation to London. The removal of the obelisks from Egypt was presided over by Isma'il Pasha, who had greatly indebted the Khedivate of Egypt during its rapid modernization. ![]() Together with Pompey's Pillar, they were described in the 1840s in David Roberts' Egypt and Nubia as " most striking monuments of ancient Alexandria". They stood in Alexandria for almost two millennia until they were re-erected in London and New York City in 18 respectively. They were later moved to the Caesareum of Alexandria, which had been conceived by Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII, for whom the obelisks are named. The obelisks were originally made in Heliopolis (modern Cairo) during the New Kingdom period, inscribed by the 18th dynasty pharaoh Thutmose III and 19th dynasty pharaoh Ramesses II. New York's Central Park, just outside the Metropolitan Museum of ArtĬleopatra's Needles are a separated pair of ancient Egyptian obelisks now in London and New York City. ![]()
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