Three of the great cities in the world — New York, London, and Paris — are each connected by a piece of ancient history, each known as Cleopatra’s Needle.
In Paris, an obelisk, known as L’aiguille de Cleopatra , may be found at the Place de la Concord. The first of three, the Parisian obelisk is 74 feet high and weighs 227 tons. The other two obelisks are twins, made of red granite, standing at a height of 68 feet and weighing 224 tons. The second obelisk is in London, next to the Thames on the Embankment. The third obelisk may be found in New York City’s Central Park, right behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This New York needle is by far the most ancient object made by man in Central Park. It stood in Heliopolis around 1500 BC, three thousand five hundred years ago. It was moved to Alexandria in 12 BC, and stayed there until 1879 when it was brought to America.
Depending upon who you ask, the story of the obelisk arriving in the United States is a story of a gift between countries or a theft by a private citizen. In the former account, the object was a gift from the Khedive of Egypt, providing it as an offer of good faith in order to build a solid relationship between the countries. The latter story suggests it was taken by William H. Vanderbilt against Egyptian wishes.
Regardless of how it arrived, the act of moving such an ancient monument to New York was a herculean task. Moving 224 tons in 1879 was not easy. Upon its arrival by ship, it took a U.S. Navy engineer, Lt. Commander Henry Honeychurch Gorringe, four months to move it from the ship on the Hudson to its present site in Central Park. The installation wasn’t completed until 1881.
Imagine a trip where you take in all three of Cleopatra’s Needles, starting in Paris, then London, and working your way to New York City, where you may find quality lodging here , and then stroll over to the park and see this impressive structure.
Here’s one last point about the needles: They actually don’t have any connection to Queen Cleopatra VII in Egypt. By the time she was born, the obelisks were a thousand years old. However, when the first obelisk was moved from Egypt and positioned in Paris, it acquired the nickname, which then was applied to the other two monuments.