Cleopatra's Needle - The base of the needle carries a large bronze plaque on each face. Either side of the obelisk are two big black sphinxes, guarding it. - Millennium bridge London - Thames Embankment in London - Kleopötrunál - Scarab beatles. Cleopatra's Needle is located on the Thames Embankment in London close to the Embankment underground station. The Obelisk was actually constructed for Tuthmose III and is carved with Hieroglyphics praising Tuthmose and commemorating his third sed festival. Later inscriptions were added by Ramesses II to commemorate his victories. Plaques mounted round the base of the Obelisk give a brief history of the needle, and commemorated the men who died in the removal and transportation of the stone. There are four plaques and they have the following texts on them. See more: http://www.akhet.co.uk/cleo.htm The heiroglyphs are all worn down from the fumes of the London traffic tootling by, but they are still clear enough to read (provided that you can read ancient Eygptian, of course). You can make out a lot of eagles and eyes and scarab beatles, and that kind of thing. The big black plaques on each side are more interesting because they explain where it came from and how it got here, and who died when they put it up. Apparently six blokes were killed just getting it back to Blighty -- must be the Pharoah's curse. - See more: www.londondrum.com/blog/ The obelisk remained in Alexandria until 1877 when Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, a distinguished anatomist and dermatologist, sponsored its transportation to London from Alexandria at a cost of some £10,000 (a very considerable sum in those days). It was dug out of the sand in which it had been buried for nearly 2,000 years and was encased in a great iron cylinder, 92 feet (28 m) long and 16 feet (4.9 m) in diameter, designed by the engineer John Dixon and dubbed Cleopatra, to be commanded by Captain Carter. It had a vertical stem and stern, a rudder, two bilge keels, a mast for balancing sails, and a deck house. This acted as a floating pontoon which was to be towed to London by the ship Olga, commanded by Captain Booth. The effort almost met with disaster on 14 October 1877, in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, when the Cleopatra began wildly rolling, and became uncontrollable. The Olga sent out a rescue boat with six volunteers, but the boat capsized and all six crew were lost – they are named on a bronze plaque attached to the foot of the needle's mounting stone. Captain Booth on the Olga eventually managed to get his ship next to the Cleopatra and rescued Captain Carter and the five crew members aboard Cleopatra. Captain Booth reported the Cleopatra "abandoned and sinking", but she stayed afloat, drifting in the Bay, until found four days later by Spanish trawler boats, and then rescued by the Glasgow steamer Fitzmaurice and taken to Ferrol in Spain for repairs. The Master of the Fitzmaurice lodged a salvage claim of £5,000 which had to be settled before departure from Ferrol, but it was negotiated down and settled for £2,000.[2] The William Watkins Ltd paddle tug Anglia, under the command of Captain David Glue, was then commissioned to tow the Cleopatra back to the Thames. On their arrival in the estuary on 21 January 1878, the school children of Gravesend were given the day off.[3] A wooden model of the obelisk had previously been placed outside the Houses of Parliament, but the location had been rejected, so the London needle was finally erected on the Victoria Embankment on 12 September 1878. See more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra%27s_Needle First erected in Egypt, by Pharaoh Thotmes 111 around 1500BC. It was a gift to the British people, in 1819 in recognition of Nelson's Victory over the French fleet, at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Opposite the Victoria Embankment Gardens, on the river front, Cleopatra's Needle is flanked by magnificent bronze lions. See more: http://www.goodallartists.ca/cleopatr.htm {Plaque on north-east face:} This obelisk quarried at Syene was erected at On (Heliopolis) by the Pharaoh Thothmes III about 1500 B. C. Lateral inscriptions were added nearly two centuries later by Rameses the Great. Removed during the Greek dynasty to Alexandria, the Royal city of Cleopatra, it was there erected in the 18th year of Augustus Caesar B. C. 12. {Plaque on river face:} Through the patriotic zeal of Erasmus Wilson F.R.S. this obelisk was brought from Alexandria encased in an iron cylinder. It was abandoned during a storm in the Bay of Biscay, recovered and erected on this spot by John Dixon C. E., in the 42nd year of the reign of Queen Victoria, 1878. {On another plaque:} This obelisk, prostrate for centuries on the sands of Alexandria, was presented to the British Nation AD 1819 by Mahommed Ali, viceroy of Egypt, a worthy memorial of our distinguished countrymen, Nelson and Abercromby. See more : http://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/cleopatra-s-needle

• published: 22 Nov 2015
• views: 22