"Cleopatra’s Needles: The Lost Obelisks of Egypt" Topic

"The tale of how three 19th-century engineers – the Frenchman Apollinaire Lebas, the Englishman John Dixon (not forgetting his younger brother Waynman) and the American Henry Gorringe – managed to transport their respective obelisks to London, Paris and New York is hardly a new one. With the classic book on Egyptian obelisks, Labib Habachi's The Obelisks of Egypt, having graced my shelves since 1977, I initially queried what more Bob Brier could possibly have to say. Through his choice of intriguing black and white images, however, he recaptures obelisk mania anew.

One image depicts a sea of spectators who gathered in 1836 to watch the newly arrived Paris obelisk being erected in the Place de la Concorde. In 1878 crowds on the Thames Embankment braved an hour of torrential rain, while hawkers sold souvenirs: photographs show penny pamphlet translations of the relevant hieroglyphs, together with lead obelisk-shaped pencils which graced the necks of fashionable ladies. Meanwhile, the band of the 17th Lancers played the popular Cleopatra's Needle Waltz. A lively poster reveals that this was dedicated to Sir Erasmus Wilson, the surgeon-cum-philanthropist who had generously financed the project to the tune of £10,000.00 GBP…."

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Amicalement
Armand

I saw at least a couple of obelisks in Rome.

Of course, the dates carved on the stone signs in front of them were those when the obelisks were erected in Rome not Egypt. I'm not sure they knew back then which pharaohs or dynasties they belonged to, much less the year they first went up in Egypt.

At least they survived*. If they had stayed back home they would have probably ended up as mere building blocks for houses or other buildings, or destroyed/defaced by religious zealots of various competing faiths.

Dan
* And someone (Champollion and others) was moved to finally decipher the inscriptions, wall paintings and scrolls. There wasn't much interest in doing that back in Egypt, except perhaps some grave robbers in search of gold and jewels to take apart and sell.

Oddly amusing how our cultural view points change over decades/centuries. What started off as an item of religious/royal veneration, changes to a valuable source of building material, becomes a quaint reminder of how uncivilized we once were becomes something that defines who we are and must be fought over…

The people of the past think differently from us. :)

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand