 Cleopatra's Needle in NYC  The translation of this obelisk  Evidence of weathering on the obelisk in NYC. Known weathering rates of granites in different climates are compared with weathering damage on Cleopatra's Needle, an Egyptian obelisk in Central Park, New York City. ... It is concluded that the bulk of damage on the obelisk actually occurred in Egypt through rising moisture loaded with sulfate salts.   www.DrBobBrier.com Cleopatra's Needle is the popular name for each of three Ancient Egyptian obelisks re-erected in London, Paris, and New York City during the nineteenth century. The obelisks in London and New York are a pair; the one in Paris is also part of a pair originally from a different site in Luxor, where its twin remains. Although all three needles are genuine Ancient Egyptian obelisks, their shared nickname is a misnomer, as they have no connection with the Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and were already over a thousand years old in her lifetime. An earlier reference states Queen Cleopatra brought the London obelisk from Heliopolis to Alexandria shortly before the time of Christ for the purpose of decorating a new temple but it was never erected and lay buried in sand on the shore until presented to the British nation in 1819. The London and New York needles were originally made during the reign of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Thutmose III. The Paris needle dates to the reign of the 19th Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II, and was the first to be moved and re-erected. The New York needle was the first to acquire the French nickname, "L'aiguille de Cléopâtre",[1] when it stood in Alexandria. -Wikipedia
Most visitors to New York City travel right past it, never noticing the majesty of Egypt's New Kingdom in the new world. Cleopatra's Needle resides in NYC immediately adjacent to Central Park; there's nothing like it throughout the entire city landscape. It is an obelisk, and it was used by the ancient Egyptians to commemorate Dynastic achievement; for the Romans, it was used to acknowledge a superior foe defeated in combat. Most obelisk's weigh hundreds of tons, there are 28 Egyptian obelisk's standing today, only 6 of them remain in Egypt. Rome possesses 11 and many more remain scattered throughout the littoral Mediterranean. Three of the most famous are in New York, Paris, and London. The obelisks's in Paris, New York, and London were all moved two times before landing where they now reside. The previous author of these said obelisk's was Emperor Augustus himself. Egyptian technology was extremely primitive, possessing only bronze chisels from which to work limestone used to build the pyramids, they had absolutely no metal tools capable of dealing with far harder granite from which obelisk's were quarried. Egyptian dynasties used dolerite balls (an igneous rock very much shaped and used like bowling balls) to pound the surrounding granite of a future obelisk. Working 12 hour days, a quarryman could lower a trench around the obelisk nearly an inch a day. Taking six months to separate sides from the quarried obelisk, the harder part was freeing the bottom, this was done by pounding sideways. The world's foremost authority on obelisk's is Bob Brier, his book Cleopatra's Needles is now out from Bloomsbury. Here you discover how the Egyptians, Romans, Renaissance Vatican engineers and new world plutocrats moved these lovely megaliths.
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The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost Archives
May 2024
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