Cleopatra's Needles

two Egyptian obelisks or monumental stones of rose red granite. They were erected originally by an Egyptian king in front of the portico of a great temple to the sun which stood on the banks of the Nile at Heliopolis, near the birthplace of Moses. Before the Christian era and during the Roman occupancy of Egypt, but not in the reign of Cleopatra, the obelisks were brought down the Nile and set up at Alexandria, where they fell over in the sand and were neglected for centuries. In 1878 one of them was brought to London and set up on the Thames embankment. The other was given a place of honor in Central Park, New York City. They are nearly of a size. Each is composed of a single block of granite. Both are four-sided and taper upward. The Central Park obelisk measures 7 feet 9 3-4 inches by 8 feet 2 1-4 inches at the base, and is 67 feet 2 inches in height. The four surfaces are inscribed with hieroglyphs cut to a depth of several inches and carefully polished. The top is a short, four-sided pyramid, on each side of which is cut a bas-relief representing the sun god of the ancient city of Heliopolis. In the rainless, warm climate of Egypt, the obelisks remained for centuries as fresh as when they first came from the quarry and chisel of the ancient Egyptians; but the rain and frost of Central Park have caused a certain amount of chipping and peeling which the authorities have tried to prevent by applying a coating of oil at frequent intervals. See Central Park; Alexandria