To Alexandria it Once Belonged...

The obelisk when it was still standing in Alexandria, Egypt, before being moved to New York in 1879 where it was placed in Central Park two years later. The 21 meter, 200 ton monument was cut in granite quarries in Aswan in the south of Egypt more than one thousand years before Alexandria was founded in 331 BC. This obelisk, and another one now standing on the bank of the river Thames in London, is known as Cleopatra's Needles. They were first erected by Pharaoh Tuthmosis III in front of the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis. In 13 BC, Roman emperor Augustus moved both obelisks to Alexandria. Egypt’s Khedive Ismail gave permission to move the obelisk to New York. Railway millionaire William Vanderbilt provided funding. To ward off any eventual local protests, the American flag were placed on the pyramid-shaped top of the obelisk.

Sources: Alexandria Rediscovered by Jean-Yves Empereur. British Museum Press 1998. Egyptian Mirage, Studio Photograph database © by Griffith Institute, Oxford.
[egypt!][alexandria!][history!][obelisk!]