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CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, EGYPTOLOGY Five fine photographs relating to the transport of Cleopatra's Needle from Alexandria to London, 1877
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CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE, EGYPTOLOGY
Footnotes
The Sultan of Egypt and Sudan presented the obelisk to the British Government in 1819, to commemorate the British victory over Napoleon. However, it was not until 1877 that Cleopatra's Needle finally arrived in England, and was erected in September 1878 on London's Thames Embankment, where it remains today. The engineer John Dixon was put in charge of the task, totally encasing the obelisk in an "iron cylinder, which was then rolled means of levers and chains down a track into the sea" (Royal Museums Greenwich website), mounted to a floating craft (the Cleopatra), and towed back to England by the steamship Olga.
The images include the obelisk lying horizontal surrounded by workers; the obelisk in a lifting harness with workers and female visitors; the iron cynlinder on dry land, and in the water (2 images, one with steamboats in the background).

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