Cleopatra's Needle: A Little History Lesson

New York

Yesterday was a beautiful day in New York. I ran in Central Park around 10am ( along with 5000 others running a marathon ). It was the first long run in the park I've done since last Fall. And so I was reminded how lovely the scenery is, the amazing number of daffodils that skirt meadows, woods, and walkways...and Cleopatra's Needle, which sits opposite the back side of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a knoll.

As you know, dear readers, I found the Egyptian antiquities that I saw on my trip to the Middle East more thrilling than I had expected both because of the quality of the art and the fact that it is still in existence some 3500 years later.

Seeing Cleopatra's Needle, its red granite contrasted against the blue Spring sky, brought me right back to Cairo, the Nile, Aswan.

Turns out that there are three Cleopatra's Needles, all three were gifted by the Egyptians to western powers. One is on the Thames in London; one is in Paris as the centerpiece to the Place de le Concorde; and the third, is in Central Park. The obelisks were not really commissioned by Cleopatra VII ( the one we know as Mark Anthony's lover ) but were created to celebrate Ramses II military victories. (May I say again, that of all the kings, Ramses II is my favorite not for his achievements in battle of which I know very little, but for his ability to create the most enormous statues of himself, and the most elaborate temples of any of the kings of his era. What an ego!)

The Central Park needle was gifted to the United States right after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 by Ismail Pasha, the Khedive of Egypt. The Khedive was hoping to cultivate trade relations with the U.S. Here are the facts of its placement in Central Park.

William Vanderbilt financed the transport from Alexandria to New York. The move took a decade to complete. in 1879, the 244 ton red granite obelisk was placed on its side, put in the hold of a steamship for its four month journey. In order to get the 1000 metre object into Central Park, a special trestle bridge was built from Fifth Avenue to the Greywacke Knoll where the obelisk rests today. There it could stand in reflected glory across from the ( then ) brand new Metropolitan Museum of Art.

They say travel is life-altering. At the very least, it alters perspective, contextualizes things and events. And so it is with Cleopatra's Needle, that isn't really Cleopatra's but Ramses.

I'll never run by Greywacke Knoll again without paying slight homage to it nor forget its place of origin.
M.C.