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Cleopatra's Needle

Cleopatra's Needles are a pair of obelisks in London and New York.

London

The London needle is in the City of Westminster, on the Victoria Embankment. It was originally erected in Ancient Egypt on the instruction of Thothmes III, and was moved to Alexandria by the Romans. It is about 21 metres tall, and made of red granite. There are hieroglyphic and pictorial inscriptions on it.

It was transported to the United Kingdom in 1877, but the boat it was on went adrift in the Bay of Biscay with it. It arrived in Britain in 1888 and was erected at its current site later that year.

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