On arriving at Heliopolis, the two obelisks now called Cleopatra’s Needles were set up in front of the great temple of the sun. There they stood for fourteen centuries, during which period many dynasties reigned and passed away; Greek dominion in Egypt rose and flourished, until the Ptolemies were vanquished by the Cæsars, and Egypt became a province of imperial Rome.
Possibly Jacob and Joseph, certainly Moses and Aaron, Pythagoras and Plato, have gazed upon these two obelisks; and therefore the English nation should look at the hoary monolith on the Thames Embankment with feelings of profound veneration.
Cleopatra’s Needle, at Alexandria.
In the eighth year of Augustus Cæsar, 23 B.C., the Roman Emperor caused the two obelisks to be taken down and transported from Heliopolis to Alexandria, there to adorn the Cæsarium, or Palace of the Cæsars. “This palace stood by the side of the harbour of Alexandria, and was surrounded by a sacred grove. It was ornamented with porticoes, and fitted up with libraries, paintings and statues, and was the most lofty building in the city. In front of this palace Augustus set up the two ancient obelisks which had been made by Thothmes III., and carved by Rameses II., and which, like the other monuments of the Theban kings, have outlived all the temples and palaces of their Greek and Roman successors.” The obelisks were set up in front of the Cæsarium seven years after the death of Cleopatra, the beautiful though profligate queen of Egypt, and the last of the race of the Ptolemies. Cleopatra may have designed the Cæsarium, and made suggestions for the decoration of the palace. The setting up of the two venerable obelisks may have been part of her plan; but although the monoliths are called Cleopatra’s Needles, it is certain that Cleopatra had nothing to do with their transfer from Heliopolis to Alexandria.
Cleopatra, it appears, was much beloved by her subjects; and it is not improbable that they associated her name with the two obelisks as a means of perpetuating the affectionate regard for her memory.
The exact date of their erection at Alexandria was found out by the recent discovery of an inscription, engraved in Greek and Latin, on a bronze support of one of the obelisks. The inscription in Latin reads thus: “Anno viii Caesaris, Barbarus praefectus Ægypte posuit. Architecture Pontio.” “In the eighth year of Cæsar, Barbarus, prefect of Egypt, erected this, Pontius being the architect.”
The figure of an obelisk is often used as a hieroglyph, and is generally represented standing on a low base. The bronze supports reproduced at the bottom of the London Obelisk never appear in the hieroglyphic representations, and were probably an invention of the Ptolemies or the Cæsars.
For about fifteen centuries the two obelisks stood in their new position at Alexandria. The grand palace of the Cæsars, yielding to the ravages of Time’s resistless hand, has for many ages disappeared. The gradual encroachment of the sea upon the land continued through the course of many centuries, and ultimately, by the restless action of the waves, the obelisk which now graces our metropolis became undermined, and about 300 years ago the colossal stone fell prostrate on the ground, leaving only its companion to mark the spot where once stood the magnificent palace of the imperial Cæsars.