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#50 Done
I made Sonia hike through Central Park in her heels, but number 50 took a tumble thanks to checking out this Egyptian marvel known as Cleopatra’s Needle. Here’s the scoop:
The Obelisk, nicknamed Cleopatra’s Needle, is the oldest man-made object in Central Park.
A pair of obelisks was commissioned for Heliopolis on the banks of the Nile in 1500 BC by an Egyptian pharaoh who wished to celebrate his 30 years of reign. The monuments were then moved to Alexandria in 18AD. They remained there until one obelisk was moved to London in 1879. The New York one was erected in the Park two years later and was offered by the Egyptian Khedive to America in exchange for funds to modernize his country.
Transferring the 71-foot, 244- ton granite monument from Egypt to New York was an arduous and delicate process. It took 112 days from the time the Obelisk touched upon the banks of the Hudson River until it reached the Park. Laborers inched the monument on parallel beams, aided by roll boxes and a pile-driver engine. Thousands turned out on January 22, 1881 to marvel as the obelisk was turned upright.
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