Egypt never stopped being famous, even while no one could read its script. Some of the best publicity came from obelisks: tall, single stones with a pointed top, carved with the names of kings. Egyptian kings set them up in pairs before temples, especially at Heliopolis and Thebes, as signs of the sun god.
Key idea
Roman emperors shipped Egyptian obelisks to Rome and Constantinople as trophies. In the 1800s three more went to Paris, London and New York. Rome now has eight ancient Egyptian obelisks, more than any other city, Egypt included.
Why it works
An obelisk is a portable monument: one stone, already finished and inscribed. Moving it proved the power of whoever could do it. For Rome after conquering Egypt in 30 BC, and for European states in the 1800s, a re-erected obelisk was a statement of reach. The inscriptions on them, copied and argued over, kept scholars curious about the script.
| Obelisk | Made for | First stood at | Moved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lateran obelisk, Rome | Thutmose III (finished under Thutmose IV) | Karnak | taken to Rome under Constantius II in AD 357; re-erected 1588 |
| Flaminio obelisk, Rome | Seti I and Ramesses II | Heliopolis | brought by Augustus, 10 BC |
| Vatican obelisk, Rome | no hieroglyphs | Alexandria (set up for Augustus) | brought by Caligula; moved to St Peter's Square in 1586 |
| Obelisk of Theodosius, Istanbul | Thutmose III | Karnak | set up in Constantinople's Hippodrome in the AD 300s |
| Luxor obelisk, Paris | Ramesses II | Luxor Temple | given by Muhammad Ali in 1830; raised in the Place de la Concorde in 1836 |
| "Cleopatra's Needle", London | Thutmose III | Heliopolis, then Alexandria | raised on the Thames Embankment in 1878 |
| "Cleopatra's Needle", New York | Thutmose III | Heliopolis, then Alexandria | raised in Central Park in 1881 |
Worked example: Why "Cleopatra's Needles"?
The London and New York obelisks are nicknamed "Cleopatra's Needles". Were they made for Cleopatra?
- Their hieroglyphs name Thutmose III, who reigned c. 1479–1425 BC, with later lines added by Ramesses II.
- The Romans moved them from Heliopolis to Alexandria about twenty years after Cleopatra VII died in 30 BC, to stand before a temple she had begun.
- So the nickname comes from Alexandria, not from who made them. Thutmose III lived about 1,400 years before Cleopatra.
Answer: No: they were made for Thutmose III, and only later stood in Cleopatra's city.
Worked example: Reading a date on an obelisk
An obelisk carries the cartouches of Ramesses II, but its oldest inscription names Seti I, his father. What does that tell you?
- Kings often added their own inscriptions to a monument begun by an earlier king.
- The oldest name (Seti I) dates the start of the work; the later name (Ramesses II) shows when it was finished or claimed.
- This is why the Flaminio obelisk is listed under both kings.
Answer: It was begun under Seti I and inscribed again under Ramesses II.
Common mistake
Thinking "Cleopatra's Needles" were made for Cleopatra. They were made for Thutmose III, more than a thousand years earlier. Check the cartouche, not the nickname.