A Bit of Egypt Beside the Thames

Egyptian Obelisk of Pharaoh Thutmose III, circa 1450 BCE. Victoria Embankment Gardens, London. This bit of Egypt beside the Thames has a remarkable history -- Erected by Thutmose at Heliopolis, inscribed 200 years later by Ramses II, moved to Alexandria in the Roman period, given as a gift to the United Kingdom by Mehmet Ali, Viceroy of Egypt, lost in a storm in the Bay of Biscay on the way to England, salvaged and repaired in Spain, finally reaching London January, 1878. It has a twin in New York's Central Park. 180 tons, 68 feet, granite.