Cleopatra's Needle

"This obelisk quarried at Syene was erected at Om (Heliopolis) by the pharaoh Thothmes III about 1500 BC. Lateral inscriptions were added nearly two centuries later by Rameses the Great. Removed during the Greek dynasty to Alexandria, the royal city of Cleopatra. It was there erected in the year of Augustus Caesar BC 12.

This obelisk prostrate for centuries on the sands of Alexandria was presented to the British nation AD 1819 by Mahommed Ali Viceroy of Egypt, a worthy memorial of our distinguished countrymen Nelson and Abercromby.

Through the patriotic zeal of Erasmus Wilson F.R.S. this obelisk was brought from Alexandria, encased in an iron cylinder. It was abandoned during a storm in the Bay of Biscay. Recovered and erected on this spot by John Dixon C.E. in the 42nd year of the reign of Queen Victoria 1878."

Ik vraag me eigenlijk af of zo'n kunstwerken eigenlijk niet gewoon in Egypte thuishoren.

Die nepsphinxen mogen ze natuurlijk laten staan, uit koloniaal-romantische melancholie of zo, maar een obelisk op de oever van de Thames, het wringt gewoon een beetje ...