Cleopatra’s Needle and Sphinxes
Embankment, London - England, UK
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A bronze sphinx sits on each side of Cleopatra’s Needle, a 60 ft Egyptian granite obelisk dating from well before Cleopatra’s time. It was presented to the British by the Turkish occupiers of Egypt in 1819, but not transported to this country until almost 60 years later. In 1917, during World War I, bombs from the first German air raid on London landed near the needle. In commemoration of this event, the damage remains unrepaired to this day and is clearly visible in the form of shrapnel holes and gouges on the right-hand sphinx.
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