Cleopatra's Needle: With Brief Notes on Egypt and Egyptian Obelisks

In 1877, a 3,000-year-old Egyptian obelisk arrived on the banks of the Thames, a sliver of ancient Egypt transplanted to the heart of Victorian London. Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, the physician and Egyptologist who made this extraordinary feat possible, tells the story of Cleopatra's Needle in this fascinating volume. The book traces the obelisk's journey from its creation in the age of the Pharaohs through its centuries in Alexandria to its triumphant installation on the Victoria Embankment, where it still stands today. Wilson interleaves this narrative with broader meditations on Egyptian obelisks: how they were quarried, inscribed, and erected; which pharaohs commissioned them and why; what their hieroglyphics reveal about ancient beliefs and royal propaganda. The result is both a personal account of one man's obsession with antiquity and a window into the Victorian mania for Egyptian treasure. This is a book for readers who want to understand not just a monument, but the long cultural arc that stretches from the banks of the Nile to the banks of the Thames.