Cleopatra's Needle (New York City)

Cleopatra's Needle is the oldest man-made public monument in New York City. Carved from a single block of red granite in Aswan, Egypt, it dates back to roughly 1450 before the common era. It was originally commissioned by the Pharaoh Thutmose the Third for the Temple of the Sun in Heliopolis. Though it carries the name of a famous Egyptian queen, she had no direct hand in its creation, as the nickname only emerged centuries later after the obelisk was moved to Alexandria. Continue