Cleopatra's Needle Review

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Cleopatra's Needle

  • Address: E. Park Dr. north of 79th St. Transverse, Central Park, New York, NY | Map It

Fodor's Review:

This hieroglyphic-covered obelisk that began life in Heliopolis, Egypt, around 1600 BC, has nothing to do with Cleopatra—it's just New York's nickname for the work. It was eventually carted off to Alexandria by the Romans in 12 BC, and landed here on February 22, 1881, when the khedive of Egypt made it a gift to the city. It stands behind the Metropolitan Museum, on the west side of East Park Drive. A century-plus in New York has done more to ravage the Needle than millennia of globe-trotting, and the hieroglyphics have sadly worn away to a tabula rasa. The copper crabs supporting the huge stone at each corner almost seem squashed by its weight.

  • Subway: Subway: 6 to 77th St.
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