Most people stroll through Central Park without ever realizing they’re walking past the oldest monument in New York City—and one of the oldest man-made objects in all of America. Rising 69 feet into the sky and weighing over 200 tons, the Obelisk—often called “Cleopatra’s Needle”—was carved in Egypt more than 3,500 years ago. It was created to honor Pharaoh Thutmose III, long before Cleopatra was even born, from a single block of red granite quarried in Aswan and originally erected in the city of Heliopolis. After being toppled and buried during the Persian conquest in 525 B.C., it was rediscovered centuries later by the Romans, who moved it to Alexandria and placed it near a temple built by Cleopatra. That’s when it earned its famous nickname—even though she had nothing to do with its creation. Fast forward to 1879: Egypt gifted the obelisk to the United States as a gesture of goodwill. But how do you move a 200-ton granite column across the ocean in the 19th century? With brilliance and sheer determination. It was carefully lowered, loaded onto the wooden cargo ship Dessoug, and shipped across the Atlantic. Upon arrival, it took 19 days to transport it through Manhattan—using a custom-built carriage pulled by horses and winches. Finally, on January 22, 1881, before a crowd of 10,000 spectators, the Obelisk rose again—this time in Central Park, where it still stands tall. So the next time you’re in New York, stop for a moment beneath Cleopatra’s Needle. You won’t just be looking at a monument… you’ll be standing in the shadow of 3,500 years of human history. #AncientInNYC #CleopatrasNeedle ~Weird Pictures and News