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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2014
In the month of September last (1867), when visiting the Great Exhibition in Paris, I was particularly struck with the fine appearance of the obelisk of Luxor in the Place de la Concorde, and I thought that as the French had taken the trouble and gone to the expense of moving this highly interesting monolith, it was a reflection on our nation and on the engineering skill of Britain that the prostrate obelisk at Alexandria (one of Cleopatra's needles, as it is commonly termed), was not occupying a place of honour in England or Scotland.
This obelisk was presented to George IV. many years ago by Mahomed Ali Pacha, who also generously offered to move it on rollers to the sea, from which it is 200 or 300 yards distant, and embarking it on rafts and lighters, convey it to a vessel for transport to England.
page 288 note * Sir William Wylde, in a pamphlet sent me by Sir James Simpson, states that, in the year 1839, he proposed that the obelisk should form a Nelson testimonial, with sphinxes at its base; two of which, after the capture of Alexandria in 1801, were built into the wall of the Custom-House near the principal landing-place. These might be recovered also without much difficulty, as they are in a manner buried where they are. At St Petersburg I saw the granite rock on which the statue of Peter the Great stands, and got the details of the manner of its transport.