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(On the left, photographed by my wife, Keiko, and on the right, by the author.) Location: New York, U.S.A. Height: 21.20 meters Weight: 193 tons Red granite This was the last obelisk taken from Egypt. At the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Khedive Ismail offered an obelisk to the United States. In 1881, it was reerected in Central Park in New York, behind the Metropolitan Museum. The New York Obelisk used to form a pair with the London Obelisk which also came from Heliopolis and had been built by Tuthmosis III around 1470 B.C. Now these obelisks in New York and London are called Cleopatra's Needle for unknown reasons. When it was brought to the U.S. from Alexandria, Egypt, there remained two of the original four bronze crabs which were under the corners of the obelisk. Each of the crabs was carved in both Greek and Latin to describe how Augustus removed the obelisk from Heliopolis to Alexandria. In January of 1881, when the New York obelisk was reerected in Central Park. New York did not have any skyscrapers at that time but only this obelisk. In May of 1988, when I visited the city of the skyscrapers, this oldest of skyscrapers was still isolated from tall buildings thanks to its location in Central Park, surrounded by beautiful flowers.
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