The task of relocating the 69-foot, 240-tonne obelisk fell to Director of NY Public Parks, Henry Stebbins, and was financed by railroad magnate William Vanderbilt.
Central Park's obelisk is actually one of three that originally stood at the Temple of Ra in Heliopolis and had been commissioned by Pharaoh Thutmose III in 1450 BC. Two hundred years later, the obelisks were inscribed with hieroglyphs glorifying the military victories of Rameses II. During the reign of Augustus Caesar, when Egypt was under Roman occupation, the obelisks were moved to Alexandria and placed at the Caesarium, a temple originally built by Cleopatra VII of Egypt in honour of Marc Antony. The three obelisks henceforth became known as "Cleopatra's Needles". One obelisk was given to France in 1826 and seven years later, was installed at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The second had been presented to the UK in 1819 but wasn't relocated to London's Victoria Embankment until 1877, the same year that New York secured its obelisk.
It took thirty-two horses hitched in sixteen pairs to pull the obelisk from the Hudson River docks into position in Central Park.
When the obelisk had stood in the clear dry Egyptian desert air for nearly 3,000 years Cleopatra's Needle had suffered only minor weathering. In a little more than 130 years in the climate of New York City, pollution and acid rain have heavily pitted its surfaces.
The Central Park Conservancy and the Mayor of New York City are dedicated to raising funds to improve conservation and maintenance efforts.
