Voyage of the obelisk

A new exhibition is revisiting the journey of the ancient Egyptian obelisk from Luxor to the Place de la Concorde in Paris, writes David Tresilian

The ancient Egyptian obelisks that today decorate many European cities, among them Paris and London, were mostly transported during the nineteenth century when the desirability of preserving ancient sites was less well appreciated than it is today and when Egypt’s rulers, not always particularly interested in the country’s heritage, found themselves casting round for suitable gifts to press upon their European neighbours.

As a result, while at the beginning of the nineteenth century only Rome, among European cities, had a significant population of obelisks, most of them having been transported by the Romans in antiquity, by the century’s end London and Paris each boasted particularly fine examples. The London obelisk, carved during the reign of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Tuthmosis III, was re-erected on the Thames embankment in 1878, and the Paris one, dating from the reign of the 19th Dynasty pharaoh Ramses II, was set up in the more splendid location of the Place de la Concorde in 1836.

New York gained its obelisk in 1881, when the Egyptian khedive, surrendering to arguments that if Paris and London were to have obelisks than New York should have one too, presented the twin of the 18th Dynasty London obelisk to the city. It now stands in New York’s Central Park a short distance away from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The idea of presenting obelisks first to European countries and then to the United States appealed to successive Egyptian rulers because these objects, given as gifts to the cities concerned, were as emblematic of Egypt as the Great Pyramids or the Sphinx at Giza and they had the advantage of being considerably more portable.