On the banks of the River Thames in central London, an ancient Egyptian obelisk, known as Cleopatra’s Needle, reaches towards the sky. Carved from a single slab of red granite, it is 69 feet tall, weighs a substantial 224 tonnes, is decorated with hieroglyphs, and was made for the Pharaoh Thotmes III in 1460 BC.
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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £19.99 Tel: 08430 600033. Tiffany Jenkins is author of Keeping Their Marbles: How the Treasures of the Past Ended Up in Museums — and Why They Should Stay There.
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