The Transportation and Erection of Cleopatra's Needle

This is a group of articles published in the British newspapers in 1877-78 to cover the transportation of an obelisk known as Cleopatra's needle from Egypt to England and its erection at the new location. The accompanying illustrations are so valuable if not for their documentary nature, than for their artistic beauty.

Cleopatra‘s Needle: An Illustrated History of the Obelisk Belonging to Great Britain, and of other Egyptian Monoliths
The Graphic, February 2, 1878
On September 15th we illustrated the launch from the beach,  and additional illustrations are given in the present number, as well as one showing how the iron cocoon was cleftly woven piecemeal round the chrysalis within, and another of the packing of the Needle in its case. So vigorously had the works been pushed forward that the cylinder was rolled down the beach on the 28th of August, but owing to the piercing of its skin by a sunken rock at about the last ten or twenty yards of the hundred it had to traverse, it did not get into deep water until the 7th of September. But for this mishap, and allowing for the Fortnight spent in transforming the cylindroids into a ship in the Khedive's dry dock, nine miles from the old Roman port and the Ceesarium, and for other necessary preliminaries, the final start for England would not have been delayed until the ominous equinoctial Friday the 21st.


Abandonment of Cleopatra's Needle in the Bay of Biscay Illustrated London News
October 27, 1877
The south-West gale of Sunday, the fourteenth, raging in the Bay of Biscay, as well as in England, compelled the abandonment, early next morning, of Mr. Dixon’s ingenious vessel, or iron-plate cylinder, named the Cleopatra, in which the Egyptian obelisk from
Alexandria was being towed by the steamer Olga on its voyage to London. The Cleopatra was afterwards picked up by a steamer bound for the Spanish port of Valencia; and we have since learned that the obelisk, in its still floating iron case, is left in safety at Ferrol, whence it will no doubt be brought to its destination.

The Machinery for Placing the Obelisk in Position on the Thames Embankment
The Graphic ,June 1, 1878
The difficulties which Mr. Dixon has had to contend with in order to carry out his work in connection with the transport of the Egyptian obelisk to England having at last been overcome, the concluding and most difficult part of the undertaking, that of raising and placing the obelisk on its pedestal is about to be commenced. A timber cradle has been prepared alongside the Adelphi steps, and by the time this paper is published the Cleonpatra will probably be safely landed upon it; she is then to be lifted by hydraulic jacks and moved forward at the same time, and afterwards a little sideways, until the stone lies across the centre of its pedestal. The iron cylinder vessel, in which the voyage was made, will then be cut to pieces and twenty feet in length of the centre part of the obelisk will be encased in an iron jacket with protruding arms, resembling the trunnions of a monster cannons These trunnions will rest on two iron girder. A timber scatfolding will then be erected with for uprights, each formed of six baulks of timber placed three and three together, the ends of the girders fitting into the spaces between the timbers. Hydraulic jacks will then be placed underneath the girders, and the whole mass gradually lifted, the height gained being secured by solid timber packing. The stone will then exactly represent a monster cannon, and can be swung on its trunnions into a vertical position, and lowered on to its pedestal, which meantime will have been constructed beneath it. Our illustration is drawn from  the model to which Mr. Dixon’s men are working.