Egypt wants Cleopatra's Needle back.
The Egyptian embassy says the ancient obelisk, a London landmark, would be better cared for in Cairo than exposed to the traffic fumes of the Embankment."Cleopatra's Needle should be in a museum in Cairo. In London it faces environmental hazards," said the embassy's cultural councilor,Hussein Sayed.
"We would like to see the return of important objects to museums in Egypt," said Abdul Halim Nureldin, vice dean of Cairo University and former director of the Egyptian government's Antiquities Organization.
Cleopatra's Needle has had a checkered history. Dating from 1500 B.C., it was one of a pair of obelisks carved for Pharaoh Thutmose III and erected at Heliopolis, near modern Cairo. Augustus Caesar moved the two obelisks to Alexandria in 12 B.C.
Although known as Cleopatra's Needles, there is no historical basis to the romantic story linking them to the Egyptian queen.
Britain was given one of the obelisks in 1819 by Viceroy Mohammed Ali, an Albanian who ruled Egypt for the Turks. The gift was to thank Lord Nelson for defeating the French and restoring Turkish control.
Cleopatra's Needle had long toppled over and was lying abandoned in the sand. The task of shipping the 186-ton pillar was daunting, and it was not until 1877 that a cylindrical iron vessel was built to transport it to London. The iron cylinder, towed by a conventional ship, hit a rock during a storm in the Bay of Biscay and began to sink. Six sailors drowned, but Cleopatra's Needle was saved and erected on the newly built Victoria Embankment.
The other obelisk was given to the United States and stands in New York's Central Park.
London's obelisk later became the victim of modern warfare. On Sept. 4, 1917, German aircraft dropped their first bombs on London. One damaged the obelisk's base.
Cleopatra's Needle escaped bombing in World War II but now has to contend with traffic fumes. Westminster Council, which owns the granite obelisk, cleans off the grime every four years.
The call for the return of Cleopatra's Needle is based on moral considerations rather than legal arguments, and Westminster Council has no intention of returning it.
"There is no evidence that it is deteriorating," said spokesman Peter Chester.
Barry Stow, a British architect commissioned by the Egyptian government to prepare a conservation plan for the Sphinx, admitted that the Embankment is "not a healthy environment" for Cleopatra's Needle.