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Heiroglyphs

Cleopatra's Needle

 

This is a crop of part of the previous image - I am quite impressed with how much detail the lens captured.

 

The Needles were originally erected in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis on the orders of Thutmose III, around 1450 BC.

The granite was brought from the quarries of Aswan and the inscriptions were added about 200 years later by Ramesses II to commemorate his military victories.

The obelisks were moved to Alexandria and set up in the Caesareum — a temple built by Cleopatra in honor of Mark Antony — by the Romans in 12 BC, during the reign of Augustus, but were toppled some time later.

This was quite fortuitous because by burying the faces it helped preserve most of the hieroglyphs from the effects of weathering, as you can see.

 

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Uploaded on February 16, 2011
Taken on January 16, 2011