Obelisk - Wikipedia Around 30 BCE, after Cleopatra, "the last Pharaoh", committed suicide, Rome seized control of Egypt. The Ancient Romans were awestruck by the obelisks they saw, and looted the various temple complexes, in one case they destroyed walls at the Temple of Karnak to haul them out. There are now more than twice as many obelisks that were seized and shipped out by Rome as remain in Egypt. The majority were dismantled during the Roman period over 1,700 years ago and the obelisks were sent to different locations. The Ancient Romans populated their city with 8 large and 42 small Egyptian obelisks. More have been re-erected elsewhere, and the best-known examples outside Rome are the pair of 21-metre (69 ft) 187-metric-ton (206-short-ton) Cleopatra's Needles in London, England (21 metres or 69 feet) and New York City, USA (21 metres or 70 feet) and the 23-metre (75 ft) over-250-metric-ton (280-short-ton) Luxor Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France.[20] Obelisks were being shipped out of Egypt as late as the nineteenth century when three of them were sent to London, New York and Paris. Their transportation was covered by various newspapers France – 1 Pharaoh Ramses II, Luxor Obelisk, in Place de la Concorde, Paris[21] Israel – 1 Caesarea obelisk Italy – 13 (includes the only one located in the Vatican City) Rome — 8 ancient Egyptian obelisks (see List of obelisks in Rome) Piazza del Duomo, Catania (Sicily) Boboli Obelisk (Florence) Urbino Poland – 1 Pharaoh Ramses II, Poznań Archaeological Museum, Poznań (on loan from Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Berlin)[23] Turkey – 1 Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, the Obelisk of Theodosius in the Hippodrome of Constantinople (now Sultan Ahmet Square), Istanbul United Kingdom – 4 Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, "Cleopatra's Needle", beside the Thames Victoria Embankment, in London Pharaoh Amenhotep II, in the Oriental Museum, University of Durham Pharaoh Ptolemy IX, Philae obelisk, at Kingston Lacy, near Wimborne Minster, Dorset Pharaoh Nectanebo II, British Museum, London (pair of obelisks) United States – 1 Pharaoh Tuthmosis III, "Cleopatra's Needle", in Central Park, New York
