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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Cleopatra's Needle
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(London WC2) Egyptian obelisk on the north bank of the Thames, one of a pair originally put up in about 1500 BC at Heliopolis, close to modern Cairo (the link with the much later Cleopatra is spurious). A single piece of granite, about 18m/60ft high and weighing some 189,000kg/186tons, it was presented to Britain by the Turkish viceroy of *Egypt in 1819. It was not till 1877 that a method was devised for transporting it to London, where it was erected in 1878. Its companion is in Central Park in New York.
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