 If you consider the obelisk, you must consider that these things were once strategically placed, not for ceremonial purposes, but for reasons that stretched the imagination to a forgotten reality that we refer to as mythology. Wait to hear this. Sitting in Central Park, we find the oldest structure in New York, one of Cleopatra's needles. Of course, Cleopatra didn't create these marbles. It was already very ancient and decayed through millennia in her day. Instead, they take the Queen's name simply because she had one moved from Heliopolis to Alexandria just before the time of Christ. That one is now in London and coupled with one in Paris and New York they are referred to as the Cleopatra needles. The story of Central Park needle and its transportation from Egypt to America is astonishing. A highly symbolic message of the glory of the past and a meaning that the ancient power and wealth now resides within the West. The Romans in their day did take these things both to Istanbul and Rome, which were the two ancient capitals of the Roman Empire. Istanbul, having been previously referred to as Constantinople, where Emperor Theodosus had it re-erected in the 4th century. And that continued for millennia as the Roman Empire found obelisk in Egypt, transported them to Rome where they had them repaired and erected as a clear symbol of power, a demonstration of wealth, but also an understanding that these things are signifying something more. William Henry Vanderbilt, a very wealthy businessman, funded the transportation of this artifact with a hefty donation. And when the obelisk was raised, a time capsule was built and buried underneath. And William Henry Holbert put a mystery black box into the capsule and never told anyone what it was for or what was in it. However, he later admitted that he anonymously published books before later crediting himself with the anonymous publishing, claiming to offer verbatim accounts of secret conversations by elite members of society, including recorded accounts from Stephen A. Douglas, William A. Seward, and Abraham Lincoln himself. One group who were especially fascinated in the central part needle are the Freemasons. They have been a mysterious and controversial fraternity who have been involved in several critical moments in American history, including the inauguration of fellow Mason George Washington. A Mason engineer and adventurer named Henry Honeychurch Gorange discovered an incredible secret on the remaining Alexandria obelisk, a secret that might link the secretive organization to the beginning of human civilization as we know it. A city that mesmerizes the imagination for its use of the heaviest stone material available, first conceived as an idea to lure more trade opportunities between the U.S. and Egypt, this one single gesture may be one of the most significant undertakings in American history, and we are going to tell you why. On February 22, 1881, a truly monumental occasion took place in the Grand Halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The formal presentation of the so-called Cleopatra's Needle to the city of New York by the Egyptian government was taking place. The public interest this generated at the time was like the equivalent of the Queen of Egypt arriving in the city herself. There was an overwhelming excitement in the air as the wealthy New Yorkers watched in awe at this industrious symbol that was now part of their own city. Though to have stood in Heliopolis until it was toppled by Persian invaders, it lay in the sand, eroding for millennia, before the Romans salvaged it and attempted a restore under Julius Caesar. Thotmos III amassed the greatest empire in dynastic Egyptian history during his 54-year reign. The Pharaoh came to power in 1479 BC and claimed to have conquered more than 300 cities from Syria to Sudan, leading his army from a chariot sheathed in gold. To celebrate his 30th year of rule, the Pharaoh asked for a pair of pillars to flank the Sun Temple in Heliopolis. While Thotmos inscribed them with his name, two other kings later seized them and added their own self-serving hieroglyphs to the four sides. Pharaoh Ramses II who reigned from 1279 to 1212 BC inscribed his praises and left little room for Osorcon I who crammed his moniker on a lower edge. Obvious examples of these very ancient things were used to document the king's existence. Thought to have been toppled for the high gold content at the Pyramidium and thought to have been toppled by the Persian invaders, there is also evidence of scorching on the monument. This could either be from efforts to melt the gold from it or it could be remnants of whatever energies were once radiating through the device when it was a working piece of apparatus. Remembering that gold is highly conductive and along with the granite materials of the stone, it made for a perfect receiver and transmitter just like a modern pylon. By the time Augustus went to erect the obelisk in Alexandria in 13 BC, he already faced a challenge. The base of the nearly 1500 year old monument had worn or chipped away, making it impossible to erect the 240 ton 70 foot behemoth. His solution, giant bronze crabs, each weighing in at 922 pounds. The crabs were chosen for their role in Roman mythology, associated with Apollo and the sun, thereby in keeping with the Egyptian tradition. When the Americans arrived on the scene to salvage the obelisk in 1880, two of the crabs had gone missing. By a lucky turn of chance, they were discovered by divers during the process of clearing the harbor of debris in order to make way for the ship carrying the obelisk, the claws we see today are replicas with the originals on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. America missed its first chance at an obelisk in 1869 at the opening of the Suez canal. Bankrupt and beholden to European creditors, Egypt offered US officials the ancient pillar not out of generosity and friendship, but out of desperation and in exchange wanted protection from America, an alliance that still holds to this day and a flashpoint. In 1956, Tsar America warned Britain and France against any action and what became known as the Suez crisis. In 1879, newspaper headlines declared obelisk victory and railroad mogul William Vanderbilt covered the obelisk massive transport cost. There were some delays, Egyptian nationalists objected to sending the nation's patrimony overseas and a creditor of the Egyptian government threatened to place a lien on the obelisk, but Egypt signed ownership over to the United States in 1879. The New York Times remarked sorely that there is no longer any hope that we shall escape the Alexandria obelisk. On June 12, 1880, it was arriving in Staten Island and the daunting task of moving this thing to Central Park could begin. The monument arrived at the foot of West 96th Street on September 16 and took just another two hours to cross the railroad tracks along the Hudson River. On a cradle, similar to a flat car, it was winced forward on a huge movable track. A few links at a time by a steam engine using chain or cable anchored by a block to draw the car forward. It took 32 horses hitched in 16 pairs to drag the 50 ton pedestal alone through the streets of Manhattan. Hundreds of people came to the West Side to watch, although they were disappointed when they found the obelisk encased in wood. One man expressed disgust to a reporter for the evening telegram. What's the use of coming to see a box? By October 27, the obelisk had reached 96th and Broadway, where a pair of women selling apples jockeyed for position. An Egyptian guard was necessary to keep boys from riding on the obelisk with chalk, and the apple sellers spread the word that the guard had been discovered under the obelisk in Alexandria and wanted to be reburied with it in its new location. The obelisk made another turn at 86th and Broadway and arrived at the 86th Street transverse on November 25, reaching Fifth Avenue on December 16. By the 22nd that month, it turned into the park just below the new Metropolitan Museum of Art, and was hauled up a 42 foot high 870 foot long trellis of massive timbers to its current resting place. The New York Herald reported that the grounds of the museum were crowded with sightseers, the surroundings black with their stovepipe hats. On January 5, 1881, it reached the Noel Chosen as its site, a journey just shy of 10,000 feet that took 112 days, about 90 feet per day. Commander Gorridge brought with him from Egypt a massive turning apparatus, something like a two-armed catapult, and on January 22, the obelisk was turned 90 degrees in five minutes. And a great cheer rose from the thousands of stunned onlooking New Yorkers, who must have felt at the time that history was passing them by, literally. When the obelisk cornerstone was laid at Central Park's Graywack Null close to East 81st Street, at least 9,000 Freemasons marched up Fifth Avenue to commemorate it with a ceremony. New York merchants, including a needle company, doled out trading cards in honor of the artifact, showing the queen of the now-threading, not a needle, but an obelisk. A candy stand trailed the monument on the voyage to its new home, while another merchant sold Cleopatra dates in an obelisk-shaped box. Before it was erected, a time capsule was buried under its base, with documents including the 1870 census, a copy of the Declaration of Independence, Webster's Dictionary, and a small box from William Henry Holbert. Its complete contents are unknown. By 1885, the obelisk was showing signs that it was struggling in the harsh winters of New York City. Not only that, but incredibly, it had become shooting practice with the discovery of flattened bullets at the site. This, along with colonies of plants forming on the monument in the cracks and expanding the damage. This forced the city to remove 800 pounds worth of granite chips and coated it with paraffin to prevent plant growth. The removal of the granite chips was the greatest damage ever applied to the obelisk, and this was done deliberately in an effort to preserve it. However, when searching for the granite at the Natural History Museum in 1983, it appears that the city had forgotten where they had placed them, either that or they were discarded. The paraffin applied to preserve the stone also reacted with the granite color, which used to be pink, sad, but true. As of 2019, the structure was no longer in active decay.