Cleopatra's Needles and the Casesarium
The Caesarium was a temple built by Cleopatra in honor of Mark Antony. The temple's beauty was highlighted by two obelisks known as Cleopatra's Needles. They were originally set up in Heliopolis (near Cairo) by Thothmes III and were transported to the temple site following Cleoptara's death.
The temple and the Needles were erected at the site of today's Raml Station (Saad Zaghloul Square). The needles stood exactly between the tram terminus and the sea, and the temple extended further south, along the present Safia Zaghloul Street. The Caesarium was transformed into a church at a later period, and is now burried underground. the Needles remained almost intact, even though one of them fell. They were the main landmark of Alexandria until the 19th century.
In the 19th century, Mohamed Ali, the Albanian/Ottoman ruler who later became "king", gave away both of them as "gifts" to the British and American governments. Today, one of the Needles stands in Central Park in New York, and the other on the Embankment in London.
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