By Fayza Hassan When Bonaparte landed on the small beach of Dekheila on 2 July 1798, he was awestruck by the sheer greatness of the obelisk in the square of Alexandria, which appeared to him more formidable than anything he had ever seen in his life. He vowed then and there to take it back to France. During the final retreat of 1801, however, the diminished French troops were in the throes of too many pressing logistical problems to remember the wish of the little corporal, which had to be disregarded at least momentarily. Under Mohamed Ali, relations with France and England improved considerably, and, to please the European powers, the new conqueror expressed the desire to offer his former enemies an obelisk each -- a token of his friendship. At first, the obelisk of Alexandria, so ardently coveted by Napoleon, was naturally selected as France's gift, but, in 1828, Champollion fell madly in love with the two solar symbols of pink granite guarding the entrance of the Temple of Luxor. Mohamed Ali, who had little use for old stones, saw no reason to object to King Charles X's request, transmitted through an emissary, and readily informed the king that the French could pack up the two needles and take them away whenever they were ready. For good measure, he included Napoleon's Alexandrian obelisk in the package. Back in France, however, Champollion, overwhelmed by the news, advised that only one piece be moved at a time. Even this was easier said than done, nevertheless, and although the example of the Romans, who had taken a similar obelisk across the Mediterranean in the fourth century, from the desert of Karnak to St Peter's Square in Rome, should have provided inspiration, the French were not quite sure how to go about moving the 230-tonne mass. Consulted once more, Champollion suggested that a special raft be constructed. The research commission named by the king opted for a flat boat, capable of going down the Nile, across the sea and up the Seine, to avoid dangerous trans-shipment. The boat was constructed in the docks of Toulon, baptised the Luxor, and launched on 15 April 1831 with 150 craftsmen on board, headed by an engineer, Appolinaire Lebas. Sailing up the Nile on the last leg of its voyage, the boat arrived in Luxor on 14 August. It was not before 31 October however, that the crew, having triumphed over many difficulties, including an epidemic of cholera, was finally able to remove the obelisk from its base. The giant, pushed off its pedestal, was dragged to the shore on wooden rails across 270 metres of sand, with the help of 400 men hired locally; but, due to the low level of the river, it could not be placed on the boat until the end of December. Loading it presented another problem, which was eventually solved by sawing the hull in half in order to accommodate the 22 metre-long contraption, then putting the two pieces together again. By the time the operation was completed, the river was at its lowest once more, and it is only on 25 August 1832 that the boat was allowed to leave Thebes with its precious cargo. The Luxor sailed safely down the Nile, but in Rosetta, unable to negotiate the passage to the Mediterranean, the Sphinx, one of the first French steamboats, had to be called to the rescue. Once more on its way, and after many more adventures, the Luxor docked in Paris on 23 December. It had taken 33 months to bring the pink needle over. Three more years would elapse before a way of transporting it from its floating casing on the Seine to the Place de la Concorde could be figured out. At last, "on 25 October 1836, a huge crowd assembles on Place de la Concorde to attend the installation of the famous obelisk," writes Robert Solé. "At the corner of Saint Florentin Street, an orchestra of a hundred musicians is playing Mozart's Mysteries of Isis. The sky is grey. Fortunately, it is not raining. The entire façade of the Navy Ministry is lined with officers and employees. The king and his family appear around midday, a few minutes before the beginning of the operation. When the signal is given by the engineer, the gunners begin to march in step to the sound of the bugle. The capstans grind around their axes, the tackles stiffen, the frame begins to rise pulling the obelisk along... It finally takes its place on the base [specially constructed, as the original one had to be left behind buried in the sand of Luxor] to the frantic cheers of 200,000 spectators... Four men climb to the top to attach tricolour flags and laurel branches. On the balcony, King Louis Philippe salutes the flag." Later, a few words were engraved, consecrating French technology; Champollion and Egyptology are completely forgotten, notes Solé ironically. The dedication reads: "In the presence of King Louis Philippe the First/ this obelisk transported from Luxor to France/ has been raised on this pedestal by Monsieur Lebas, engineer/ to the cheers of a huge crowd/ on 25 October 1836." In 1875, another of Mohamed Ali's unwise outbursts of generosity came to fruition. This time, the recipient was England, to whom "an obelisk of Luxor, the great statue of Sesostris at Memphis and one of Cleopatra's needles, which had been lying for ages prostrate in the sand, thirty feet only from the sea wall of Alexandria," was offered "to commemorate the services rendered to Egypt by the Battle of Aboukir, won by Nelson in 1798, and the Battle of Alexandria, where Abercrombie fell in 1801," reported The Graphic on 20 November 1875. The paper further commented that, whereas moving the first two gifts might prove a rather costly operation, "Cleopatra's needle lies... close to the waterside, and the French did not begrudge 80,000 Sterling Pounds-- to move a twin obelisk from Luxor to the Place de la Concorde in Paris." For over seven years, amidst rumours that the column was badly damaged and that a Frenchman who owned the land on which it rested intended to cut the obelisk to pieces and discard it to make way for a building, England continued to shy away from the trouble and expense of moving it. Finally, General Sir James Alexander took the matter into his hands and, travelling to Alexandria at his own expense, proceeded to inspect the controversial gift thoroughly. The obelisk was found to be undamaged, "68 feet long, a noble mass of syenite, or rose-coloured granite." Brugsch Bey was called in to translate the hieroglyphics which appeared on its upper face. It was found to have been built for Thutmose II and dated 1,600BC. Some of its columns, engraved later, recounted the life achievements of Ramses III. Alexander recommended that the obelisk, "quite movable by skilled hands" be taken to England at once, where a "fine site has been allocated it by the Metropolitan Board of Works on the Thames Embankment." Transportation of Mohamed Ali's English gift proved to be no less of a headache than its French counterpart. On 27 October 1877, the Illustrated London News announced the "abandonment of Cleopatra's Needle in the Bay of Biscay". Journeying in a custom-made iron-plate cylinder named the Cleopatra and towed by the steamer Olga, the obelisk, which had been cut loose during a storm, was eventually picked up by a steamer bound for Valencia and brought to its destination. Mr Dixon apparently versed in such matters, was to take over from there, figuring out a way of placing the needle on its new pedestal by the Thames. The machinery thought up by the British engineers to effect the operation safely was far more sophisticated than the contraption used by the French, although it had been unmistakably informed by the original model as shown in the detailed explanations provided by The Graphic to its readers on 1 June 1878. It did work equally well, giving England its own, substantial, share of the spoils of the Pharaohs. Sources: Robert Solé, L'Egypte, Passion Française, Paris, 1997 An Egyptian Panorama: Reports from the 19th-Century British Press, ed. Nicholas Warner, Cairo 1994
