🏛️LandmarkOpen now · Closes 12:00 AMFree

Cleopatra's Needle

Name: Cleopatra's Needle
Rating: 4.6

4.6 ·

Discover Cleopatra's Needle standing quietly along the Thames on Victoria Embankment. Take ten minutes to examine the ancient Egyptian obelisk, its flanking bronze sphinxes, and the WWI bomb damage still etched into its base.

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Reasons to go

The obelisk was carved around 1450 BC in Heliopolis, predating Cleopatra by over a thousand years.
It nearly sank during its 1877 towing voyage from Egypt to London in a storm.
Shrapnel damage from a WWI German bombing raid is still visible on the eastern sphinx's base.

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Full description

Cleopatra's Needle was carved around 1450 BC in Heliopolis, long before Cleopatra's reign, and made its way to London in 1878 as a gift from Egypt, surviving a dramatic storm at sea during the voyage that nearly sank the vessel towing it. Flanked by two bronze sphinxes and marked with damage from a WWI German bombing raid still visible on its base, it's a quietly odd stop reviewers with a 4.6 rating describe as unexpectedly atmospheric against the Thames, especially compared to its short ten-minute visit time.

It suits curious walkers already tracing the Embankment rather than a dedicated trip, rewarding those who stop to read the plaques rather than just snap a photo and move on.

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Address

London WC2N 6NU, UK · Covent Garden

Website

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Hours

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Booking

Walk-in

Duration

10 min

Intensity

Easy pace

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Good to know

Look for the WWI shrapnel damage on the eastern sphinx's base, a detail most visitors miss
pair it with a longer Embankment walk toward Westminster or the Golden Jubilee Bridges
go at early_evening when the riverside path is at its most pleasant.

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Reviews

Very nice and great to look at. A nice piece of history. And there is almost no crowd.

Eli

3/5

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