Cleopatra's Needle is almost 1,400 years older than Cleopatra: it was raised under Thutmose III around 1450 BC, and she was born in 69 BC.

1450 BC · 69 BC · 1878 · apart: 3328 years

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The event

• Cleopatra's Needle reaches London1878 · Victoria Embankment, London. Gifted to Britain back in 1819, the obelisk was towed from Alexandria inside an iron cylinder-ship. In October 1877 it had to be cut loose in a Biscay storm; Spanish fishermen found it four days later, and in 1878 the Needle was raised on the Thames.

15th century BC · 1st century BC · 19th century

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