April 30th, 2007
Worldwide obelisk placement
The obelisk-gnomon of the Augustus sundial in Rome (April 11 post here) has a lot of company–while unusual to use one as a sundial, Rome is a thicket of relocated obelisks. New York also has one: Cleopatra’s Needle in Central Park. Damaged at the base in the extensive and labor intensive move early on in its history, Cleopatra’s Needle is stabilized by giant bronze crabs, which were associated with the worship of Apollo and the sun (and thus the divinity of the Pharohs) and so were accepted by the Egyptians as an appropriate patch job.
comments See also in
digressions, Sundials of Note