Robert Merry, is an independent stone consultant and project manager who ran his own company for 17 years. He also acts as an expert witness. Here he presents his view of the stone industry this month.Most mornings I pass Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment in London. From the road it’s hidden slightly by leafy trees and at this time of year you might miss it altogether if you didn’t know it was there as you rush to wherever you’re going with other things on your mind.

This morning I stopped a while and contemplated the three-and-a-half thousand year old piece of red granite on the banks of the Thames.

Pharaoh Thothmes II had it quarried at Syene in Egypt circa 1450BC and erected at Helipolis – now a suburb in north-eastern Cairo. Fast forward 1,500 years and Rameses the Great digs it up and moves it to Alexandria, the Royal city of Cleopatra – the Cleopatra of Anthony and… fame. She was married to Julius Caesar, having previously been married to her brothers, which was the custom of the Egyptian elite then… apparently.

Then the Viceroy of Egypt, Mohammed Ali, presents the Obelisk to the British in 1819, some 1,800 years after Rameses. In 1877, Erasmus Wilson donates £10,000 to bring it to England and erect “a worthy memorial of our distinguished countrymen, Nelson and Abercromby”, as it says on the base.

The engineer John Dixon wraps the obelisk in an iron cylinder, sticks on a rudder and a bridge and turns it into a ship, which he names Cleopatra (what else?) and sets off for London, towed by a steam ship called the Olga.

During the voyage there is a storm in the bay of Biscay. Six men are killed in an attempt to rescue the Cleopatra, which is cut adrift from the steam boat towing it home. It was spotted five days later floating off the coast of Spain. John Dixon recovers it at a cost of £2,000 salvage.

In January 1878, to cheering crowds, he tows it up the Thames and moors it next to where it stands today. Nine months later, in Victoria’s 42nd year of Queening, Cleopatra’s Needle is winched into position and a couple of faux Sphinxs are installed at its base.

All is set on granite plinths, presumably quarried especially for their supporting role.

Today, the 3,500 year old red Egyptian granite needle is still upright and, although slightly faded with the hieroglyphics more or less warn to an indecipherable lumpiness, shows few other signs of its age.

The granite plinth around the base looks as if it has some form of granite ecoli – all eaten away and green. A small plaque explains: A few minutes before midnight on Tuesday 4 September 1917 a bomb exploded close by – the first bombing raid on London by German aeroplanes.

It seemed to me that here is an extraordinary thing. The plinth and the obelisk – which are probably geologically similar in age but were quarried 3,000 years apart – one worn away by human conflict, the other worn away by the elements, in spite of humans.

Somebody once said stone is never the problem, it’s what we do with it (or to it) that causes all the issues. Cutting it too thin and wide, messing with the face (its skin), placing it in the wrong location where it will stain or wear, or indeed smashing holes in it with metal propelled by high explosives.

The journey of Cleopatra’s Needle from Alexandria to London is testament to the Victorians’ ingenuity and their determination. But more impressive than all of this relatively modern human endeavour is the piece of granite itself – 21m tall and weighing 224tons. Now, how could you miss that!

Robert Merry, MCIOB, ran his own stone company for 17 years and is now an independent Stone Consultant and Project Manager. He is also an expert witness in disputes regarding stone and stone contracts. Tel: 0207 502 6353 / 07771 997621