Joseph Pitt Warton

Joseph Pitt Warton painted a single watercolour in 1807, Cleopatra’s Needle as it now Stands on the Site of the Old Town at Alexandria in Egypt. He showed the 1,900-year-old obelisk still standing where it was dragged from its original temple. The scene feels like a snapshot from the early days of travel sketching, before photographs existed. Tap the obelisk to zoom into details of the hieroglyphs and the city around it.