The Dalhousie Obelisk is a memorial

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by An ...

in the Civic District of

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, located on the north

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

of the

Singapore River The Singapore River is a river that flows parallel to Alexandra Road and feeds into the Marina Reservoir in the southern part of Singapore. The immediate upper watershed of the Singapore River is known as the Singapore River Planning Area, althou ...

in the

Downtown Core The Downtown Core is the historical and downtown centre of the city-state of Singapore and the main commercial area in Singapore excluding reclaimed lands with many integrated resorts such as the Marina Bay Sands, one of the most expensive buildi ...

, within the Central Area in Singapore's central business district. The obelisk is situated at

Empress Place The Empress Place Building is a historic building in Singapore, located on the north bank of the Singapore River in the Downtown Core, within the Central Area in Singapore's central business district. The building is currently the second wing ...

, near the

Asian Civilisations Museum The Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is an institution which forms a part of the four museums in Singapore, the other three being the Peranakan Museum at Old Tao Nan School, the National Museum of Singapore and the Singapore Art Museum. It is ...

and the

Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall The Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall is a performing arts centre in the Central Area of Singapore, situated along Empress Place. It is a complex of two buildings and a clock tower joined together by a common corridor; the oldest part of the ...

, and the Anderson Bridge near the mouth of the

Architecture

The Dalhousie Obelisk is an important architectural element in

but somewhat neglected and obscured by

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s. It was designed by

John Turnbull Thomson John Turnbull Thomson (10 August 1821 – 16 October 1884) was a British civil engineer and artist who played an instrumental role in the development of the early infrastructure of nineteenth-century Singapore and New Zealand. He lived the last 2 ...

when he was a Government Surveyor. He was obviously inspired by "

Cleopatra's Needle Cleopatra's Needles are a separated pair of ancient Egyptian obelisks now in London and New York City. The obelisks were originally made in Heliopolis (modern Cairo) during the New Kingdom period, inscribed by the 18th dynasty pharaoh Thutmose I ...

" on the

Thames Embankment The Thames Embankment is a work of 19th-century civil engineering that reclaimed marshy land next to the River Thames in central London. It consists of the Victoria Embankment and Chelsea Embankment. History There had been a long history of ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

References

*National Heritage Board (2002), ''Singapore's 100 Historic Places'', Archipelago Press, *Norman Edwards, Peter Keys (1996), ''Singapore - A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places'', Times Books International, {{commons, Dalhousie Obelisk

External links

Virtual Reality view of Dalhousie Obelisk
Buildings and structures completed in 1850 Downtown Core (Singapore) Landmarks in Singapore National monuments of Singapore Obelisks in Singapore 19th-century architecture in Singapore