Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia
Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia, also known as Progress Carrying the Light to Asia, was a plan for a colossal neoclassical sculpture. Designed in the late 1860s by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the project was to be a statue of a robed female Saeid Misr or "Upper Egyptian" bearing a torch at the entryway of the Suez Canal in Port Said, Egypt.[1][2] The statue was to stand 86 feet (26 m) high and its pedestal was to rise to a height of 48 feet (15 m).[3] The proposed statue was declined by the Khedive, citing the expensive cost,[4] and in 1869 the Port Said Lighthouse, designed by François Coignet, was built in the same location.[5]
The idea for a statue on the mouth of the Suez was inspired by Bartholdi's encounter with ancient Egyptian giant statuary at Abu Simbel.[3] Bartholdi further researched the ancient Colossus of Rhodes (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which was a 33-metre-tall (108 ft) statue of the Greek god Helios at the entrance to the island's main port) and came up with the design of the female fellah, which later in the process evolved into that of a classical goddess.[3]
After the failure of the Egyptian project, Bartholdi recycled his design as Liberty Enlightening the World, better known as the Statue of Liberty, which was installed in the New York Harbor in 1886.[3]
References
- ^ Khan, Yasmin Sabina (2010). Enlightening the World: The Creation of the Statue of Liberty. Cornell University Press. pp. 51–54. ISBN 978-0-8014-4851-5.
- ^ "The Statue of Liberty Story, From Egypt to New York | The Arab American Historical Foundation Home". www.arabamericanhistory.org. Retrieved 2017-02-22.
- ^ a b c d Blakemore, Erin. "The Statue of Liberty Was Originally a Muslim Woman". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
- ^ Karabell, Zachary (2003). Parting the desert: the creation of the Suez Canal. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 243. ISBN 0-375-40883-5.
- ^ Piaton, Claudine (2014). "Les phares d'Égypte : laboratoire et conservatoire de l'ingénierie européenne du xixe siècle" [Lighthouses of Egypt: examples of experimentation and preservation of twentieth century European engineering]. ABE Journal (in French) (5). InVisu. doi:10.4000/abe.704.
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- Édouard René de Laboulaye, originator
- Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, sculptor
- Gustave Eiffel, builder
- company
- Eugène Secrétan, donated copper
- Richard Morris Hunt, pedestal
- Joseph Pulitzer, pedestal funding
- Original torch: Statue of Liberty Museum
- Original statue: Musée des Arts et Métiers
locations
- Right arm and torch: Centennial Exposition (1876)
- Madison Square Park (1876–1882)
- Head: Paris World's Fair (1878)
- United States: Las Vegas
- Strengthen the Arm of Liberty
- Austin, Texas
- Fayetteville, Arkansas
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Overland Park, Kansas
- Pine Bluff, Arkansas
- Seattle
- United Kingdom: Leicester
- In popular culture
- "The New Colossus" (1883 sonnet)
- Working on the Statue of Liberty (1946 painting)
- Miss Liberty (1949 musical)
- The Statue of Liberty (1985 documentary)
- Statue of Liberty play (American football)
- Liberty Weekend, 1986
- Liberty Issue (1954–1965 stamps)
- Statue of Liberty Forever stamp
- Statue of Liberty commemorative coins
- American Platinum Eagle coin
- Presidential dollar coins
- American Innovation dollars
- United States ten-dollar bill
- Statue of Liberty Division
- 1984–1986 conservation and restoration
- Statue of Liberty Museum
- Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia
- Libertas
- personification of Liberty
- Ellis Island
- Black Tom explosion
- Musée Bartholdi
- National symbols of the United States
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