The Egyptian Capital......

.....has set me thinking about what other unexpected architectural treasures pop up in unexpected places.

Virginia Water in Surrey has a little piece of North African Classicism in the form of columns and cross-bars from Leptis Magna

Photo courtesy Len Williams http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/705840

These have recently been restored and the local paper in true dumbing down / PC spirit give the upper images here the caption 'The ancient Leptis Magna ruins, which were donated to the UK by Libya in 1818' in fact - Christopher Woodward's book In Ruins is the best place to learn more - they were 'removed' from their original site and given to George IV.

Then there are the most obvious of misplaced architectural gems - the two 'Needles' one gradually rotting on the Embankment in London the other in NYC, also apparently rotting though it stands, as it was intended, on bronze crabs (I think?).

 

Central Park, NYC
The Embankment, London

My memory defeats me but I shall post more when it's feeling more generous!