# What is the greatest gift one country ever gave another?

> Some arrived in crates, some walked across France on four legs, and one gets replaced every winter. Friendship, alliance, apology or thanks: judge which gesture between nations landed best.

*By YPB Team · Published November 7, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-greatest-gift-one-country-ever-gave-another*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Washington's Cherry Trees** — score 1000/1000
   About 3,000 Japanese cherry trees given by the city of Tokyo to Washington, D.C. in 1912 and planted around the Tidal Basin and in East Potomac Park.
2. **Runnymede JFK Memorial Land** — score 914/1000
   An acre of ground at Runnymede given by the United Kingdom to the United States in 1965 for the memorial to President John F. Kennedy.
3. **Temple of Debod** — score 822/1000
   Ancient Egyptian temple given by Egypt to Spain in 1968 for its help with the Nubian monuments campaign, rebuilt in a park in Madrid.
4. **Temple of Dendur** — score 685/1000
   Ancient Egyptian temple given by Egypt to the United States in 1965 for its help saving the Nubian monuments, now rebuilt inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
5. **Ottawa's Dutch Tulips** — score 621/1000
   Tulip bulbs sent to Ottawa by the Dutch royal family from 1945 in thanks for Canada sheltering Princess Juliana and liberating the Netherlands, which led to the Canadian Tulip Festival.
6. **Statue of Liberty** — score 621/1000
   Copper statue designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, given by the people of France to the United States and dedicated in New York Harbor on 28 October 1886.
7. **Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing** — score 548/1000
   Giant pandas given by China to the United States in 1972 after President Nixon's visit to Beijing, housed at the National Zoo in Washington.
8. **Cleopatra's Needle, London** — score 464/1000
   Ancient Egyptian obelisk offered to Britain by Muhammad Ali in 1819 and finally erected on London's Victoria Embankment in 1878.
9. **Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree** — score 464/1000
   A Norwegian spruce sent from Oslo to London every year since 1947 in thanks for Britain's support of Norway during the Second World War.
10. **Luxor Obelisk** — score 365/1000
   Ancient Egyptian obelisk from Luxor Temple given by Egypt's ruler Muhammad Ali to France and erected in the Place de la Concorde in Paris in 1836.
11. **Resolute Desk** — score 365/1000
   Desk built from the timbers of the British ship HMS Resolute and presented by Queen Victoria to US President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, used in the Oval Office.
12. **Amber Room** — score 365/1000
   Chamber of amber panels given by King Frederick William I of Prussia to Tsar Peter the Great in 1716, looted in 1941 and recreated at the Catherine Palace in 2003.
13. **Cleopatra's Needle, New York** — score 249/1000
   Ancient Egyptian obelisk given to the United States by the Khedive of Egypt and erected in New York's Central Park in 1881.
14. **Netherlands Carillon** — score 249/1000
   Bell tower in Arlington, Virginia, given by the people of the Netherlands in thanks for American aid during and after the Second World War and dedicated in 1960.
15. **Vimy Ridge Land** — score 249/1000
   Land at Vimy Ridge granted by France to Canada in perpetuity in 1922 in gratitude for Canada's First World War sacrifices, site of the Canadian National Vimy Memorial.
16. **Zarafa the Giraffe** — score 0/1000
   Giraffe sent by Muhammad Ali of Egypt to King Charles X of France, which walked from Marseille to Paris in 1827 and caused a giraffe craze.

Tags: landmarks, historical, diplomacy, gifts