The Statue of Liberty[a] (officially named Liberty Enlightening the World[1] and sometimes referred to as Lady Liberty) is a monument symbolising the United States. The statue is placed on Liberty Island, near New York City Harbor. The statue commemorates 100 years since the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. It was given to the United States by the people of France as a gift in 1886, to represent the friendship between the two countries established during the American Revolution.[2] It represents a woman wearing a robe, a crown and sandals, trampling a broken chain. She has a torch in her raised right hand and in her left hand she holds a tablet bearing the date of the Declaration of Independence JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (1776).[3] The statue is on Liberty Island in New York Harbor,[4] and it welcomes visitors, immigrants, and returning Americans travelling by ship.[5]
The Statue of Liberty is based on the Greek god
Libertas, also known as Eleutheria, the Goddess of Liberty, and was given a temple on the Aventine Hill in c. 238 BC.[6]
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