The Nelson Monument, 120 feet (37 m) tall on a granite base,[1] stands on Portsdown Hill about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Portsmouth Harbour on the south coast of England.

It was the eventual outcome of a movement started during Horatio Nelson's lifetime to "perpetuate the glorious victories of the British Navy".

[4] A design for the monument by John Thomas Groves of the Board of Works was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1807,[5] The monument is modelled on the Aksum Stele, Ethiopia: Groves was inspired by the findings in Aksum of Henry Salt who visited Ethiopia in 1805.

[9] This time the fund's driving force, Captain Thomas Fremantle, adopted a more altruistic approach,[10] and the monument commenced construction on 4 July 1807[11] with the final checks to the inscription[12] made just over a year later.

[13] The adjacent Fort Nelson, Portsmouth, completed in 1871 as another Napoleon threatened England's south coast, is so named because of its proximity to the monument.