In the middle of Main Mall, on the South side of campus, there stands a monument to Engineering. This monument is known as The Cairn. It is a six foot tall white pyramid, made of heavily reinforced concrete, with a giant red “E” on each side.

The cairn often makes non-engineers jealous. They resort to defacing our monument, sometimes even trying to destroy it. It’s being run into, burnt, and even blown up, but their efforts are in vain! We repaint it when it is vandalized and rebuild it stronger when an attempt is made to knock it down! It shall always be a symbol of the spirit of the Engineers at UBC.

The first Engineers’ Cairn was built in January 1966 as part of the King Arthur stunt. It was just a pile of rocks held together with hand-mixed cement, with an engraved marble plaque anchored to it. After more than 40 years and many generations of the Cairn later, it still stands symbolizing UBC Engineers’ strength and pride.

For more details, please refer to the hEUStory Project: The Engineers’ Cairn.