Egyptian Obelisk Erected by Sixtus V in the Piazza of S. Giovanni in Laterano

The story of how this obelisk came to be in the piazza of the Lateran spans three thousand years. It was first quarried by Thutmose III around 1450 BC and stood at the Temple of Amun at Karnak. When the emperor Augustus (27 BC-14 AD) had the first obelisks brought from Egypt to Rome in 10 BC, he had considered this one, but was deterred by the fact that it was the largest of all obelisks (being over 32 meters tall and weighing 455 tons). The obelisk remained at Karnak until Constantine the Great (306-337), intending to send it to Constantinople, had it transported down the Nile to Alexandria. It went no further, however, until his son Constantius II (337-361) brought it to Rome in 357 and had it erected on the central barrier of the Circus Maximus. There it joined one of the obelisks brought earlier by Augustus. In Egypt obelisks were always dedicated by the pharaoh to the sun god. They retained these same associations with supreme royal authority and the cult of the sun when they were relocated, but now the supreme authority had passed to the emperors of Rome.

Sometime after the sixth century both obelisks fell, broke into three parts, and were buried under the mud in the frequently flooded Circus. By the time of the Renaissance, antiquarians knew that the two obelisks should still be at the site from their study of classical sources. Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590), hearing about this just after he had moved the Vatican obelisk to the front of St. Peter's, ordered the obelisks to be excavated. It took nine months and 300 men to uncover and move the huge stone of the obelisk of Constantius to the piazza where it was reassembled and raised. In an elaborate ceremony in 1588 it was exorcised of pagan demons, consecrated, and rededicated to "the most invincible Cross." Topped by the cross and the pope's coat-of-arms, the obelisk's inherent power and authority then passed to the Christian church. Piranesi has made the soaring emblem the sole focus of this view, depicting its hieroglyphs in detail, if not with complete accuracy.