The Obelisk still stands today, with its grandeur and 32 metres of height, in front of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, built by Pope Sixtus V. Its history has distant origins in the 15th century BC, when the Egyptian sovereign Thutmose III had it built to be erected in the Amun-Re Temple in ancient Thebes.
At the beginning of the 4th century AD, Emperor Constantine was attracted by its grandeur and tried, without success, to transport it to the city that bore his name, considered the “new Rome”. His death in 337 AD stopped the undertaking, which was later continued by his son Constantius II, who resumed the project to bring it to the Circus Maximus in Rome.
Decorated with a bronze torch placed on the cusp, the obelisk blazed realistically in the sun’s rays.
