The Obelisk of Augustus was one of the obelisks in the centre of the Circus Maximus, that Augustus, Roman emperor, brought to the city in 10 BC following the conquest of the Egyptian region by the Romans twenty years earlier.
The monument, from the Egyptian city of Heliopolis, not far from Cairo, dates back to the reign of Ramesses II in the 13th century BC and was dedicated to the worship of the Sun. It was lost to time after the disappearance of the Empire, collapses and abandonment until 1589, when Pope Sixtus V decided to rebuild it in the centre of Piazza del Popolo, after the rediscovery in the 14th century. The obelisk bears the papal emblem on top and is still visible at the Porta Flaminia, whose name it now bears.
