The Incredible History of the Lateran Obelisk

Perhaps the most peculiar and distinctive feature of the city of Rome is the presence of the obelisks, the ancient, giant, granite monoliths taken from Egypt and set up by the emperors in antiquity, and re-erected by later popes. In Medias Res has already published <a href="https://medium.com/in-medias-res/obelisk-metropolis-55771b284c9b" rel="noopener">an overview of these monuments</a> in Rome, so in this piece I will go into more depth into one in particular, the Lateran obelisk, currently standing in the Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano beside the cathedral of the same name. Forty-five meters tall and weighing three hundred and thirty tons, it is Rome’s largest obelisk. It is also perhaps the oldest — because of its lack of hieroglyphs the Vatican obelisk is difficult to date and is possibly older— originally quarried in the fifteenth century B.C. What I find particularly fascinating about this obelisk is that we can trace the entire history of the monument, from ancient Egypt to papal Rome, solely from the inscriptions that have been carved in it. <a href="https://medium.com/in-medias-res/the-incredible-history-of-the-lateran-obelisk-75473d11a103">Read More</a>