Lateran Obelisk of Thutmose IV: Tallest in the world?
Visit the world’s tallest and oldest Egyptian Obelisk, the Lateran, in Rome. Alaric gave the Lateran Obelisk to the Circus Maximus after Constantine, King Tut, and Hypatia; everyone tried to take it to Constantinople; such is the dramatic chronicle of the Lateran Obelisk. Lateran Obelisk was about 450 tonnes heavy when it was built. Rebuilt from the ruins, it now weighs 300 tonnes and is 13 feet shorter than it did before. This ancient Obelisk illustrates the reign of Thutmose IV, the 8th-Pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th-dynasty from the 14th-century BC.
It is fascinating to find obelisks throughout Rome, especially in unexpected places. Thutmose IV is famous for repairing the Giza Sphinx and erecting the Dream Stele, a carved stone tablet sandwiched between its two claws. Roman emperors carried these massive Egyptian granite monoliths to Italy, where they were restored by the successive popes. The Lateran at the Piazza di San Giovanni is Rome’s longest obelisk, quarried in the 15th century BC, but there are no hieroglyphs to verify its age.
Aside from that, what I appreciate about this obelisk is that you can trace the monument’s whole history through its ancient inscriptions, dating from ancient Egypt to Rome. Until 1538, an equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius stood where this obelisk now stands. The Marcus Aurelius statue was locomoted to the Piazza Del Campidoglio on Capitoline Hill. When completed on August 9, 1588, the Lateran Obelisk stood near Lateran Palace and the St. John Lateran Basilica, making it Rome’s last Egyptian obelisk.
An Egyptian cross depicting the history of its journey was placed atop an ornate pedestal above the obelisk when first revealed to the public.
