The Vatican Obelisk is an Egyptian obelisk, one of the thirteen ancient obelisks of Rome. This obelisk is located in St. Peter's Square, in Vatican City. It is the only ancient obelisk in Rome that has never fallen.
Made of red granite, it has a height of 25.3 meters and, together with the cross and the base (composed of four bronze lions, by Prospero Antichi), it reaches almost 40 meters.
It is of Egyptian origin, devoid of any hieroglyphs and titles. It is not known if the obelisk's inscriptions were erased before it was moved to Rome, or if it never had any. The obelisk comes, according to Pliny, from the city of Heliopolis on the Nile. Before coming to Rome, it stood at the Forum Iulii of Alexandria in Egypt. Emperor Caligula had it shipped to Rome in 40 AD, and placed it at the center of the Circus of Nero, the site of which is, in modern times, mostly in Vatican City. It remained in this position after the circus fell into disuse, occupied by a necropolis. In the 16th century it was moved next to the Old St. Peter's Basilica, at the Rotonda di Sant'Andrea.
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