Lateran Obelisk

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Lateran Obelisk

Obelisco Lateranense
Obelisk today across from the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran
Click on the map for a fullscreen view
41°53′12.6″N 12°30′17.2″E / 41.886833°N 12.504778°E / 41.886833; 12.504778 (Lateranense)
Location	Erected in 1588 at Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, Italy
Designer	Thutmose III and completed by his grandson Thutmose IV in Karnak
Type	Obelisk
Material	32.18 metres (105.6 ft) of red granite monolith
Height	45.7 metres (150 ft)
Completion date	15th century B.C.

The Lateran Obelisk is the largest standing ancient Egyptian obelisk in the world, and it is also the tallest obelisk in Italy. It originally weighed 413 tonnes (455 short tons), but after collapsing and being re-erected 4 metres (13 ft) shorter, now weighs around 300 tonnes (330 short tons).^[1] It is located in Rome, in the square across from the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran and the San Giovanni Addolorata Hospital.

The obelisk was made around 1400 BC in Karnak, Egypt, during the reigns of Pharaohs Thutmose III and Thutmose IV. Roman Emperor Constantine I had it moved to Alexandria in the early 4th century AD, then Constantius II in AD 357 had it shipped to Rome and erected at the Circus Maximus. The obelisk collapsed sometime after the Circus's abandonment in the 5th century and was buried under mud. It was dug up and restored in the late 1580s, and by the order of Pope Sixtus V was topped with a Christian cross and installed in its present location near the Lateran Palace.