The Egyptian Obelisks of Rome and the Dream of Hieroglyphs

No city in the world, not even in Egypt, has as many ancient obelisks as Rome. There are thirteen, some brought from the Nile valley by the emperors, others made in Roman times in imitation of Egyptian models. For centuries these granite needles, covered in mysterious signs, fed the idea that hieroglyphs held a secret wisdom. Their story brings together imperial propaganda, Renaissance engineering and Europe's great passion for Hermetic Egypt.

From the Nile to the Tiber

The first to bring obelisks to Rome was Augustus, who after the conquest of Egypt had two of them transported: one, now in Piazza del Popolo, was set up in the Circus Maximus in 10 BC. Caligula brought the obelisk now in St Peter's Square, which has no inscriptions, for his circus on the Vatican Hill. The largest, now in Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, dates back to the pharaoh Thutmose III and was brought to Rome by the emperor Constantius II in 357.

For the ancients obelisks were symbols of the sun and trophies of conquest. After the fall of the empire almost all of them collapsed and were buried. Only the Vatican obelisk remained standing throughout the Middle Ages, beside the old basilica, and popular tradition believed that the bronze sphere on its top held the ashes of Julius Caesar.

Sixtus V and the feat of Domenico Fontana

At the end of the sixteenth century Pope Sixtus V decided to raise the obelisks again as focal points of Rome's new urban plan, crowning them with crosses. In 1586 the architect Domenico Fontana moved the Vatican obelisk to the centre of the square, in an operation that employed hundreds of men and dozens of horses. The obelisks of the Esquiline, the Lateran and Piazza del Popolo followed.

A legend tells that during the raising, while an order of absolute silence was in force, the ropes were about to snap from friction. A Ligurian sailor named Bresca is said to have shouted to wet them with water, saving the enterprise. Instead of punishing him, the pope is said to have granted his family the privilege of supplying the palms for Palm Sunday. The tale is not securely documented, but it is much loved.

Kircher, the elephant and Egyptian wisdom

In the Renaissance a late antique text spread, the Hieroglyphica of Horapollo, which explained hieroglyphs as moral and philosophical symbols. It was therefore believed that they were a sacred writing of ideas, not of sounds. In the seventeenth century the German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher, active in Rome, devoted entire volumes to their interpretation, including one on the Piazza Navona obelisk published in 1650. His readings were learned but largely wrong.

In 1667 Gian Lorenzo Bernini placed a small obelisk in front of Santa Maria sopra Minerva on the back of a marble elephant, inspired by an image in the Poliphilo. The inscription on the base explains that a robust mind is needed to support wisdom. Only in 1822 did Jean-François Champollion show that hieroglyphs were largely phonetic signs, bringing an era to a close.

The obelisks of Rome thus tell two stories. One is that of real Egypt, of the pharaohs and their temples. The other is that of the Egypt imagined by Europe, a land of hidden wisdom and mysteries. Both are part of the city's landscape, and walking from one obelisk to the next is a way of passing through them.