The Obelisk

At the center of the fountain is a towering obelisk that was recovered, at the behest of Pope Innocent X, from the ruins of the Circus of Maxentius, along the Appian Way. The obelisk was made in Roman times with Egyptian granite, which before being moved to the circus had been either in the Circus Agonalis or at the Iseum Campense, as the hieroglyphic inscription on it states it was made under Emperor Domitian, who had those two monuments built.Read more