You know perfectly well that, walking through the Eternal City, you don't only come across works of art or monuments of complete Latin extraction. After all, the Rome of the past was a multicultural city, and different ethnic groups or peoples have contributed to making it what it is today. But among the symbols of this cultural symbiosis, especially between the Caput Mundi and ancient Egypt, we have the thirteen obelisks that soar in the city sky. During a tour, a walk in the historic centre, I always stop in front of at least a couple of them. One, in particular, may attract your attention…

In fact, among the thirteen obelisks that adorn Rome today we find that of Montecitorio, erected in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis by Pharaoh Psammetichus II as early as the 6th century BC, when Rome was a practically primitive village, without real defensive walls and with an extension absolutely incomparable to those it already had after only one century. An obelisk, for the ancient Romans, was a great symbol of prestige, as they represented that very ancient Egyptian people who, already for the Romans of two thousand years ago, were full of charm and mystery. A people that Rome managed to subjugate and, consequently, what could be better than one of Egypt's most powerful religious symbols transported to the city to legitimize its prestige? So was Augustus, who in 10 BC had this granite monolith transported from Heliopolis to Rome, to place it in the center of his enormous sundial paved on the ground, using the obelisk as a gnomon! Strange fate for an obelisk, whose name derives from the Greek obeliskos which means skewer... Today, of course, this obelisk is not in its original position. Probably in the Middle Ages, maybe in the 9th or 11th century, who knows, the obelisk fell to the ground. Earthquake or looting? We do not know, since the sources do not allow us to know its history better.

What we certainly know is that the huge granite pieces of the obelisk were buried over the centuries, as they simply got in the way. However, pope Pius VI will completely restore the obelisk at the end of the XIX century, placing it where it is today, in front of the Parliament. Intriguing to think of how it was a pontiff, in the end, who put an end to the story of a grandiose monument that still today reflects the power of the ancient Egyptian people. As you can see, a story that spans the centuries, from the Egyptian age to the modern age, when finally history and our origins will really begin to be, if not protected, at least studied and desired...