(jaunty piano music) - [Dr. Zucker] We're standing
beside Saint John Lateran, one of the oldest and
largest churches in Rome, but we're here to look at something that is even older- much older. We're standing in front of an
absolutely enormous obelisk from ancient Egypt. - [Dr. Harris] In fact,
this is the tallest ancient obelisk known. It took two ships and hundreds of oarsman to bring it from Egypt to Rome. So, an Obelisk is a monolith,
it's made of a single stone, it's square at the base and
has a small pyramid at the top. - [Dr. Zucker] And commonly, that would be clad in some kind of metal so that it would be highly reflective and that was appropriate
because obelisks were understood by the ancient Egyptians who made them and then by the ancient
Romans who imported them as reflective of the divinity of the sun. - [Dr. Harris] So, obelisks are associated with the cult of the sun god by both the ancient
Egyptians and by the Romans. They symbolize the rays of the sun and often covered in hieroglyphics and erected often in pairs in front of ancient Egyptian temples. - [Dr. Zucker] This obelisk
is made out of red granite- an incredibly hard stone. And so, the act of quarrying
something this size, the act of carving it, of transporting it, of setting it upright was
monumental in every respect. - [Dr. Harris] It's easy to
see why a conquering ruler would wanna take these obelisks from Egypt and bring them home with them. This particular one was
so enormous, so impressive that previous conquerors had
decided to leave it alone and not offend any gods who
might be associated with it. - [Dr. Zucker] And while most
hoists were set up in pairs, ancient chroniclers tell us
that this obelisk existed alone in a temple to the sun in
the great city of Karnak. And it remained there
until the fourth century when Constantine the Great
visited Egypt in the year 301 and may have seen this obelisk. Later, he would order its removal. It was taken down and a
special boat was built to move it from Karnak to Alexandria from which it would be transported. But Constantine dies and it would remain in
Alexandria for two decades until his son, who is known
as Constantius the Second, would have, we think, three ships built in order to transport it
across the Mediterranean. Two ships straddled the
obelisk on either side as it lay between them and a third ship at its
prow to break the waves. It was then brought up the Tiber and transported by sled
to the Circus Maximus, a large race track right
beside the imperial palace. And this obelisk was set up
in an island in the center around which the chariots would race. - [Dr. Harris] So, the Roman empire had a centuries-old
relationship with Egypt. In 30 BCE, Egypt actually
became part of the Roman Empire. And Augustus and many other Roman emperors were interested in bringing obelisks from Egypt back to Rome. - [Dr. Zucker] As Rome
became Christianized, the ancient city fell into disrepair and the population was
drastically reduced. Now, the circus Maximus
is a fairly marshy area. And so, an obelisk of enormous weight would eventually become destabilized and this obelisk ultimately
fell and broke into three pieces - [Dr. Harris] And it was
discovered under layers of mud more than a thousand years
later in the late 1500s. And a year later, it was re-erected, his time not in the
no-longer-used Circus Maximus but the very important Christian
site of St. John Lateran. - [Dr. Zucker] So, this is extraordinary historical continuity
from the original patrons, Thutmose the Third and
Thutmose the Fourth, to the ancient Roman emperor
Constantine and his son who transported the obelisk to Pope Sixtus the Fifth who had this obelisk
repaired and re-erected. - [Dr. Harris] I think
it's really important to see the interest in obelisks that develops in the Renaissance as part of this interest
in the ancient world- both ancient Rome, but also ancient Egypt. - [Dr. Zucker] The
ancient Romans looked at the grandeur of ancient Egypt, of their engineering capabilities, of their extraordinary skill, and their triumph over that culture made ancient Rome even greater. And when the obelisk is re-erected by the Pope for the Catholic church, an inscription is added to the base that tells the extraordinary
history of this object. - [Dr. Harris] And so, today, as we walk around St John Lateran, a church built on land once
owned by the emperor Constantine given to the church to establish a church and a palace here for the popes, we can stand and look
at an enormous obelisk covered in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics that takes us back
millennia to ancient Egypt through to ancient Rome, the Renaissance, and here into the 21st century. (jaunty piano music)
