Erected for
Pharaoh Ramses II (1297/1213 BC) and his son Mineptah at Heliopolis in Egypt in
about 1250 BC
It is 23.30
m (76 feet) high
It was
brought to Rome by Augustus and placed in the center of the Circus
Maximus in 10 BC
The
inscription still on the base remembers the dedication of the obelisk that
Augustus made to the Sun
It was
found in 1587 at the center of the Circus Maximus broken in three and it was
restored and moved to Piazza del Popolo by Domenico
Fontana (1543/1607) in 1589 for Sixtus V Peretti (1585/90)
When it was
moved to Piazza del Popolo an inscription was engraved on the side facing the
church of S. Maria del Popolo in opposition to the Augustan one: “Most august
and more glad I rise before the sacred temple of her virginal womb from which
during the reign of Augustus the Sun of Justice was born”
It was
decorated in 1823 with the basins and the fake Egyptian lions by Giuseppe Valadier (1762/1839) who replaced the
previous fountain by Giacomo Della Porta
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