Egyptian Obelisks - Rome
Our itinerary in search of ancient obelisks, often arranged by the popes in the centre of squares and crossroads as visual reference points, starts
from piazza Navona. Here, in the centre of the area that recalls, with its perimeter, its original use for athletic games (see Itinerary 8), rises the famous
Fountain of the Four Rivers, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini to support a magnificent obelisk.
For the ancient Egyptians the obelisks were the simulacra of the sun god Atum-Ra. The apex represented the starting point of the ray, i.e. the centre
of the sun's power, while the base represented the formless matter that the divine light of the sun transforms into cosmos. The first obelisks were erected
at Heliopolis, a city dedicated to the sun, and were usually erected in the centre of the sanctuaries and next to temples. They are the relicts of an
extremely remote age, when even stones were objects of worship! In Rome they completely lost their original meaning, and took on another:
that of a sign of the greatness of the Roman Empire first, and the papacy later.
The term we use today to refer to obelisks, different from that used by the ancient Egyptians, is of Greek origin: it derives from obelìskos,
which means, perhaps with a hint of not-so-involuntary irony, skewer.
To extract the huge monoliths from the quarries, the Egyptians allegedly used a tool similar to our drill, equipped with a sort of stone or bronze
milling-cutter, whose abrasive action was greatly increased by the use of sand. Once it was detached from the rock, the obelisk was made to slide
towards the river and hoisted up onto a large flatboat to be carried to its destination. The erection took place using an embankment: the progressive
elimination of the sand on which it rested made it possible to bring the monolith down onto its base. The obelisks often broke during these long,
delicate operations, as proven by the fragments found in the quarries or on riverbeds.
Discovering roma: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12
