(left) and the amphiteather of the
Boboli Gardens with the obelisk. Photo by
Paolo Monti, 1965. The granite from which the obelisk is carved comes from
Aswan and the inscriptions are dedicated to
Atum, the deity of the city of
Heliopolis. It is suspected to have been first erected in that city during the reign of
Ramesses II. In the first century AD, it was moved to Rome by
Domitian and placed in the
Temple of Isis in the
Campus Martius, along with three other obelisks still in Rome: the
Obelisk at the Monument to those fallen at Dogali, the
Obelisk of Piazza of the Pantheon, and the obelisk in front of
Santa Minerva. In the sixteenth century, Cardinal
Ferdinand I de' Medici bought the 6-metre high obelisk in Rome and placed it in the gardens of the
Villa Medici. When the
Grand Duke Peter Leopold of Lorraine became Grand-Duke of Tuscany, he transferred to Florence many of the artworks in the Villa Medici. In 1788 he moved the obelisk, which weighed 9,000 kilograms, traveling first to Livorno, then by land to Florence. The voyage took four months. He also moved the Ancient Roman basin made of granite that had been associated with the obelisk in the Villa Medici. It was erected near the center of the Amphitheater of the
Boboli Gardens in 1790, along the main axis leading away from the palace. In 1840, the granite basin, originally thought to derive from the
Terme Alessandrine found in the Campo Martius of Rome, was also included in front of the obelisk. The arrangement was designed by
Pasquale Poccianti. The obelisk is surmounted by a gilded orb and the base has four turtles. Both these accoutrements were present in Rome. Underlying the traditional solar winged scarab to the top of the obelisk you can read the name and the first name of
Ramesses II, from which the obelisk was erected. Entries, which are its titles, read: "Grand Master, powerful in all countries, the King, the Son of Tum and intelligent son of
Atum." The King is also called "loved" by Tum and
Ra, and this shows that the obelisk is directly from
Heliopolis, the city of the "Sun" (Ra). ==See also==