Obelisk of Montecitorio

The Obelisco di Montecitorio is an ancient Egyptian obelisk 21.79 metres high, the fifth largest of Rome's thirteen obelisks, standing on Piazza Montecitorio in front of today's Chamber of Deputies. Pharaoh Psammetichus II raised the red granite monolith in Heliopolis in the 6th century BC; Emperor Augustus brought it to Rome in 10 BC and used it as the gnomon of a vast sundial laid out on the Campus Martius, parts of whose bronze hour lines have since been rediscovered. The obelisk fell in the Middle Ages, was buried under debris and was only excavated in 1748. Pope Pius VI re-erected it in front of the Palazzo Montecitorio in 1792. Today it presides over the daily political bustle around the parliament and the noon shadow can still be observed tracing the lines of the ancient sundial.