by Br. Alexis Bugnolo
imagine that British armies conquered Egypt and cut a stone in the likeness of an Egyptian Obelisk, and moved it to Piccadilly Circus.
And then centuries later, a tour guide published an article claiming it was an Egyptian Obelisk.
As a tourist, you would feel defrauded of your expensive ticket, would you not, when you found it was only a British copy of something ancient?
And yet that is what has just happened, in article by Travel.com featured by Microsoft’s news platform. (This article subsequently was removed, so the present critique has been updated in August 2026, with a link to another article with the same error).
Only the “obelisk” is Roman and it’s known to the whole world as the Obelisk in the center of St Peter’s Piazza just outside Vatican territory. (Contrary to popular opinion, the Piazza is part of the territory of the Italian Republic, and only conceded to the Pope, during Papal masses.)
Because that stone was erected by the Romans at the Julian Forum, in Alexandria, in the Roman Province of Egypt, in the years 30-28 B. C., as a mortuary monument to Julius Caesar (it actually had a small metal sphere on its top until the reign of Pope Sixtus V, containing his ashes), and was later transported to Rome under the Emperor Caligula, where it was incorporated as the spina or principal central stone, of the Circus of Caligula — a circus was a horse-racing track. According to the most ancient accounts, St. Peter and his companions were crucified and burnt alive, having been doused with oil, there. — So, the above article is also wrong, in claiming that the obelisk is older than the city of Rome, herself, because the city was founded in 753 B. C., and the stone was in all probability cut sometime around 30 B. C..
Pope Sixtus V moved the stone, which had never fallen down from its original position to its present one: having first had it exorcised, and after its erection, decorated at its peak with a relic of the True Cross, in the year of Our Lord 1586, with an engineering method worked out by the Renaissance Architect, Domenico Fontana. The Franciscan Pope personally oversaw the re-raising of the stone, and forbade any swears to be uttered during its execution.
Thus, by all sane estimation this “obelisk” is not an Egyptian Obelisk, because the Egyptians never made it, nor does it have any Egyptian inscriptions upon it, which, according to Egyptian religious beliefs, would have had to been inscribed upon it, to dedicate it, as is the case with all other stones of the same shape from antiquity which were cut in Egypt. (Egyptians regarded their obelisks as symbols of the rays of light from Ra, their sun god, and thus it was unthinkable for them not to have a religious inscription upon them.)
Nor was the “obelisk” ever used in the worship of any divinity.
Also the claim that the stone was made or cut 4000 years ago is simply gratuitous, because Egyptian Obelisks had hieroglyphs and Pharaohs were notorious for using every stone available. To claim that an unfinished stone laid around for 2000 years so that Romans could erect it to honor Julius Caesar is ludicrous.
The truth is, alas, that many tourist destinations make false claims about themselves to garner more interest from tourists. This claim about the “Egyptian obelisk” at the Vatican is just such a claim.
(Save this story to rebut the frequent charge by Protestants who know not history, and often cite this stone at St. Peter’s as proof that the Catholic Church is founded upon Idolatry.)
About the Author: Br. Alexis Bugnolo is the editor of FromRome.info. He holds a B. A. in Cultural Anthropology, with an emphasis in Classical Studies, from the University of Florida, Gainesville, Fl., USA, class of 1986.
