the entrance of the Mausoleum of Augustus, and one of which was restored
in 1567, and placed near the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Caracalla
also procured an Egyptian obelisk for his circus, and for the Appian
Way. The largest obelisk (probably erected by Rameses) was placed by
Constantius II., in the Circus Maximus at Rome. In the fifth century, it
was thrown down by the barbarians, and lay in pieces upon the ground,
until Sixtus V., in 1588, had it raised upon the square, before St.
John's church of the Lateran, thence called the _Lateran obelisk_. It is
beautifully adorned with sculpture; its weight is 13,000 cwt.; its
height, exclusive of the pedestal, 140 feet; with the pedestal, 179
feet. Several others have been erected by succeeding popes.




REMOVAL OF AN OBELISK BY FONTANA.


The following curious account of the removal of the obelisk in the
Circus Vaticanus to the centre of St. Peter's square, by Domenico
Fontana, is extracted from Milizia's life of that famous architect. It
shows plainly that the Egyptians must have attained great skill and
perfection in mechanics and engineering, to have been able to quarry out
obelisks at least a third larger, and convey them often several hundred
miles, to the places where they erected them.

"Sixtus V. was now desirous of raising in the centre of the square of
St. Peter's the only obelisk which remained standing, but partly
interred, near the wall of the Sacristy, where was formerly the Circus
of Nero. Other pontiffs had had the same wish, but the difficulty of the