Dan Brown lovers might remember the Vatican obelisk from Angels and Demons where the intrepid symbologist Robert Langdon makes a ‘point’ about how odd it is for such a pagan monument to be at the heart of the Catholic church. There isn’t actually anything particularly strange about this though. Caligula brought this obelisk over from Alexandria to stand in his circus where hundreds of Christians were martyred, supposedly including St. Peter. So in the forecourt of St. Peter’s basilica, it’s not really surprising an emblem of his sacrifice is displayed centre stage. Indeed, the inscriptions on the base ‘de-paganise’ the monument and represent the triumph of Christianity over the ‘heathen gods’. 

So unfortunately Dan Brown, there isn’t anything very mysterious about this at all… 

Nevertheless, it’s still pretty impressive, not only for the fact the obelisk was moved  in the 16th century but also because obelisks in themselves took an unfathomable amount of effort to bash out – one recent study proved that with 3 hours of hitting granite with stone tools, only a 2mm depth was created. It’s unbelievable how any obelisks were ever finished!? led”)&