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Egyptian obelisks around the world and the names carved on them
22 October 2026
About thirty ancient Egyptian obelisks still stand, and most of them are outside Egypt. Rome has eight, more than any other city. Others stand in Paris, London, New York, Istanbul, Florence and the garden of a country house in Dorset. Each shaft carries the names of the king who raised it, often with a second king's names added beside them.
Roman emperors took the first ones as trophies. The rest left in the nineteenth century as gifts from the rulers of Egypt to France, Britain and the United States, or with collectors. Egypt itself keeps a handful standing where they were set up, at Karnak, Luxor Temple and Heliopolis.
Every obelisk follows one plan
A column of signs runs down the middle of each face. It opens with the king's Horus name, written under the falcon (G5), and very often begins kꜣ-nḫt, said "ka-nakht", "strong bull", with the bull (E1). Then come his cartouches and the god who loves him, usually the sun god of Heliopolis or Amun of Thebes. Small scenes at the top show the king offering to that god.
Later kings could add columns on either side of the old one. Ramesses II did this on obelisks of Thutmose III, so one face can hold two kings two centuries apart. The middle column is the older text.
Thutmose III's cartouche stands on four of them
Thutmose III, who ruled until about 1425 BC, ordered the pair now in London and New York, the one in Istanbul and the giant at the Lateran in Rome. His throne name is the one to learn. Menkheperre, mn-ḫpr-rꜥ, "lasting is the form of Ra", is written with the sun disc (N5) on top for Ra, the game board (Y5) for mn, the water ripple (N35) as a reminder of its n, and the scarab beetle (L1) for ḫpr, "form, to come into being".
His birth name sits in the second cartouche. Thutmose, ḏḥwty-ms, "Thoth is born", opens with the ibis on a standard (G26) for the god Thoth, then the three fox skins (F31) for ms, "born", and the folded cloth (S29) for s. On the Istanbul obelisk his Horus name follows the bull with the sun rising over a hill (N28) and the sceptre of Thebes (R19): "strong bull, risen in Thebes".
Roman emperors carried them off as trophies
Augustus brought the first two to Rome in 10 BC, both from Heliopolis. The Flaminio obelisk, now in Piazza del Popolo, carries Seti I's names on three faces and Ramesses II's on the fourth. The Montecitorio obelisk names Psamtik II, a king of the 26th Dynasty, and served as the pointer of Augustus's great sundial. In 357 AD Constantius II added the Lateran obelisk, made at Karnak for Thutmose III and set up by his grandson Thutmose IV. At 32 m it is the tallest ancient Egyptian obelisk standing.
Smaller ones decorated Rome's temples of Isis. The Pantheon obelisk and the Dogali obelisk near Termini station both name Ramesses II, and the Boboli obelisk in Florence, also his, went from Rome to the Medici. The Minerva obelisk on Bernini's elephant names Apries, set up at Sais in the Delta. Ramesses II's throne name is easy to spot on them: Usermaatre Setepenre, with the head of a canine (F12), the goddess Maat (C10) and the adze (U21).
Constantinople wanted one too. Constantius II had a second obelisk of Thutmose III taken from Karnak to Alexandria, and Theodosius I raised its upper part in the Hippodrome in 390 AD. Its columns boast of the king's crossing of the Euphrates.
Some Roman obelisks carry Roman hieroglyphs
Five of Rome's ancient obelisks were made for emperors, and some of their texts were written in Roman times. The Pamphilj obelisk on Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers in Piazza Navona is Aswan granite, inscribed for Domitian in the late first century AD. Its cartouches spell out the names of Domitian, his father Vespasian and his brother Titus, and it gives the emperor a pharaoh's Horus name, "strong bull". The Pincio obelisk carries Hadrian's texts for his favourite Antinous.
These shafts were also the first hieroglyphs Europeans tried to read. The Jesuit Athanasius Kircher published the Pamphilj obelisk in 1650 as a hidden philosophy and filled its gaps with signs of his own. Champollion's decipherment showed that the cartouches spell Roman names sound by sound.
Four left Egypt as nineteenth-century gifts
Muhammad Ali, ruler of Egypt, gave France the two obelisks Ramesses II had set before Luxor Temple in 1830. The western one was lowered in 1831 and raised in the Place de la Concorde in 1836. Every column on it gives Ramesses II's names. Its twin still stands at the temple gate, and France gave up its claim to it in 1981.
The two Cleopatra's Needles were a pair of Thutmose III from Heliopolis, with side columns of Ramesses II. The Romans moved them to the Caesareum in Alexandria in 13 or 12 BC. Muhammad Ali gave one to Britain in 1819, but it reached the Victoria Embankment only in 1878. The Khedive gave the other to the United States in 1877, and it went up in Central Park in 1881.
The Philae obelisk at Kingston Lacy in Dorset left with the collector William John Bankes. It names Ptolemy VIII and the queens Cleopatra II and III, and a copy of its Cleopatra cartouche helped Champollion confirm his readings in 1822: the stool (Q3) for p and the lion (E23) for l stood where both names needed them.
Karnak and Luxor keep obelisks where they were raised
At Karnak two obelisks still stand: Thutmose I's and the taller one of his daughter Hatshepsut, about 30 m of granite. Their columns give each ruler's titles and say why the obelisk was raised. At Luxor Temple, Ramesses II's eastern obelisk faces the gate where its Paris twin once stood. In Cairo's Matariya district, on the site of Heliopolis, the obelisk of Senusret I, almost four thousand years old, stands on its ancient site.
On any obelisk, start at the top of a column and find the falcon, then the first cartouche. A zoom photo of one cartouche is enough for the camera to box the signs. Worn faces, like those of the New York needle, read better when you trace the signs over the photo.
Questions
Why is it called Cleopatra's Needle?
The name comes from the French, who called the pair in Alexandria "les aiguilles de Cléopâtre". Cleopatra had nothing to do with them. They were carved more than a thousand years before her reign.
Does the obelisk in St Peter's Square have hieroglyphs?
No. It is an Egyptian obelisk with no inscription, brought from Alexandria by Caligula in 40 AD. It is the only obelisk in Rome that has never fallen since Roman times.
What is the tallest Egyptian obelisk outside Egypt?
The Lateran obelisk in Rome, about 32 m without its base. It was shortened a little when it was repaired and raised again in 1588.
Glossary
- birth name
- The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
- cartouche
- An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
- dynasty
- A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
- hieroglyphs
- The picture signs of ancient Egyptian writing, used from about 3200 BC to AD 394. A sign can stand for sounds, for a whole word, or for the kind of thing a word means.
- Horus name
- The oldest of a king's names, written in a serekh under the Horus falcon. It names the king as the god Horus on earth.
- Maat
- Truth, justice and the right order of the world, shown as a goddess with an ostrich feather on her head. Kings claimed to uphold it.
- obelisk
- A tall, four-sided stone pillar with a pointed top, usually set up in pairs before a temple and carved with the king's names.
- pharaoh
- The king of Egypt. The word comes from per-aa, "great house", a name for the palace that came to mean the king himself in the New Kingdom.
- scarab
- The dung beetle, sign of the rising sun and of the word ḫpr, "to come into being". Carved scarabs were used as seals and amulets.
- temple
- The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
- throne name
- The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.
People in this article
Where to see it
- Egyptian obelisks of Rome site
- Lateran Obelisk monument
- Flaminio Obelisk monument
- Montecitorio Obelisk monument
- Pantheon Obelisk monument
- Minerva Obelisk monument
- Pamphilj Obelisk monument
- Dogali Obelisk monument
- Boboli Obelisk, Boboli Gardens, Florence site
- Obelisk of Thutmose III, Hippodrome, Istanbul site
- Luxor Obelisk, Place de la Concorde, Paris site
- Cleopatra's Needle, Victoria Embankment, London site
- Cleopatra's Needle, Central Park, New York site
- Philae Obelisk, Kingston Lacy, Dorset site
- Philae Temple site
- Karnak Temple site
- Luxor Temple site
Sources
More to read
- What is a hieroglyph? One picture sign of the Egyptian script What is a hieroglyph? A picture sign of ancient Egyptian writing that stands for a sound, a word or a meaning, used from about 3200 BC to AD 394.
- The fifth dynasty of Egypt: sun temples and the first Pyramid Texts The fifth dynasty of Egypt (c. 2494–2345 BC): Userkaf to Unas, sun temples to Ra, the Abusir papyri, Sahure's reliefs and the first Pyramid Texts.
- Pharaohs of Egypt in order: the best-known kings, dynasty by dynasty Pharaohs of Egypt in order: the best-known kings from Narmer to Cleopatra VII, period by period, with dates and what each one is remembered for.