Photos of Obelisk of Theodosius

The monument is gray in color, 18.74 meters high, and has hieroglyphs on all sides. This obelisk was originally carved during the reign of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III and erected in the Temple of Karnak. In 390 AD, the Roman Empire Theodosius I the Great transported it to the new capital under construction, Istanbul, then called Constantinople, and erected it on the central axis of the Imperial Arena. The stele is placed on a pedestal about 3 meters high. The base of the pedestal is white marble, surrounded by reliefs, depicting the activities of Theodosius I and his family in the imperial garden: to the south he and his family are watching the horse race, to the east he is sitting in a box, ready to give the winner of the race Wearing the laurel crown, he presided over the erection ceremony in the north, and in the west was the tribute he received from the enemy. The pedestal is also engraved in Greek and Latin, explaining why he erected the monument. Interestingly, the Latin says it took only thirty days to erect the monument, while the Greek says thirty-two days. Now there is no way to verify.