The Obelisk of Theodosius in Constantinople in 1855 and in 2024
The inscription on the pedestal, in several languages, tells the story of the obelisk raised under Theodosius the Great, Emperor of the Roman Empire, in 390:
"This is a four-sided column that lay upon the ground, whose weight Emperor Theodosius alone dared to raise again. Proclus was summoned to carry out his command, and this great column stood upright in 32 days."
In transit the obelisk broke in two, and of the original 37 metres only the upper part, 19 metres high, remained; it was set up on a specially made pedestal.
It must be said that the few traces of early Byzantine times that have survived in Istanbul only heighten the sense of living beside the remains of a more advanced civilisation.
