Obelisk of Theodosius & the Serpent Column
Why is it significant?
Stand in front of the rose-coloured granite needle covered in hieroglyphs, then lower your eyes to its marble base, where an emperor sits in his box among courtiers and guards, holding out a wreath for the winner.
Key Facts
| Place | Obelisk of Theodosius & the Serpent Column |
|---|---|
| Address | Sultan Ahmet, Sultanahmet Meydanı, 34122 Fatih/İstanbul, Türkiye |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.00590, 28.97540 |
| Part of Walk | Constantinople Underfoot: Byzantine Istanbul Beneath Sultanahmet |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand in front of the rose-coloured granite needle covered in hieroglyphs, then lower your eyes to its marble base, where an emperor sits in his box among courtiers and guards, holding out a wreath for the winner. You are looking at a stone some three and a half thousand years old, and at a portrait of the man who brought it here.
The obelisk was cut for Pharaoh Thutmose the Third and stood at the temple of Karnak in Egypt. In 390 the emperor Theodosius the First had it raised on the spine of the Hippodrome. What you see is only the upper part; the rest was probably broken in transport. One side of the base even shows the obelisk being hauled upright with ropes and winches, and the Greek and Latin inscriptions boast about the feat... though they cannot agree on how many days it took.
Now find the twisted bronze stump a few steps away, sunk in a pit. This is the Serpent Column, three bronze snakes coiled together. It was made after the Greeks defeated the Persians at Plataea in 479 before Christ, paid for from the spoils, and set up at Delphi. The names of thirty-one Greek cities that fought are engraved on its coils. The serpents' heads once held up a golden bowl, and Constantine carried the whole thing off as a trophy for his new Rome.
For centuries the city treated it as a talisman: as long as it stood, the story goes, no snake could enter. The three heads were broken off around 1700. Part of one head survived, and it is kept in the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, which is how we know what they looked like.
Notice too how deep the bases sit. The ground of the Hippodrome has risen a long way since Byzantine times, so the crowds who cheered the chariots walked well below your feet. Carry on south to the rough stone obelisk at the end of the square, where the racetrack once made its turn.