It is one of the most important obelisks in Rome. The sides were decorated by order of the pharaohs Seti I and his son Ramses II.
It was the first to be brought from Egypt to Rome, and this operation was of such grandeur that even the ship used to transport it was on display in Rome for years.

In 10 BC it was placed in the Circus Maximus to commemorate Augustus' conquest of Egypt. In the 4th century it was still standing, but then its memory was lost for about a millennium. Only in the 16th century were some fragments found, but it was only during the pontificate of Sixtus V that a serious research and excavation campaign was undertaken.

After the unsuccessful attempt to give the obelisk to the abbot of St. Paul's to adorn the basilica, and the failed project to decorate the church of S. Croce in Gerusalemme with it, Piazza del Popolo was finally chosen as the destination. The rebuilding in that place in 1589 served to underline the great importance of the Piazza, monumental access to the city from the north, shortly after Pope Sixtus V had issued a bull establishing that the church of Santa Maria del Popolo was to be considered one of the "seven churches" that pilgrims had to visit in Rome, replacing the basilica of St Sebastian, considered too far away. Until 1589, the only ornamentation of the square was the fountain commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII.

Over the centuries, the space underwent various changes, taking on its present appearance only at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Consequently, the obelisk also underwent changes: its base was raised and Egyptian-style lion-shaped fountains were added at its feet.

Today, it is the crown of the three roads that converge on the square from the south - the so-called 'trident' - and the overall arrangement constitutes one of the most splendid arrangements of an obelisk in the world.