Obelisco Vaticano. One source says the stone for this obelisk was quarried at Aswan, Egypt in the 19th century B.C. Unlike most Egyptian obelisks, it contains no heiroglyphs. In 37 A.D. the emperor Caligula had it transported to Rome and had it placed at Nero's Circus on the Vatican Hill, a few hundred yards from its present site. Pope Sixtus V, in 1586, had it placed in the center of the collonaded St. Peter's Square, where it stands today.