In 1490 BC, the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III had two obelisks erected at the Karnack Temple in Luxor. In the 4th Century AD, a Roman Emperor had one of them brought to Istanbul. The obelisk lay in storage in the hippodromw until 390 AD when the Roman Emperor Theodosius I had it erected. The obelisk stands on a base of Roman design with reliefs depicting the Roman Emperor and his family and aids watching races in the Istanbul Hippodrome.