This delightful monument decorates the Piazza della Minerva. It is in this area (just south of the Pantheon) where there was an ancient Temple to the goddess Minerva.This obelisk, the smallest in Rome, is made of red granite and originally came from the Egyptian town of Sais. The hieroglyphic inscription on the obelisk relates to Apries, the last of the independent Pharaoh's of Egypt (the Hophrah of the Bible), who was the ally of Zedekiah, king of Judah, against Nebuchadnezzar (6th century, B.C.E.). After being brought to Rome, the obelisk was part of the Temple of Isis.
Pope Alexander VII (Chigi) commissioned Bernini to design a statue of an elephant to bear the obelisk. This elephant was sculpted by Bernini in 1667. The inscription, dictated by the pope, means: "He who sees the carved symbols on the obelisk of wise Egypt borne by the elephant, the strongest of animals, will understand that it is indeed a robust mind which sustains a solid wisdom". It is said that the pope deliberately had the elephant placed with its rear end towards the Dominican monastery.