Photo for Today

As usual the photo chosen for the day whilst I'm in Wales inevitably comes from my laptop, on which I keep only a few holiday snaps of the Egyptian deserts and a few more of Italy. In case you are fed up with desert shots here, instead, is a photo from Rome of one of the Egyptian obelisks, easily distinguished from its eleven expatriate cousins by the fact that it stands on top of a rather overwrought elephant sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (which is worth appreciating in its own right). The friend with whom I was touring in Italy eventually cottoned on to the fact that we were navigating Rome via obelisks. Fortunately, as she can't read a map and I do all the navigating, it was quite late in the day when the penny dropped.

Located in the square outside the important basilica Santa Maria sopra Minerva (built over the remains of a Roman temple to the goddess Isis) it was brought to Rome by the emperor Diocletian, from Sais. It is dedicated to the Pharaoh Apries (Wahibre Haaibre - 589 BC - 570 BC).

There's a list of the other obelisks in Rome on Wikipedia.

There are many more posts from last week to come, but my connection here in Wales keeps dropping out and I've lost all patience with it today.