Esquiline obelisk, Ancient obelisk near Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome, Italy

The Esquiline Obelisk is a slender, four-sided shaft of pale reddish-brown granite rising 14.75 meters, or 25.53 meters including its base and cross. It stands on a broad plinth and stepped pedestal in Piazza dell'Esquilino, behind the apse of Santa Maria Maggiore, and is crowned by a small metal cross.

This structure came from ancient Rome and originally stood at Augustus' Mausoleum before being dismantled centuries later. It was discovered broken near a church in the early 16th century and reconstructed at its present location by Pope Sixtus V in 1587.

The obelisk gave its name to the Esquilino district, the rione it stands at the centre of, behind the apse of Santa Maria Maggiore. It is one of thirteen ancient obelisks in Rome, and its twin, found with it in 1527, was set up by Domenico Fontana at the Quirinal in the same campaign ordered by Sixtus V in 1587.

The monument sits in the heart of Rome on a public square accessible year-round. The nearby Vittorio Emanuele metro station provides easy access to this central location.

The obelisk has no carved hieroglyphs: it is a Roman imitation of Egyptian obelisks, probably made under Domitian. It was found in 1527 near the Mausoleum of Augustus together with its twin, the Quirinal obelisk, and the two were separated when Sixtus V had them erected at different churches in 1587.