It is situated west of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, at the southern end of the ancient chariot-racing track of Constantinople's central barrier, beside the Obelisk of Theodosius and the Serpentine Column.

[1] The 10th-century emperor Constantine VII had the monument restored and coated with plates of gilt bronze; a Greek inscription in iambic trimeter was added at this time.

The late 12th-early 13th-century writer al-Harawi was the source for several Arabic geographers' inclusion of a detail about the monument: the Byzantines put potsherds and nuts amongst the masonry in order to see them crack when strong winds would cause the stones to shift.

Τὸ τετρ[άπλευρον] θαῦμα τῶν μεταρσίων χρόνῳ [φθαρὲν νῦν] Κωνσταντῖνος δεσπότης οὗ Ῥωμ[αν]ὸς παῖς δόξα τῆς σκηπτουχίας κρεῖττον νε[ο]υργεῖ [τῆς πά]λαι θεωρίας· ὁ γὰρ κολοσσὸς θ[άμ]βος ἦν ἐν τῇ Ῥόδῳ καὶ χαλκὸς οὗτος θάμβος ἐστὶν ἐνθάδε.

The four-sided marvel of the uplifted, wasted by time, now Constantine the Emperor, whose son is Romanus, the glory of the kingship, restores better than the ancient spectacle.