Luxor Obelisk
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The Luxor Obelisk (French: Obélisque de Louxor) is a 23 metres (75 ft) high Egyptian obelisk standing at the center of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France. It was originally located at the entrance to the Luxor Temple, in Egypt.
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[edit] History
The 3,300-year-old obelisk once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple.
Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Wāli and self-proclaimed Khedive of Egypt, offered the two obelisks standing at the entrance of Luxor Temple to France in 1829.
The first obelisk arrived in Paris on December 21, 1833. Three years later, on October 25, 1836, King Louis-Philippe had it placed in the center of Place de la Concorde, where a guillotine used to stand during the Revolution.
The other obelisk stayed in Egypt, too difficult and heavy to move to France with the technology at that time. In the 1990s, President François Mitterrand officially gave the second obelisk back to the Egyptians.
[edit] Features
The obelisk, a red granite column, rises 23 metres (75 ft) high, including the base, and weighs over 250 metric tons (280 short tons). It is decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramses II.
Given the technical limitations of the day, transporting it was no easy feat: on the pedestal are drawn diagrams explaining the complex machinery that were used for the transportation. The obelisk is flanked on both sides by fountains constructed at the time of its erection on the Place.
Missing its original cap (believed stolen in the 6th century BC), the government of France added a gold-leafed pyramid cap to the top of the obelisk in 1998.
[edit] Modern events
- Early morning on December 1, 1993, the French AIDS fighting society Act Up Paris carried out a fast and unwarned commando-style operation. A giant pink condom was unrolled over the whole monument. [1]
- Without warning, in 1998 and 2000 French urban climber Alain "Spiderman" Robert, using only his bare hands and climbing shoes on his feet and with no safety devices, scaled the obelisk all the way to the top.
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