Place de la Concorde Paris
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Place de la Concorde Paris
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
The Obelisk at the Place de la Concorde, Paris.
The Place de la Concorde is one of the major public squares in Paris and the largest. It is located at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.
It was the site of many public executions during the French Revolution, including the executions of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, during which the square was temporarily renamed Place de la Revolution.
The centre of the Place is occupied by a giant Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramesses II. It is one of two the Egyptian government gave to the French in the 19th century. The other one stayed in Egypt and was given back to the Egyptians in the 1980s.
This obelisk once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple. The Khedive of Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha, offered the 3,300-year-old Obelisk as a diplomatic gift to France in 1829. It arrived in Paris in 1833 and King Louis Philippe had it placed in the center of Place de la Concorde in 1836.
The obelisk, a yellow granite column, rises 75 ft high, including the base, and weighs over 280 short tons. Given the technical limitations of the day, transporting it was no easy feat – on the pedestal are drawn diagrams explaining the machinery that was used for the transportation. The obelisk is flanked on both sides by fountains constructed at the time of its erection on the Place.
The government of France added a gold-leafed pyramidal cap to the top of the obelisk in 1998, replacing the missing original, believed stolen in the 6th century BC.
As for Paris... what can one say about the City of Light that has not already been said...?
More views of Paris one copy-paste away in my Gallery at http://westonwestmoreland.com/collections/paris
Weston Westmoreland
Uploaded
June 9th, 2021
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