one of the major public areas in Paris. Here they were preparing for the Bastille Day celebrations

The Luxor Obelisk is in the middle of Place de la Concorde, standing where the guillotine used to be in the French Revolution

The Luxor Obelisk is a 23 metres high Egyptian obelisk standing at the centre of the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France. It was originally located at the entrance to the Luxor Temple, in Egypt.

In 1829 the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, Mehmet Ali, offered two obelisks to France from the entrance of the Luxor Temple. The obelisk now in Paris arrived in 1833, and three years later in 1836, King Louis-Philippe had it placed at the centre of the Place de la Concorde, where a guillotine used to stand during the revolution. The other one stayed in Egypt, too difficult and heavy to move to France with the technology of the period. The French President (Francois Mitterrand) of the early 1990s gave the second obelisk back to Egypt.

The obelisk is made of red granite. It is decorated with hieroglyphics of the reign of the Pharaoh Ramses II. Missing it's cap (possibly stolen in the 6th century BC), the French Government added a gold-leafed pyramid to the top of the obelisk in 1998.

On the left is one of Jacque Ignace Hittorff's statues - this one is the Statue de la ville de Bordeaux, one of eight that is at each corner of the Place creating an octogan.