Ready in December, the crew had to wait until August 1832, and the flood of the river, to leave. After packing and felling the monolith, he had to be dragged for 400 meters to join the Nile. A journey that lasted seven long years!Īrrived at Luxor on August 14, 1831, the first difficulties appear.
To transport this colossus of 230 tons, a boat was specially designed, thought to be able to navigate the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, go up the Seine and the Nile, and pass under the bridges of Paris. Champollion, first decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and curator of Egyptian collections at the Louvre Museum, was the mediator between the two countries.įaced with multiple constraints, it is decided to bring back at first only one of the two obelisks offered, the one located to the right of the entrance (looking at the temple). In 1829, the Viceroy of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, offered to France the two obelisks that Ramses II had raised in the 13th century BC at the front of the temple of the god Amon, Luxor. The French Revolution replaced the statue of the king by the guillotine, and Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Charlotte Corday, Danton, Robespierre, and many others were executed there.
Built in the 18th century, this royal square paid tribute to Louis XV. Place de la Concorde, originally, was not intended to welcome this sumptuous obelisk. A remarkable monument, fruit of a fascinating history and a fantastic journey to Paris! It is impossible to imagine today the Place de la Concorde without its obelisk.
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