Place de la Concorde

On Saturday, we visited the huge Place de la Concorde to see the obelisk in its center and to soak up some of its lurid history. The Place de la Concorde is the largest square in Paris, located in the eighth arrondissement. It is fixed at the eastern end of the famous Champs-Elysees. The square was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel in 1755, and named Place Louis XV to honor the king. In the center of the square stood a statue of the king. During the French Revolution, the statue was torn down and the square was renamed "Place de la Révolution." The new revolutionary government then erected a guillotine in the square, and guillotined King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Georges Danton, Antoine Lavoisier, Maximilien Robespierre, and many other famous French people who opposed the revolution, or were perceived as working for the old royal government. The square's guillotine was most active during the "Reign of Terror" of 1794, when in a single month more than 1300 people were executed. A year later, the guillotine was removed, and the square renamed Place de la Concorde as a symbolic gesture of reconciliation after the chaotic French Revolution.

In the center of the Place de la Concorde stands the Luxor Obelisk, a huge Egyptian obelisk covered with hieroglyphics exalting the pharaoh Ramses II. The Egyptian government gave two to the French in the 1800s. The obelisk arrived in Paris on December 21, 1833. In 1836, King Louis Philippe placed it in the center of the Place de la Concorde, in place of the guillotine. The obelisk is made of red granite, is 75 feet tall, and weights over 280 tons. 

Hieroglyphs