Location: Place de la Concorde, Paris, France Pharaoh: Ramses II (reigned 1304-1237 B.C.) Height: 74 feet Weight: 227 tons Story: Legend has it that Josephine's parting words to Napoleon before he began
his failed conquest of Egypt in 1798 were: "If you go to Thebes, do send me a
little obelisk." Whether or not the story is true, Napoleon's expedition first
left France desiring an obelisk of its own, though it wasn't until 1831 that
the moment arrived. That year, a French naval engineer named Jean Baptiste
Apollinaire Lebas secured permission from the then-ruler of Egypt, Mohammed
Ali, to make off with Ramses the Great's pair of obelisks before Luxor
Temple.
Fortunately, it was all Lebas could do to take the western one. (The eastern
obelisk remains at Luxor.) In the 3,000 years since Ramses had raised the
obelisk, the area around it, including the temple itself, had filled up with
earth, houses, and streets. Lebas had this cleared amidst summer heat that
could reach 120°F. In the end, it took two months to get the obelisk down
and on board the ship Louxor, and another three years before Lebas
successfully re-erected it in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
Paris