From the ground, the golden top of the obelisk (called a pyramidion) in Place de la Concorde in Paris seemed so far pointed, it was not: a point was finally installed on Tuesday, returning to the oldest monument in Paris its original aesthetic. Gifted by Egypt to France in 1830 in recognition of Champollion’s decipherment of hieroglyphs, the obelisk of Luxor, a jewel of international heritage and a symbol of the splendor of Egyptian history, “arrived in Paris without its eroded tip at the over the centuries,” explains Isabelle Morin-Loutrel, curator of historical monuments.
“The hieroglyphs and bas-reliefs of Egyptian tombs show pointed obelisks. We do not know for how long the obelisk of Luxor no longer had its point, but for probably a very long time, ”underlines Ms. Morin-Loutrel. The top of the obelisk, erected on Place de la Concorde in 1836 on the initiative of Louis-Philippe, remained in the state of a stump until 1998.
With the patronage of the Bergé-Saint Laurent foundation, a golden pyramidion was then installed but without its tip, for technical reasons. Left unfinished, the top of the pyramidion crowning the obelisk had been damaged by birds. As part of a new restoration project launched in 2022, the obelisk is now perfectly pointed with the installation of a steel point covered with gold leaf, carried out by the Ateliers d’art Saint-Jacques and the Coubertin foundry, under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture.
Property of the French State, the obelisk of the Place de la Concorde, sculpted in a pink rock close to granites, is part of a pair erected in front of the Temple of Amun in Luxor 3,300 years ago, during the reign of Ramses II. It is 23 meters high and weighs 220 tons, not including its 240-ton pedestal.
