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Detail, pedestal decorated with diagrams showing the engineering required to move and raise the obelisk in Paris; The Luxor Obelisk is an Egyptian obelisk now standing at the center of the Place de la Concorde in Paris. It was originally one of two obelisks located at the entrance to the Luxor Temple, in Egypt; the other obelisk is still in place there. They have hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramses II. The obelisk arrived in Paris on December 21, 1833, a gift from Muhammad Ali Pasha, the Wāli and self-proclaimed Khedive of Egypt . Three years later, on October 25, 1836, King Louis-Philippe of France had it placed in the center of Place de la Concorde. Missing its original pyramidion (believed stolen in the 6th century BCE), the government of France added a gold-leafed pyramid cap to the top of the obelisk in 1998. Source: Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page (accessed 5/5/2011)