Tower and obelisk

The obelisk was given to France by Muhammad Ali Pashar, ruler of Ottoman Egypt, in 1829. There were two obelisks at the Luxor temple and France had had their eye on them since the days of Napoleon but the second one, being larger, proved too hard to move and remains in Egypt—moving this one was challenging enough. It is placed on a pedestal that used to hold a statue of Louis XV, torn down during the Revolution.