The Obelisk of Concord, a granite column from the temple of Luxor in Egypt and which has stood in the center of the famous Parisian square since 1836, will be restored on the occasion of the bicentenary of the deciphering of hieroglyphics by Champollion.
“The oldest monument in Paris (3,300 years old), 23 m high (30 m with its pedestal) and weighing 222 tons, topped with a small pyramid covered with gold leaf since 1998, will be cleansed of the film of pollution that has become embedded in the Egyptian symbols carved in stone”, said Monday, January 17 the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot, during a presentation of the site.
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It will be restored by expert technicians and restorers, under the supervision of the Historical Monuments Research Laboratory (LRMH), at a cost of one million euros, 86% financed by the specialized company Kärcher, which has already restored the statue. of Liberty in New York and Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. The site began with the installation of scaffolding allowing access to 15 levels over the entire height of the Aswan pink granite monolith. It should be completed at the end of May or the beginning of June.
The story of the arrival of the obelisk in Paris is an incredible epic. Offered to France by the viceroy of Egypt Mehemet-Ali (1769-1849), with his twin (who will remain in the temple of Luxor), he was hoisted on a boat for the benefit of a flood of the Nile before travel thousands of kilometers and arrive on the banks of the Seine on a flat-bottomed barge, specially built in Toulon.
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It was erected on Place de la Concorde on October 25, 1836 in front of 200,000 people to replace a monument in honor of Louis XVI, beheaded in the same place during the Revolution. The hieroglyphic text, engraved on its four sides, is a dedication from Pharaoh Ramses II to the gods he venerates. At the top, he makes an offering of wine (or water) to Amun, god of Thebes. The name of the pharaoh and his titles are repeated there 40 times.
It was in 1822 that Jean-François Champollion pierced the mystery of hieroglyphics and fully translated the Rosetta stone, discovered in 1799 by a French officer during the Egyptian campaign, and which held the circles in suspense at the time. European intellectuals.
In 2022, several exhibitions and conferences are planned in France and in Europe to celebrate the bicentenary of this discovery, at the Louvre (Paris and Lens), at the BnF, at the Champollion museum in Figeac, at the Mucem in Marseille, or even at the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon.