Postcard showing the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France. A building visible in the background with a stone obelisk visible to the left and a statue to the right. Charles C. Myers notes that thousands of people were executed here by guillotine during the French Revolution. He discusses the obelisk and how Napoleon Bonaparte brought it from Egypt.
Comments and Context
In Charles C. Myers’s own words, “Place de la Concorde is one of the most beautifully arranged squares in the city and is situated in the fashionable part of the city. During the French Revolution this was an ill kept place and here was placed the guillotine by which over 2800 persons were beheaded in 1792. This obelisque [sic] that you see on the left is in the center of the square and is the one that once stood in front of the gateway, added by Ramses 2nd in 14th century B. C., to the great temple at Luxor in upper Egypt. It is a single piece of red granite 76 ft high and weighs 240 tons, similar in shape but much larger that [sic] Cleopatra’s needle in London. The hieroglyphics on the sides are the narrative of the deeds of Ramses 2nd.
It was one of Napoleons [sic] favorite deeds to accomplish what others said was impossible, when he brought this piece of stone over from Egypt early in the 18th century, but it was not erected in the present place till 1836. The building in the distant [sic] is the Famous Louvre Art Gallery which is the finest exclusive art gallery in the world.”
