Place de la Concorde obelisk. Close-up night-time view of the top of the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde, Paris, France. Carved in Ancient Egypt, this obelisk is over 3000 years old. It is decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Rameses II (reigned 1279??213 BC). The obelisk, a gift from the Egyptian government to France in the 1830s, once marked the entrance to the temple at Luxor. It is 23 metres in height and made from yellow granite. Its original pyramidion (pyramid cap) went missing in the 6th century BC. This gold-leafed pyramid cap was added in 1998. Photographed in 2012.