To transport the obelisk from Luxor in Egypt to the Place de la Concorde in Paris, a boat with five keels was specially built. Once loaded, the ship travelled through the Nile, the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Seine, a two-year journey. On arrival, it is discovered that the original base is decorated with baboons with apparent sex. The prudishness of French society at the time forced the pedestal to be sent to the Louvre and another one to be ordered from Brittany. Finally, in 1836, in front of 200,000 spectators, the obelisk was hoisted by 350 artillerymen and a counterweight machine of the engineer Apollinaire Lebas.