La Meije (13,070 ft / 3,984 m) is a mythical summit of the Écrins massif. Its name derived from the Provençal Meidjo means midday and indicates the south. The inhabitants of the village of La Grave located north of La Meije designated this mountain, above which the sun passed at noon, as l'oeille de la meidjour (the midday needle). In the book published in 1956 that he dedicated to the mountain, Henri Isselin recounts that in the 1850s, all the great peaks of the Alps had been climbed with the exception of La Meije, a veritable citadel of ice and granite which holds a special place in French mountaineering. The first conquest of La Meije took place on August 16, 1877.