The re-erection of the obelisk on the Place de la Concorde during a ceremony carefully planned by king Louis Philippe was no mean engineering feat either. It is to be noted that in a time of rapidly evolving engineering techniques the successful French transport operation predates the eventful transport of the British "Cleopatra's Needle" by more than thirty years. The present day pedestal was originally intended for an equestrian statue of king Louis XVI by Cortot, destroyed during the Revolution of 1830.