Of the magnificent axial avenues defining Paris, and honours all those who fought for France, particularly in the Napoleonic Wars. Don't be daunted by its size and overwhelming richness if you have even the merest interest The Louvre may be the world's greatest art museum. In the fruits of human civilization from antiquity to the 19th century, then you must visit it. Slaves, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and works by Raphael, Botticelli, and Titian. French masterpieces of the 19th century include Ingres' La Grande Odalisque, Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa, and the work of David and Delacroix. It is between the Tuileries Gardens and the Champs Elysées on Paris's famous axis. Pink granite obelisk with the gilded top in the square's centre was given to France in 1831 by Muhammad Ali, viceroy and pasha of Egypt. It is a symbol of France but also Europe.Built by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 World Fair, held to commemorate the centennial of the Revolution, Towering 75 ft (23m) over the cobblestones, it once stood in the Temple of Ramses at Thebes (modern-day Luxor).
