Place de la Concorde, PARIS, FRANCE

The Place de la Concorde. The 3,300-year-old granite obelisk at its center was a gift from Egypt, where it once stood in the Temple of Ramses at Thebes. It’s kept company by two fountains representing the rivers and the seas. On this spot, in 1793, Louis XVI lost his head via guillotine. Over the two years following, 1,343 more people (including Marie-Antoinette) died by the “National Razor”. Later, the square was given its present name as a gesture of reconciliation after the violence of the French Revolution.