The Louvre Pyramid

A 21-metre-high polyhedron!

A reduced replica of the Kheops pyramid, the steel and glass version installed at the centre of the Cour Napoléon of the Louvre is, after the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, the most visited work of art in the museum. For a while, this modern pyramid designed by architect Ieoh Ming Pei was the subject of fiery debate.

It was François Mitterrand, recently elected President of the Republic in 1981, advised by Jack Lang, who engaged the Chinese-American architect with the enormous task of conceiving an underground central reception for the Louvre.

This would allow direct access to the museum's three wings, a revolutionary development. It took Ieoh Ming Pei four years to build his glass pyramid, which is now a true Parisian icon.

Did you know ?

The pyramid is a polyhedron that occupies an area of 1,000 square metres at its base and stands 21.65 metres above ground, proportions inspired by those of the pyramid of Kheops in Egypt. It consists of a 95-tonne steel structure, a 105-tonne aluminium frame and 673 glass diamonds. The glazing is 21 millimetres thick and was also a technical challenge for the manufacturers, who wanted the glass to be as transparent as possible. To achieve this, they had to build a custom furnace and use special sand from the Fontainebleau forest.