Egyptian Pyramid
by CARMONTELLE, Louis Carrogis de, Photo
The duke of Chartres had Carmontelle build a picturesque ensemble in the Parc Monceau (1775-78). The multi-talented Carmontelle wrote plays, organised a literary salon and designed the Jardin de Monceau in Paris.
Carmontelle employed a German landscape architect named Etickhausen and the architect of the Duke, Bernard Poyet, to build the follies. The garden designed by Carmontelle was finished in 1779. It contained a miniature ancient Egyptian pyramid, a Roman colonnade, antique statues, a pond of water lilies, a Tatar tent, a farmhouse, a Dutch windmill, a temple of Mars, a minaret, an Italian vineyard, an enchanted grotto, and a Gothic building. In addition to the follies, the garden featured servants dressed in oriental and other exotic costumes, and unusual animals, such as camels.
While some of these decorative elements are no longer visible today (e.g. the Dutch windmill, the minaret), others have survived as the false Egyptian pyramid.