On 8 August 1956, French cartoonist Pol Ferjac uses the hieroglyphs on the Obelisk in Paris to illustrate the plan to nationalise the Suez Canal by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and paints an ironic picture of the different stages of the resulting Suez Crisis. In the fountains on Place de la Concorde, which commemorate inland and maritime navigation and stand opposite the National Assembly, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, a faint smile on his face, is depicted as an allegorical statue holding a crocodile in his arms and seems to be taunting the French authorities.