Étoile, Place de l', Paris: see Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile.

West University Place, residential city (1990 pop. 12,920), Harris co., S Tex., completely surrounded by the city of Houston; inc. 1925. Rice Univ. is nearby.

Place, Francis, 1771-1854, English radical reformer. A tailor for many years, he educated himself and made his shop a meeting center for radicals and reformers. He was especially active in the trade-union movement; through his efforts the antiunion Combination Acts of 1799-1800 were repealed (1824). He was also an early leader of the Chartists (see Chartism), helping to draft the "People's Charter." His pamphlets on social questions include Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population (1822), one of the earliest tracts on birth control.

Concorde, Place de la, large square, Paris, France. It is bounded by the Tuileries gardens; the Champs Élysées; the Seine River; and a facade of buildings divided by a vista of the Madeleine Church. It is the locus of the zero marker, the official center for the national highways (Routes nationales). The Pont de la Concorde, a monumental bridge, leads from the Place to the other side of the Seine. The square was designed by Jacques Gabriel and built between 1755 and 1792. It was originally planned as a monument to the then ruling Louis XV, whose statue stood in the center, and was called "Place Louis XV." In 1792 the statue was torn down, the square renamed "Place de la Révolution," and a guillotine set up, transforming the area into a site of mass executions. Under the Directory the name "Concorde" was adopted (although during the Bourbon restoration of 1815-30 "Place Louis XV" was revived). The central obelisk, a gift of the Egyptian viceroy, was erected in 1836. The fountains were constructed between 1836 and 1846.

Hebrew bama.

In ancient Israel or Canaan, a shrine built on an elevated site. For Canaanites the shrines were devoted to fertility deities, to the Baals, or to the Semitic goddesses called the Asherot. The shrines often included an altar and a sacred object such as a stone pillar or wooden pole. One of the oldest known high places, dating from circa 2500 BC, is at Megiddo. The Israelites also associated elevated places with the divine presence, and after conquering Canaan they used Canaanite high places to worship Yahweh (God). Later the Temple of Jerusalem on Mount Zion became the only accepted high place.

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