Reminiscent of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Patuxai is Vientiane’s most prominent monument. The name is approximately equivalent to Arch ( pátųu, also translated as ‘door’ or ‘gate’) of Triumph ( xái, from the Sanskrit jaya or ‘victory’), but unlike its Parisian namesake the Patuxai boasts four, rather than two, archways. It was built in the 1960s with US-purchased cement that was supposed to have been used for the construction of a new airport. Hence it’s sometimes called ‘the vertical runway’.