The obelisk is covered in hieroglyphics—the ancient Egyptians’ pictorial writing system—and engraved with both names that Ramses used as king. During his long reign in the 13th century B.C ...

A researcher discovered hidden messages called hieroglyphic cryptographies on the Luxor Obelisk in France. Some of the hidden messages were propaganda asserting Ramses II’s power. Messages on ...

In the two decades following the discovery, Thomas Young, an Englishman, would go on to deduce part of the hieroglyphic alphabet and Jean-François Champollion, a Frenchman, to decipher the ...