Egyptologist Discovers Secret Messages on 3,000-Year-Old Obelisk

A French Egyptologist has deciphered hidden messages on a 3,000-year-old obelisk created during the reign of Ramesses II. Covered in hieroglyphics, it was commissioned for the Luxor Temple, but for nearly 200 years, it has called Paris its home. Since 1836, the Egyptian artifact has sat on Place de Concorde, after being gifted to France by the Ottoman Egyptians.

There, it is admired by tourists and residents alike, including Egyptologist Jean-Guillaume Olette-Pelletier. Adept at reading hieroglyphics, he would study the obelisk during strolls through the neighborhood. Much of the writing was standard and indicated the massive structure's location at the portico of the Luxor Temple, but something unusual also caught Olette-Pelletier's eye.

He noticed several crypto-hieroglyphs woven into the surface, a detail that was highly intriguing. Crypto-hieroglyphs are a form of writing that includes puzzles and wordplay. First discovered in the 1950s by Canon Étienne Drioton, this form of writing was aimed at the intellectual elite. Only a few scholars can read this specialized writing, and luckily, Olette-Pelletier is one of them. Interestingly, as he began to look for confirmation of his observations, he could not find any research. So, he started his own investigation.

His initial sightings were done with binoculars, but to get confirmation, Olette-Pelletier would need to get up close. He had his opportunity in 2021, thanks to restoration efforts in the lead-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics. After obtaining permission to go up on the scaffolding, he became the first scholar to examine the obelisk at close range in over a century. What he saw confirmed his original observations—crypto-hieroglyphs were indeed woven into the surface of the obelisk. In the end, he counted seven in total.

He will publish his full discovery of the crypto-hieroglyphs in ENiM later this year, but recently gave Artnet a preview of his findings. According to Olette-Pelletier, one of the markings seeks to solidify Ramesses as a leader by tying his ancestry to the gods. The symbols, located at the top of the obelisk, would have been visible to elite nobles who arrived by boat to attend the annual Opet festival. By including these messages, the pharaoh transformed the obelisk into a powerful propaganda tool.

“The use of hieroglyphic cryptography allows us to provide a new reading of pharaonic texts,” shares Olette-Pelletier. “It’s an example proving that Egyptology still holds a lot of things waiting to be discovered.”